Abdul El-Sayed and the fight to remake the Democratic Party

Washington, DC - Abdul El-Sayed says he is running for Senate to heal the system, not just treat the symptoms of America's political dysfunction.

The 41-year-old Egyptian-American doctor, who ran for governor of Michigan in 2018, is once again running on a platform of universal healthcare (he wrote a book on Medicare for All), an end to big money in politics, and has called for an end to US military support for Israel.

This time, however, he is fueled by the momentum of progressive victories across the country, from New York to Georgia to California, and he has racked up endorsements from progressive leaders and the United Auto Workers - an important union nod for a candidate from Michigan - the proud birthplace of the modern auto industry, and possibly a sign that voters are ready for a change. 

“In 2018, I said that [US President Donald] Trump was the worst symptom of politics. We dealt with the symptom but not the disease,” El-Sayed tells The New Arab in an interview.

“People believed it was a big mistake and not a structural feature. There was nothing to explain it, so all they had to do was push back, and everything would be fine. He was a much deeper disease. Beating him one time in a re-election would not make his politics go away,” he says.

“Now, people are coming together and meeting a moment,” he tells The New Arab, as he makes his final push ahead of Michigan’s primary next week.

After the Trump era, a new progressive moment?

Since starting his grassroots race for Senate, he has held rallies with progressive leaders Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and he has drawn around 10,000 volunteers, recently knocking on more than 20,000 doors in a single weekend. He says he has also spoken with Republican voters at his rallies, listening to their concerns about affordability - the main theme of the 2026 midterms. 

Will this be enough to win not only his state’s primary next week as he competes against a well-funded opponent supported by the Democratic establishment - but also against a Republican in the general election in November?

“Absolutely. That’s why he’s leading in the polls,” James Zogby, veteran pollster and president of the Arab American Institute, tells The New Arab. (The polls are mixed, though a recent average of the main polls has El-Sayed ahead by just under two percentage points.)

“He has a real agenda that speaks to the people of Michigan, which has a huge working-class population that has been suffering economically.”

Before Trump's 2016 upset presidential win, Michigan was considered part of the Rust Belt's Blue Wall, having consistently voted Democratic for decades, including in both of Barack Obama's presidential races. It swung back to Democrats with Biden's 2020 win, but then returned to Trump in 2024, laying bare a long-neglected area of the US that had seen years of factory closures and job losses.

“What’s happened is that Democrats have lost their ability to speak to working-class voters,” Zogby, who has been involved in Democratic politics since the 1970s, says.

El-Sayed, he says, “speaks to their concerns and issues. He’s not fake”.

His Democratic primary opponent, Representative Haley Stevens, serving Michigan's 11th congressional district in Detroit's northern suburbs, has earned the endorsements of some of the Democratic Party's top politicians, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. This has exposed a schism in the party that has cast the statewide race into the national spotlight over the direction of the party.

She is seeing tens of millions of dollars of support from corporate PACs (political action committees), including AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), which have reportedly spent at least $30 million in supporting Stevens’ campaign, their largest funding ever for a single race.

Stevens’ 2022 campaign for the House, in which she ousted incumbent Andy Levin, a popular Jewish congressman from a decades-long political dynasty, was similarly supported with over $4 million from AIPAC.

“The fact is that she was used by AIPAC. She wouldn’t be anywhere were it not for their money,” says Zogby. “They can’t build her up, but they can tear him down.”

He says, “His win will be a major win, not only for progressives, but for people who care about the Middle East. And it will be a huge win against dark money”.

A test of the Democratic Party's future

Since Stevens was elected to the House in 2022, the political climate in the Democratic Party has changed considerably, including in Michigan. The state that was cast into the spotlight during the 2024 presidential election over the uncommitted movement in response to then-President Joe Biden's support for Israel's war in Gaza is once again taking centre stage, though this time with what appears to be more dissatisfaction with Trump and big money in politics in both parties.

A growing number of Democrats, including moderates, are rejecting financial support from AIPAC, a largely Republican-funded organisation, whose interest in Democratic primaries tends to be in helping eliminate the most progressive candidate. A headline earlier this month in the New York Times asked, "Can a pro-Israel Democrat still win a big primary?" - words that would have been unlikely several years ago.

Moreover, voters are showing more openness to candidates of different backgrounds, as can be seen by the record number of Muslim candidates this midterm cycle. El-Sayed has joked that his name prevented him from aspiring to politics in his youth. “Abdul” campaign signs are now planted in front yards across Michigan, far beyond the Arab and Muslim hub of Dearborn.

Another important factor in this race is the declining popularity of Trump, who is not only losing support among moderates but also his base. An unpopular war in Iran and support for Israel’s wars that many Americans have tied to a lack of services and a cost-of-living crisis in the US have helped to erode the president’s popularity.

"His campaign and strategy is grounded in an America First approach, saying US money is being taken away from Michiganders," David Frank, a professor of rhetoric and political communication at the University of Oregon, told The New Arab, suggesting he could have cross-over appeal in the general election with his focus on taking care of local issues.

“The environment is good for him because of dampened enthusiasm among Republicans,” Richard Groper, a lecturer in political science at California State University in Los Angeles, tells The New Arab. “That’s what happens when the president is very unpopular. They’re not necessarily going to vote for the other side, but they might stay home.”

On the other hand, he says, “If they’re energised to vote against a candidate they fear, that would be a problem for him. In a purple state like Michigan, the margins can be thin.”

Last week, it was reported in the news that the Republican candidate Mike Rogers said he felt like he was in “good shape” in a race against El-Sayed. Polls show that both El-Sayed and Stevens would likely beat Rogers in the general election in November.

Though Stevens would unlikely face the same fear-based political attacks as El-Sayed, she would also be less likely to energise voters the way he has.

For many in Michigan, particularly in the Dearborn area, El-Sayed is a son of the community and a hope for long-awaited representation in the Senate. 

“This isn’t someone who moved states and is pretending to be connected,” Sirene Abou-Chakra, a native of Dearborn and friend of El-Sayed from the University of Michigan, tells The New Arab.

“When we were growing up, it was almost out of the question that you’d have a name like Abdul,” she says, referring to political candidates.

“He’s bringing in people who were otherwise out of the party. It’s a missed opportunity for the establishment to rally behind him.” 

Brooke Anderson is The New Arab's correspondent in Washington, D.C., covering US and international politics, business, and culture.

Follow her on Twitter: @Brookethenews

Edited by Charlie Hoyle