Abdul El-Sayed
American politician and epidemiologist (born 1984)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed[1] (born October 31, 1984) is an American epidemiologist, politician, and former public health official and academic. He was the director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services of Wayne County, Michigan, from 2023 to 2025. A progressive Democrat, he was a candidate for governor of Michigan in the 2018 election. El-Sayed is running for the Democratic nomination in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan.
.jpg)
October 31, 1984
Abdul El-Sayed | |
|---|---|
El-Sayed in 2025 | |
| Born | Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed October 31, 1984 Rochester Hills, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education | |
Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
Sarah Jukaku (m. 2006) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | Campaign website |
El-Sayed is a graduate of the University of Michigan and University of Oxford's Oriel College, attending them on a full-tuition scholarship and a Rhodes Scholarship, respectively. He earned his MD at Columbia University. In his athletic career, he earned a full blue as captain of Oxford's men's lacrosse team.
El-Sayed was an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University from 2014 to 2015. He was the executive director of the Detroit Health Department and Health Officer for the City of Detroit from 2015 to 2017.
Early life and education
Abdul El-Sayed was born in the Detroit metropolitan area to Egyptian immigrant parents.[2] He grew up in the Detroit area with his father, Mohamed, and stepmother, Jacqueline, a native of Gratiot County, Michigan, both of whom are engineers. His father grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and immigrated to the U.S. to study engineering at Wayne State University.[3] His mother, Fatten Elkomy, is a nurse practitioner in Missouri.[4]
El-Sayed graduated from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he was a team captain for wrestling, football, and lacrosse, in 2003.[3] He then attended the University of Michigan, where he majored in biology and political science and played on the men's club lacrosse team.[5] He graduated with a bachelor's degree with highest distinction in 2007 and delivered that year's commencement speech.[6]
El-Sayed received a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Michigan Medical School, where he completed two years of medical school.[7] There he led a student medical mission to Peru and founded a student organization that raised money and coordinated community service for a local free clinic.[5] As a second-year medical student, he received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oriel College, Oxford, where he completed a PhD in public health in 2011.[8][9] At Oxford, he earned a full blue as captain of the men's lacrosse team.[10] In 2014, he completed a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and was funded by a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and the Medical Scientist Training Program.[11][12] El-Sayed did not pursue a medical license, and instead went into public health epidemiology work.[13]
Career in public health
El-Sayed is the author of over 100 scholarly articles, abstracts, and book chapters on public health policy, social epidemiology, and health disparities.[14]
Public health professor
In 2014, El-Sayed joined the faculty at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health as an assistant professor in the epidemiology department. He served as director of Columbia's Systems Science Program and Global Research Analytics for Population Health.[15] He has received several research awards, including being named one of the Carnegie Council's Policy Innovators.[16] He created and taught the Mailman School's first course on systems science and population health. He and Sandro Galea co-edited a textbook on the topic, Systems Science and Population Health, published in 2017 by Oxford University Press.[17]
Health Director of Detroit
In August 2015, Mayor Mike Duggan appointed El-Sayed Health Officer and Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department, making him, at 30 years old, the youngest health officer in a major U.S. city at the time. In that role, he was charged with rebuilding the Detroit Health Department after government public health activities were provided by a nonprofit in the course of the City of Detroit's municipal bankruptcy in 2012.[15] In his first year as director he led efforts to oppose increases in sulfur dioxide emissions by Marathon Petroleum's Southwest Refinery, which resulted in reductions in overall emissions.[18] He also led efforts to test Detroit schools for lead in the wake of the Flint water crisis, provide free glasses to children in Detroit city schools, and transform the city's troubled Animal Control department.[19][20][21][22]
El-Sayed was appointed to the governor's statewide Childhood Lead Elimination Board.[23] He also served on the State of Michigan's Public Health Advisory Commission and the Advisory Committee to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Healthy People program.[24][25]
In 2016, El-Sayed was named one of Crain's Detroit's "40 under 40" and the Michigan League of Conservation Voters' "Public Official of the Year".[26][27] In 2017, the University of Michigan awarded him a Bicentennial Alumni Award.[28]
Since 2019, El-Sayed has hosted America Dissected with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a podcast about politics and public health produced by Crooked Media.[29]
Health Director of Wayne County (2023–2025)
In December 2022, El-Sayed was named director of Wayne County's Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services.[30][31] He assumed the role in March 2023 and resigned in April 2025.[32][33]
Political career
2018 gubernatorial campaign
On February 9, 2017, the Detroit News reported that El-Sayed would resign as health director to run for governor of Michigan in the 2018 Democratic Party primary.[34] He officially announced his candidacy on February 25, 2017.[3] El-Sayed was inspired to run for governor after the Flint water crisis, saying: "I watched as Governor Snyder and his team of accountants were cutting costs and cutting corners. Their inattention to communities ultimately poisoned thousands of children—and those children were the very ones that I was serving at the helm of the health department. ... And that's something I didn't believe in. I believe in government as something we do in this country for the people and by the people".[20]
El-Sayed pledged to accept no campaign donations from corporations, and raised over $5 million from individual donations.[35]
El-Sayed was endorsed by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic congressional nominee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 2017 Women's March organizer Linda Sarsour.[36][37][38] He was also endorsed by the organization Justice Democrats and The Nation magazine.[39][40] In the August 7 primary, he received 340,560 votes, or about 30% of the vote, losing to Gretchen Whitmer.[41]
In September 2018, El-Sayed founded Southpaw Michigan, a political action committee, to help elect progressive candidates and support ballot initiatives in Michigan.[42][33] In 2020, he served on the Joe Biden–Bernie Sanders Unity Task Force on healthcare.[43]
2026 Senate campaign
On April 17, 2025, El-Sayed announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan after incumbent Gary Peters announced he would not run for reelection.[44][45]
"What we need right now is somebody who's willing to take the fight directly to Trump and Musk, but then also knows how to rebuild a version of our federal government that better serves working people after the carnage that Musk and Trump are going to leave behind, and I think I offer that.
