A mayoral candidate in Ann Arbor, Mich., featured an open Hamas supporter in his campaign video, Jewish Insider has learned. 

Justin Yuan, co-chair of Michigan’s Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America, made a brief appearance in Washtenaw County commissioner and DSA member Yousef Rabhi’s video ad promoting Rabhi’s mayoral bid ahead of August’s Democratic primary.

A former member of the Michigan House of Representatives, Rabhi is challenging Democratic incumbent Chris Taylor, who is generally viewed as a moderate and has served as mayor of Ann Arbor, a college town that is a liberal stronghold, since 2014. Rabhi’s campaign was endorsed last week by Huron Valley DSA. 

Yuan, who does not speak in the campaign video but is filmed sitting in a group of people listening to Rabhi speak, uses a pseudonym on X but has posted photos on the account identifying himself.

He has a series of posts hostile to Israel and in support of Hamas, screenshots of which were obtained by JI before the account was turned private last week, including a tweet on Oct. 7, 2023, during Hamas’ terror attacks in Israel that said, “universities across the country, especially huge rich ones like UMich [University of Michigan], need to be forced to drop ties with the zionist colonial entity and its occupation.” 

A University of Michigan alum, Yuan called for “militant fighting unions on every campus that not only demand justice for Palestine but shut shit down to win it” in the same post.     

One month after the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, Yuan wrote, “Love Hamas. Simple as.”

In January, he wrote on X that the argument to “condemn Hamas because we’re socialists” is “out of touch given the actual situation in that palestinian land is being auctioned in the middle of nyc.” 

Ann Arbor, which is home to the state’s flagship university, has seen an increase of antisemitism since Oct. 7, both on and off campus. University of Michigan has experienced some of the most disruptive anti-Israel and antisemitic activity in the wake of the attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. 

According to minutes from a Huron Valley Area Labor Federation meeting obtained by JI, Yuan also coordinated, and pushed for, retraction of a letter from the group in 2024 that condemned the harassment of Jewish University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker. Acker’s home and law office were vandalized several times that year by anti-Israel demonstrators. 

At the time, the Michigan chapter of the Anti-Defamation League said it was “deeply disturbed” that the group, which is a regional chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations union, reversed its statement condemning the intimidation. 

Neither Yuan nor Rabhi’s campaign responded to requests for comment from JI. Yuan made his X account private after JI reached out.