A Muslim Democrat has been endorsed by prominent right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson in his bid for a US Senate seat, The Independent reported on Sunday.

Abdul El-Sayed from Michigan received the backing of the former Fox News host when the latter criticized the former’s Republican opponent in his newsletter.

El-Sayed had faced criticism last week from Republicans over his negative views of the War on Terror, launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

He said he would spend the 25th anniversary of the attacks mourning the victims, and subsequent days mourning victims of the War on Terror.

Carlson defended El-Sayed after the campaign for Republican candidate Mike Rogers called the comments “disgusting.”

Carlson wrote in his newsletter: “Hold on a second. Disgusting? Understanding that the Bush administration was wrong to kill hundreds of thousands of people and waste trillions of dollars in Iraq, even though, again, Iraq did not do 9/11, is disgusting?”

He added: “El-Sayed did not celebrate airplane hijackings or cheerlead Al-Qaeda; he simply said that the US conducting terrorism of its own in response to 9/11 was not exactly an appropriate reaction. He is obviously right.”

El-Sayed has polled well in Michigan despite attacks by Republicans trying to paint him as insufficiently patriotic.

The Senate seat is seen as key ahead of the midterm elections, with the Democrats needing to hold Michigan and gain four other seats to take control of the upper chamber.