Dr. Abdul El-Sayed | BernieCrats.com

Biography

Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed — known universally as Abdul — was born on October 31, 1984, and grew up in Southeast Michigan, where he attended public schools in Bloomfield Hills. The son of Mohamed El-Sayed, an engineer who immigrated from Alexandria, Egypt, and his stepmother Jackie, whose family has deep roots in Gratiot County going back to the 1800s, Abdul was a three-sport athlete in high school, captaining both the football and lacrosse teams.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan — graduating with Highest Distinction and delivering the student commencement address in front of President Bill Clinton — before becoming a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he captained the men's lacrosse team and earned a doctorate in epidemiology. He then completed his MD at Columbia University on an NIH-funded fellowship and served as an assistant professor in Columbia's Department of Epidemiology.

In 2015, El-Sayed was appointed executive director of the Detroit Health Department — rebuilding it from near-collapse in the wake of the city's bankruptcy. He removed lead from Detroit's elementary schools, secured free eyeglasses for children in need, expanded access to life-saving Narcan, and took on some of Michigan's largest corporate polluters. Inspired by the Flint water crisis, he ran for governor of Michigan in 2018 on a boldly progressive platform, winning roughly 30% of the Democratic primary vote and earning endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

After the 2018 race, El-Sayed founded Southpaw Michigan to support progressive candidates across the state, served on President Biden's Unity Task Force on Healthcare, co-authored Medicare for All: A Citizen's Guide (Oxford University Press, 2021), and hosted the long-running America Dissected podcast on Crooked Media. In December 2022 he was named director of Wayne County's Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services — overseeing care for 1.8 million residents in Michigan's largest county and spearheading a program to cancel up to $700 million in medical debt for 300,000 families.

Abdul lives in Ann Arbor with his wife Sarah, a psychiatrist, and their two daughters, Emmalee and Serene. He is a member of the AFT, SEIU, UAW, and the National Writers Union. If elected, he would be the first Muslim U.S. Senator in American history.

2026 Senate Campaign

On April 17, 2025, El-Sayed announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat — vacated by incumbent Gary Peters, who announced his retirement in January 2025. The race is Michigan's first truly competitive Democratic Senate primary in 32 years, also featuring State Senator Mallory McMorrow and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. The Democratic primary is scheduled for August 4, 2026.

El-Sayed is running as the race's clear progressive standard-bearer. His campaign is funded entirely by individual donors — no PAC money, no corporate contributions — echoing the grassroots model he has championed throughout his career. He has pledged to fight for Medicare for All, get money out of politics, put money back in the pockets of working Michiganders, abolish ICE, and push for bold climate action.

El-Sayed has earned the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders — who joined him at a campaign rally in Detroit in May 2026 — as well as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Michigan State Rep. Emily Dievendorf, among others.