Abdul El-Sayed is a progressive. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed him in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor, a race he eventually lost to Gretchen Whitmer. Sanders has endorsed him in this election as well.
El-Sayed is also a former public health official for Wayne County and Detroit. He’s a physician and a graduate of the University of Michigan.
This resumé is why so many of El-Sayed’s supporters argue he is uniquely qualified to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate when Gary Peters retires next year.
The Trump administration and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda that phases out food dyes, releases new dietary guidelines and vaccine schedules, and encourages Americans to “eat more saturated fats,” contradicting decades of guidance and possibly affecting school lunches and military rations.
Physicians have criticized RFK for sidelining expert panels and unilaterally changing COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people. Kennedy is not a medical expert and he does not have a background in medicine.
Former U.S. surgeons general warned in an op-ed that Kennedy’s policies and rhetoric pose an “immediate and unprecedented” threat to public health — citing his promotion of vaccine misinformation, removal of ACIP and touting unproven treatments during measles outbreaks. Health policy experts say he has undermined trust in expertise at HHS by firing vaccine advisors, cutting research and disparaging agency scientists.
On this week’s episode of The Moment with Brad LaPlante, Senate candidate El-Sayed, a resident of Ann Arbor, argues that more physicians should be working in Washington to “stand up” to the Trump administration.
El-Sayed’s opponents are U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham, a centrist Democrat with support from party elites, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, who rejects the ‘progressive’ label, often calling herself a ‘pragmatist.’ One clear example of this separation is her support for a public health care option over Medicare for All, a single-payer option made popular by Sanders.
At the same time, El-Sayed still doubles down on Michigan manufacturing, just as Stevens does. McMorrow, by contrast, has been telling voters that Michigan should diversify its economy rather than going all in on auto manufacturing.
El-Sayed and McMorrow have also called the situation in Gaza a genocide, while Stevens has not. In a WLNS.com interview with Stevens, she did not say she believes Gaza is a genocide, contradicting a resolution passed by the world’s leading association of genocide scholars.
