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]
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".[7] Abbasi described one ongoing Twitter gag where he posed as an "alpha male" who was also a "closeted homosexual."[8]
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.
During his campaign, an article in the Chicago Reader highlighted Abbasi's social media posts, which they described as containing "racist and misogynist" content. This included one tweet in which 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!"[8] Writing for 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".[7] In response to the reporting on his social media history, the Chicago West Side chapter of the NAACP called for Abbasi to be disbarred.[9]
Abbasi came in fifth out of five candidates, securing 8.6 percent of the vote.[8] Some of his supporters have claimed the election was rigged.
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.