— Abdul El-Sayed in 2025[46]
On April 7, 2026, El-Sayed held campaign events at several Michigan university campuses with U.S. Representative Summer Lee and political streamer Hasan Piker.[47][48] Piker's association with the campaign became a point of contention within the Democratic Party.[49]
After Mallory McMorrow withdrew from the Democratic primary in July, news outlets called the race a choice between the party's moderate, establishment-backed wing, represented by Haley Stevens, and its progressive wing, represented by El-Sayed.[50][51]
Political positions
El-Sayed is a progressive Democrat.[52][44] He supports Medicare for All and co-wrote a book on the topic.[53][54] He has vowed not to accept PAC donations, only accepting donations from individuals.[55] He served as a national campaign surrogate for Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign, speaking on Sanders's behalf at events and in the media.[56][57][58]
In 2018, El-Sayed supported repealing Michigan state laws that block local governments from levying a municipal sales tax or enacting rent control laws.[59][60]
Environment
In 2025, El-Sayed's campaign website identified clean air and water as a priority, and he called for tougher enforcement of environmental laws, merging the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality into a single Department of the Environment, and achieving "100% renewable energy" in the state by 2030.[61][62]
Foreign policy
El-Sayed generally opposes United States military aid to foreign countries, but has cited U.S. actions during Russia's invasion of Ukraine and in Serbia during the 1990s as examples of beneficial U.S. intervention.[63][64]
Israel
El-Sayed has criticized Israel over its conduct in the Gaza war; in a January 2024 podcast, he called the war in the Gaza Strip a public health catastrophe and called for a ceasefire.[65] In August 2025, El-Sayed characterized Israel's conduct in Gaza as genocide.[63][64]
In July 2026, El-Sayed said, "The question of Israel's existence is not a question. I'm not going to play this gotcha game about whether or not it has a right to exist. The question, ultimately, is about whether or not we want a politics that dignifies equal rights."[66] El-Sayed attributed the 2026 Iran war to AIPAC's influence in US politics. He called Israel a "rogue state" that is committing "human rights abuses, genocide and apartheid" and said the U.S. should "stop funding the Israeli military unilateral blank checks".[67]
Russia
In March 2022, El-Sayed called the Russo-Ukrainian war "a war between democracy and autocracy, between self-government and fascism", condemning Russian president Vladimir Putin as an "authoritarian dictator".[68]
In April 2025, El-Sayed said that U.S. military aid to Ukraine is different from aid to Israel, as the former is in accordance with several multinational organizations.[63] In September 2025, he said that military aid to Ukraine was about "enforcing the rules of the rules-based international order in accordance with our allies".[69]
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
El-Sayed supports abolishing ICE, arguing that it no longer functions as a legitimate law enforcement agency. While he has expressed support for securing the Mexico–United States border and for "certain kinds" of border law enforcement, he has called ICE "corrupted at its soul".[52][70]
Unionization
El-Sayed supports unionization, having been a member of the SEIU, AFT, UAW, and National Writers Union. He has said union expansion is necessary to protect "worker dignity" in response to the growth of AI. He has expressed support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act alongside unionization efforts among further professions, such as physicians.[71] His campaign was endorsed by UAW in June 2026, alongside Jocelyn Benson's gubernatorial campaign.[72]
Personal life
El-Sayed was born and raised in Southeast Michigan, and lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Sarah Jukaku, and their two daughters.[73] He is Muslim.[31] He is a member of the National Writers Union, American Federation of Teachers Local 477 and 6244, SEIU Local 500, and the American Association of University Professors.[11]
Authored books
- El-Sayed, Abdul (2020). Healing Politics: A Doctor's Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic. New York: Abrams. ISBN 978-1-4197-4302-3.
- El-Sayed, Abdul; Johnson, Micah (2021). Medicare for All: A Citizen's Guide. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-005662-9.
