Why I Support Abdul El-Sayed's Candidacy for U.S. Senator

Despite substantial opposition and a relative lack of funding, Abdul El-Sayed surprised the nation with a narrow win on August 4th in Michigan's Democratic Party Primary over Haley Stevens and will run in November against Republican Mike Rogers for Senator. His 743K votes represented 48.5% of the total votes. Michigan has 8.38 million registered voters, according to the Michigan Voter Information Center, so this was no landslide that points to a win in the general election. Rogers served in the U.S. House of Representatives (Michigan District 8) for 14 years ending in 2015 and was unopposed in the Primary. He was born in 1963 and served in the Army after graduating from Adrian College in 1985 and then with the FBI from 1989-1994.

Who Is Abdul El-Sayed?

One can learn about Abdul El-Sayed through his LinkedIn profile or the Ballotpedia profile. El-Sayed, 41, is a Michigan native (born in suburban Detroit), and is very smart. He graduated from Andover High School in 2003, earned a B.S. from the University of Michigan in 2007. got a PhD in public health in 2011 and then attended Columbia in an effort to become a medical doctor. In 2015, he was hired by Detroit to be Executive Director & Health Officer in its Health Department. In 2017, he ran for Michigan Governor and lost in the 2018 election.

This is what he told Ballotpedia in 2026:

I didn't set out to be a politician; I trained as a doctor, but saw how broken politics were making people sick. Our healthcare system itself is part of the problem. We need Medicare for All.

Abdul El-Sayed

He speaks about this issue a lot, but he also addresses his background. He believes in Michigan and is dedicated to his family, which includes his wife, a psychiatrist, of 20 years and two daughters. They live in Ann Arbor. His father was born in Egypt, and he has a stepmother.

A final thing to note about him is that Dr. El-Sayed is a Democrat and not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, like NYC Mayor Mamdani. Mamdani was endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, who has stood by him since the election nine months ago.. Sanders also supports El-Sayed. The endorsement page on his campaign website includes Sanders among the national leaders and also includes many others, including former VP Kamala Harris, several Senators and several members of Congress. While Mamdani is not mentioned as endorsing him, his former opponent who became an ally, Brad Lander, is. Lander and Sanders are both Jewish. The U.S. House of Representatives has four members who are associated with the DSA organization (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar). Note that Bush lost the Missouri primary earlier this month. Tlaib, elected in 2019, is Palestinian American and is Muslim. Omar, also Muslim, has been in Congress since 2019 and is from Minnesota. These folks are all young. ACO, who may run for President or for the Senate, has been representing NYC in Congress since 2019 as well, and she is the youngest female Representative ever. While the number of politicians that are part of the DSA is quite low, a CNN poll suggests that about 1/3 of Democrats identify as democratic socialists.

The Democrats are split. El-Sayed is a progressive Democrat and not a Democratic Socialist, though he aligns with them in several ways, especially on the policy regarding U.S support of Israel. He calls himself a capitalist. The DSA website states that it is not a political party but is an activist group. Medicare for All, endorsed strongly by Dr. El-Sayed, is one of their other major points on the platform. Kudos to Sanders, who most definitely aligns himself with the DSA's thinking but is not operating within that organization. He does see himself as a democratic socialist and is aligned with prominent DSA members like ACO (the local chapter) and Mamdani.

What Abdul El-Sayed Is Trying to Achieve if Elected

His campaign website lays out his views. He has three priorities:

• Money Out of Politics

• Money in Your Pocket

• Medicare for All

Each of these has several points that the website describes in depth. In the bio that appears on this website, he makes a very good point: "Abdul is running for U.S. Senate because life in Michigan shouldn’t be this hard — or this expensive. After a successful career of making government work for Michiganders, he wants to take his vision to Washington and make the United States Senate work for you."

El-Sayed's Approach Against Rogers

Dr. El-Sayed has been doing a good job of campaigning already. He gave an address where he reflected on the victory. He spoke to Republicans and those who are independents on a video that laid out his reasons for why they should not elect Rogers. He also spoke out in a speech on CNN after he was attacked by the Republicans, and he spoke about Mike Rogers being very tied to Donald Trump.

