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Why AOC was in a deep-red part of Michigan: From the Politics Desk
“What we do is that we break open the entire political calculus in America: period,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a New York fundraiser this month.
Updated Oct 16, 2026, 2:28 PM ET
Democratic · 3 November 2026
Abdul El-Sayed
Host of the podcast America Dissected (since 2019)
Abdul El-Sayed is an epidemiologist and former Detroit and Wayne County health director who won Michigan's 2026 Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Abdul El-Sayed.
Latest coverage
Live News
Recent media coverage for Abdul El-Sayed.
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El-Sayed again denies ties to Muslim Brotherhood
“I wasn’t raised by my mother,” El-Sayed said in response to past social media posts that suggest his mother was active in the Islamist movement in the 1970s.
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Some Republicans in key races break with Trump over tariffs
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‘The dog has caught the car’: Why AOC is campaigning in Michigan’s Trump country
This won’t be El-Sayed’s first foray into conservative turf. On Monday, he posted a video on X from an event in Ionia County, which, he noted, is an R plus-32 area.
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Abdul El-Sayed grows agitated with reporter after being pressed on family's alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties
NBC's Tom Llamas grilled Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over the growing controversy over his family's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers on whether Iran war was a mistake: ‘We’ll find out’
Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers discussed the Michigan Senate race with NBC News. They covered Iran policy, the economy, and issues shaping the contest less than a month before Election Day.
NBC News
Rogers
More coverage 4
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Abdul El-Sayed battles politics, Islamophobia in run for U.S. Senate
Abdul El-Sayed is a 41-year-old Michigan Democrat who ran for the U.S. Senate. A Rhodes Scholar with an Ivy League medical degree, he has led health departments in Detroit and Wayne County, and is a former public health…
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Is Abdul El-Sayed a doctor? Fact-checking Mike Rogers in Michigan Senate race
PolitiFact fact-checks a claim about Abdul El-Sayed’s medical credentials in the context of the Michigan U.S. Senate race against Mike Rogers.
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Inside Michigan’s critical midterm Senate battle
NBC Nightly News covers Michigan’s high-stakes midterm Senate race, featuring interviews with candidates Abdul El-Sayed (D) and Mike Rogers (R), as well as Michigan voters. The segment, anchored by Tom Llamas on Oct.
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Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed says Israel and Iran both threat to U.S.
Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, weighs in on national security concerns, arguing that both Israel and Iran pose threats to the United States.
No story this week names this candidate.
- Born
- October 31, 1984
- Birthplace
- Rochester Hills, Michigan
- Education
- University of Michigan (bachelor's degree, 2007)
Oriel College, University of Oxford (doctorate in public health, 2011)
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (Doctor of Medicine, 2014)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, on October 31, 1984, to parents who had emigrated from Egypt, and he grew up in the Detroit area with his father and stepmother, both mechanical engineers.
After Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, he studied biology and political science at the University of Michigan, graduating with highest distinction in 2007.
He started a joint M.D./Ph.D. track at the University of Michigan Medical School, then, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, completed a doctorate in public health in 2011, followed in 2014 by a Doctor of Medicine from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Career
El-Sayed joined the epidemiology faculty of Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health in 2014 as an assistant professor.
In August 2015 Detroit mayor Mike Duggan appointed him health officer and executive director of the Detroit Health Department, a post he held until 2017, when he left to seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Michigan; in the August 7, 2018, primary he received about 30 percent and lost to Gretchen Whitmer.
He founded the political action committee Southpaw Michigan in September 2018 and has hosted the Crooked Media podcast America Dissected since 2019. From March 2023 to April 2025 he directed Wayne County's Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services, leaving to campaign for the Senate.
A progressive Democrat, he supports Medicare for All, an end to U.S. military funding for Israel and the abolition of ICE.
2026 race
El-Sayed launched his campaign on April 19, 2025, for the Michigan seat held by Democrat Gary Peters, who chose to leave the Senate after two terms.
After state senator Mallory McMorrow withdrew in July 2026, he defeated U.S. representative Haley Stevens in the August 4, 2026, primary, 48.4 percent to 47.6 percent, despite about $62 million in outside spending for Stevens.
Kamala Harris endorsed him in September 2026 and Barack Obama in October 2026. In the November 3, 2026, general election he faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman and the party's 2024 Senate nominee. A victory would make El-Sayed the Senate's first Muslim member.