Abdul El-Sayed

Democrat or Republican?

Abdul El-Sayed is a Democrat.

Life + Career

El-Sayed was born October 31st in 1984 and grew up in Southeast Michigan. He went to University of Michigan for his undergraduate education. Then, he earned his medical degree from Columbia University and earned a second doctorate from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a physician and epidemiologist who served as Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department from 2015-2017. In 2018, he unsuccessfully ran for Michigan governor (lost in the primary to Gretchen Whitmer), and served as Wayne County Director of Health, Human & Veteran Services from 2023-2025. He also built Incision Media.

Key Policy Positions

• Democracy & government reform

  • Supports overturning Citizens United

  • Supports limiting campaign spending

  • Supports expanding voting access

  • Supports ending the filibuster

  • Supports using nonpartisan redistricting

  • Supports imposing Supreme Court term limits

• Healthcare & public health

  • Supports expanding Medicare to all

  • Supports lowering drug costs

  • Supports breaking up large healthcare monopolies and reform PBMs

  • Supports protecting healthcare privacy

  • Supports increasing drug negotiation/public manufacturing

  • Supports keeping AI from overriding doctors

• Reproductive rights & civil liberties

  • Supports codifying federal protections for reproductive rights

  • Supports opposing criminalization of reproductive and gender-affirming care

  • Supports protecting free speech and peaceful protest

• Immigration

  • Supports abolishing ICE, replacing it with different immigration-enforcement structure, and redirecting funding toward legal immigration pathways and infrastructure

• Environment & energy

  • Supports strengthening EPA and NEPA protections

  • Supports shutting down Line 5

  • Supports guaranteed access to clean water

  • Supports removing lead pipes by 2030

  • Supports holding PFAS polluters accountable

• Foreign policy & national security

  • Opposes U.S. military action against Iran and direct blank-check military funding

  • Support an immediate arms embargo on Israel and renewed foreign aid

• Economy, taxes & competition

  • Supports using targeted tariffs with union input

  • Supports strengthening antitrust enforcement

  • Supports raising taxes on high-value capital gains/inheritances and billionaires

  • Supports eliminating/lifting the Social Security payroll-tax cap on high earners

• Technology, AI & housing

  • Supports creating federal AI safety standards and an independent AI agency

  • Supports promoting responsible data-center development

  • Supports building more housing

  • Supports banning large corporations that speculate on housing from owning homes

  • Supports banning algorithmic rent fixing

  • Supports establishing renter protections

• Education, agriculture & veterans

  • Supports universal pre-K

  • Supports debt-free public college

  • Supports a $60,000 teacher salary floor

  • Supports full IDEA funding

  • Supports limits on farm subsidies with more support for family farmers

  • Supports H-2A reform

  • Supports expanded VA services for veterans

China

No specific positions.

Immigration

El-Sayed supports abolishing ICE in favor of a replacement with immigration funding redirected towards legal pathway infrastructure. He also supports clear pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Education

El-Sayed supports good public education from pre-K (universal) to postgrad, with the profit motive to be taken out of public education. This includes a safe, healthy environment for children learning, and a debt-free public higher education. Full IDEA funding is also another factor.

And for teachers, El-Sayed supports a $60,000 teacher salary floor.

Healthcare

El-Sayed supports protecting healthcare privacy, personal medical decision-making (with AI not replacing doctors’ judgement), and reproductive and gender-affirming care protections.

Also, El-Sayed supports expanding Medicare coverage to all Americans from birth, with vision, dental, and hearing included, without premiums or deductibles. He supports protecting Medicaid and ACA subsidies too, alongside lowering drug costs through Medicare negotiation, public manufacturing of essential medications, and reforming PBMs.

As well as that, El-Sayed supports stronger healthcare oversight through FTC review of hospital monopolies, breaking up large healthcare monopolies, and independent leadership appointments for the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH.

Tax

El-Sayed supports targeted, sunset-clause tariffs paired with union input, and stronger FTC anti-monopoly enforcement. He also supports taxing capital gains and inheritance over $1 million as ordinary income, a billionaire wealth tax, and closing the Social Security payroll tax cap. Moreover, he supports federal support for senior property-tax freezes.

Safety

El-Sayed supports reproductive & healthcare protections. He supports codifying Roe v. Wade protections federally and protecting reproductive and gender-affirming care.

El-Sayed supports environmental and public health protections. He supports strengthening environmental and public-health protections, protecting access to clean water, removing lead pipes, and holding PFAS polluters accountable.

El-Sayed supports gun-safety laws, police accountability, and civil liberties. He supports freedom of speech and peaceful protest with stronger police accountability, and stronger gun safety laws.

El-Sayed also supports AI safety and regulation. He supports federal AI safety guardrails, independent safety testing, mandatory incident reporting, and an independent AI enforcement structure.

Criticisms

No specific criticisms.

Sources: michwomen.com/blog/2026-candidates-for-michigan-us-senate, tools4abdul.com/ice, wdet.org/2026/01/22/abdul-el-sayed-runs-for-michigans-open-u-s-senate-seat, tools4abdul.com/education, aaup.org/news/aaup-announces-first-ever-national-political-endorsement, wdet.org/2018/07/19/prepare-to-vote-candidate-abdul-el-sayed-video-transcript, michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2018-06-27/el-sayed-says-his-education-plan-would-de-devos-michigan-schools, vox.com/policy/499938/medicare-for-all-health-care-democrats-2028, nypost.com/2026/08/24/us-news/abdul-el-sayed-asks-jesse-watters-are-you-circumcised-while-defending-sex-change-surgery-for-minors, wsj.com/politics/elections/michigans-abdul-el-sayed-defends-medicare-for-all-plan-ahead-of-midterm-contest-52253fd7, abdulforsenate.com/2026/07/new-ad-1-844-abdul-4-u, tools4abdul.com/money-in, abdulforsenate.com/2026/06/dr-abdul-el-sayed-announces-platform-for-seniors-aging-affordably-in-america-agenda, tools4abdul.com/seniors, tools4abdul.com/lgbtq, tools4abdul.com/water, tools4abdul.com/voting, tools4abdul.com/ai