Michigan Democrats over the weekend selected trial lawyer Amir Makled as their nominee for the University of Michigan Board of Regents, handing him a primary victory over incumbent Regent Jordan Acker. The choice came after a bruising fight over Makled’s deleted social media posts praising Hezbollah figures killed in Israeli airstrikes and his ties to the university’s anti-Israel protest movement.
Makled won the party’s nomination at the state convention, even after the Detroit News reported more than a week earlier that he had shared and then deleted posts on X praising Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Abu Ali Khalil. In both posts, the men were called “martyrs.” Makled also shared a now-deleted post from Candace Owens that called Israelis “demons” who “lie, steal, cheat, murder and blackmail.”
The nomination exposed a deep split inside Michigan Democrats over how to treat a candidate whose politics and courtroom work aligned him closely with the campus protest movement at the center of the debate. Brandon Dillon, in an opinion piece published just days before the convention, said Makled was not a Democrat and described his social media behavior as “a pattern of extremism and bigotry.” Dillon added, “These are not isolated missteps or comments taken out of context,” and said, “They reflect a broader pattern of poor judgment that should raise serious concern.”
Makled answered that criticism in his acceptance speech by nodding to students involved in the anti-Israel protests that formed on the University of Michigan campus after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. “To these students, the students who spoke up, the students who organized, the students who refused to let anyone tell them that their education wasn't worth fighting for, you all reminded us what a public university is supposed to be,” he said.
The fight over Makled is not just about one nomination. He had legally represented University of Michigan students involved in anti-Israel campus protests and had previously called for the university system to divest from Israel. Those protests later led to reports of antisemitic attacks against Jewish students, and the University of Michigan was one of 60 universities notified by the Department of Education that it was being investigated for allegedly failing to properly address antisemitic harassment and discrimination.
The conflict has also spilled beyond the convention hall. In December 2024, the car belonging to outgoing Regent Jordan Acker was vandalized, with the words “Divest... Free Palestine” and an inverted triangle spray-painted in red across the vehicle. Acker said at the time it was the third time that year he had been victimized by anti-Israel vandals. Makled’s nomination now places that entire campus and party fight squarely on the ballot for regent, and it ensures the argument over Israel, protest and antisemitism will stay inside Michigan Democrats’ politics for months to come.
