Abbasi led a challenge to the signatures (nearly 3,200 signatures) collected by the Kanye West 2020 presidential campaign in Illinois.[3] Upon review, the Illinois State Board of Elections determined that the West campaign did not have the required minimum amount of signatures and did not qualify for the presidential ballot.[4]
In 2023, the City of Chicago held elections for 22 newly created police district councils, one for each of the city's police districts. Abbasi supported the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police in these elections, legally representing several of their preferred candidates.[5][6]
In 2024, Abbasi represented candidates Casundra Hopson-Jordan and D'Nasha Lee Harrison of the Rebuilding Dolton Party. Demarkus Griggley, an ally of embattled Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, attempted to have both candidates removed from the elections ballot due to the party's failure to meet certain requirements in the Illinois Election Code. Abbasi argued that the requirements cited by Griggley were ruled unconstitutional in the case Libertarian Party of Ill. v. Scholz. Additionally, he criticized Mayor Henyard for "trying to prevent an opponent from being on the ballot and giving the voters a choice," and that her actions sought to undermine the democratic process in Dolton.[7] Griggley would drop the objection on December 16, allowing both candidates to have a spot on the ballot.[8]
Social media activity
Between 2020 and 2023, Abbasi posted prolifically on Twitter, averaging roughly 70 tweets per day. He went from under a thousand followers in 2020 to 24,000 in January 2023. His posts were described by Malcom Kyeyune as often "bizarre and unseemly" and as having "little grounding in reality".[9] Abbasi described one ongoing Twitter gag where he posed as an "alpha male" who was also a "closeted homosexual."[10]
Candidacies and Public Scrutiny
Abbasi was a candidate in the 2023 election for one of the three seats on the newly formed Grand Central (25th) Police District Council. He was paid $10,000 by the Fraternal Order of Police, and unsuccessfully challenged progressive candidates' ballot petitions on the FOP's behalf. The police union also endorsed Abbasi's candidacy, attempting to run him as a spoiler against abolitionist candidates.[11]
During his campaign, the Chicago Reader highlighted Abbasi's social media activity, including multiple posts with racist and misogynist content. In one tweet, Abbasi referenced a criminal stereotype of African Americans, writing, "I've said in spaces that the horrible black american diet is the reason for 13/50!"[10] Writing in UnHerd, blogger Malcom Kyeyune wrote that Abbasi is "so irony-poisoned from years of hard posting that the pain of drowning will be nothing short of sweet relief from his need to respond to likes and notifications".[9]
In response to the Reader's reporting, the Chicago West Side chapter of the NAACP called for Abbasi to be disbarred, and several campaign committees Abbasi had worked for disavowed him.[12]
Abbasi came in fifth out of five candidates, securing just 8.6 percent of the vote.[10]
Electoral History
2023 Chicago Police District Council District 25 Election
^Savchenko, Anna (December 28, 2018). "Chicago's biggest police union is spending money to win power on new oversight councils". WBEZ. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2023. At the hearing, Abbasi said he was representing eight people in district council races. State records show he received a $10,000 payment from the police union in early December. Abbasi is also running as a candidate in the 25th police district in Grand Central on the northwest side and said the union helped him collect signatures to get on the ballot.
