Democrat candidate for the Michigan Senate claims millionaire businessman offered him $20 MILLION to drop his candidacy and run against controversial House Rep. Rashida Tlaib

An actor hoping to be elected to the Senate next year has claimed he was offered $20 million to run for the House of Representatives in a bid to unseat Rashida Tlaib.

Hill Harper, 57, star of The Good Doctor and CSI:NY, is campaigning as a Democrat to represent Michigan in the Senate, replacing the retiring Debbie Stabenow.

But Harper, who has never run for office before, said he was approached by a Michigan businessman with an offer to challenge Tlaib, his fellow Michigan Democrat.

Harper tweeted that he had “no intention of making a private phone conversation public” but confirmed this Politics‘s coverage of the October 16 call.

The site reported that Linden Nelson, a wealthy Michigan businessman and donor to both parties, called Harper asking him to withdraw from the Senate race to run against Tlaib.

Linden Nelson, a Michigan businessman, called Harper and asked him to challenge Rashida Tlaib for her seat, Politico reported

Rashida Tlaib calls for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas on November 13

Nelson is involved in businesses throughout Detroit, primarily in real estate.

He built a film studio in Pontiac, Motown Motion Pictures, but it closed when film subsidies stopped.

Nelson’s fortune was made through advertising in the 1980s, when he sold Ford on the idea of ​​detachable key fobs for parking meters, then went on to make promotional items for companies like AT&T and Harley-Davidson.

Nelson offered Harper $10 million in pooled contributions directly to Harper’s campaign, and $10 million in independent expenditures, Politico reported.

Nelson did not comment on the report.

Harper said he was saying no to Nelson — who has previously donated to a group seeking to dethrone Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, and who has a history of involvement with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

‘It was not my intention for a private telephone conversation to become public. But now that it is, here’s the truth,” Harper tweeted.

“One of AIPAC’s largest donors offered $20 million if I withdraw from the US Senate race to run against @RashidaTlaib.

‘I said no. I don’t want to be bossed around, bullied or bribed.’

The AIPAC spokesman denied any involvement in the effort to challenge Tlaib and said Nelson had not donated to AIPAC in years.

Marshall Wittmann said the group was “absolutely not involved in this case in any way.”

He added, “Additionally, our records indicate that this individual has not contributed to AIPAC in more than a decade.”

Harper said the call showed why the public had so little trust in politics.

‘For me it’s not about one person or one phone call. “It’s about a broken political and campaign finance system that targets the rich and powerful,” he said.

‘I am running for the US Senate because I believe that the rich and powerful are too represented in Washington.

‘I’ve been lucky: I’ve had a successful acting career, and I’m not someone who grew up thinking I wanted to be a politician.

‘I’m not just running for the title. I’m not going to take on the only Palestinian-American in Congress just because certain interest groups don’t like her.

“I’m running because I want to break the stranglehold that wealthy special interests have on our politics, whether it’s the Israel lobby, the NRA or Big Pharma.”

Tlaib has not discussed the story but is increasingly being targeted for her staunch support of the Palestinian cause.

The Detroit-born politician’s failure to immediately condemn the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, even as her fellow “Squad” members Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out, added fuel to the fire.

In an interview with the Detroit Free Press four days later, she described the attack as “a war crime, just as the collective punishment of Palestinians is now a war crime.”