Pushing his interests that I detailed above and describing how Rogers has a different approach and is highly tied to the President is a very good strategy that El-Sayed is taking.

How El-Sayed Can Win Jewish Voters

A big challenge for El-Sayed that he clearly recognizes is that he is Muslim. This should not be an issue, but, for many, it is. I look to his challenges being similar to those in NYC for Zohran Mamdani. Like Christianity, Judaism and Islam believe in one God. These three religions each have a segment within the walls of Jerusalem in Israel along with Armenians. Islam, the newest of these three Abrahamic religions, includes the prophets of Christianity and Judaism.

Judaism and Islam are very similar in many ways, but the two religions have been at odds for centuries. Most recently, Hamas attacked in Israel on October 7th, 2023 along the Gaza Strip. Most people see this attack as inhumane, but almost three years later it remains a sore point around the world. Many people, including myself, are concerned with the way Israel has acted towards the people who live in the Gaza. This has divided many people, with some Muslims fighting for a Palestinian country to be created, and many Jews looking for more support for Israel.

This issue has torn apart the Democratic party, which has traditionally been "pro-Israel" in a major way. There is a big misunderstanding that is prevalent, as many assume that being "anti-Israel" is being anti-semitic, though this is not the case. One can be against the ruling of Netanyahu, who has been Prime Minister of Israel since 2009 (with a brief removal from mid-2021 to late 2022).after initially serving from 1996-1999 as the youngest prime minister in Israel ever.

Two very influential writers have shared their views, including Thomas Friedman of the New York Times and Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, an organization in Washington, DC that is pro-Israel, pro-peace and pro-democracy. Ben-Ami, its President and Founder, published a piece on its Substack page on August 9th entitled How Abdul El-Sayed – and All of Us – Can Build Bridges in Michigan. Ben-Ami suggests that El-Sayed listen to Jewish communities within Michigan. He must also listen to Arab-Americans and Muslims. He also calls on the Democratic Party to actively ensure that it is big enough to include people who disagree on Israel and Palestine.

The Friedman editorial, published on August 11th, was entitled El-Sayed’s Winning Path in Michigan. He offers El-Sayed some free advice: "You need to thread your political needle very carefully." Friedman says that he agrees with many American Jews that former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, who denounced Netanyahu in 2023. Friedman suggests that El-Sayed not only protect the synagogues of American Jews but that he be loud on the issue of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians having equal rights.

So, yes, El-Sayed could face some pushback from people who are strongly pro-Israel, and he needs to address the issues over there, but, as he keeps saying, he is more focused and rightly so on Michigan and the U.S. El-Sayed is more than his religion, and being Muslim, as he is, or Jewish, is just a part of all of us. As NYC learned, a Muslim can be elected to high office, as its Mayor has done. It is possible for El-Sayed to win even if he doesn't win over Jewish voters, but El-Sayed deserves the votes of many Jews in Michigan.

Conclusion

On November 3rd, voters in Michigan will choose either Mike Rogers, who ran two years ago and lost to Elissa Slotkin narrowly, or Abdul El-Sayed to replace the retiring Democrat Gary Peters. According to Ballotpedia, there are 11 U.S. Senate races with the incumbent not running. The Senate currently has 53 Republicans and 45 Democrats along with two Independents (Bernie Sanders and Angus King) that are aligned with the Democrats. The control of the Senate could shift. The Hill points to 8 seats that are currently Republican that could flip in November, so this will be interesting!

I like what El-Sayed is saying, and I am not the only one. I think he is doing a very good job of getting his name out there and not with just Democrats. Kudos to Gary Peters, who did endorse his opponent for the Primary, for retiring after a dozen years as a Senator. El-Sayed is much younger, and this could resonate with voters in Michigan. Perhaps he will become the first Muslim elected to the Senate. There are four Muslims currently serving n the House (three women and one man). Politics can be awfully nasty, and El-Sayed is seeing this. I think he stands out with how he has responded and wish him the very best.