Abdul El-Sayed | A progressive’s progress

When Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old epidemiologist born to Egyptian immigrants, defeated U.S. Representative Haley Stevens by a margin of fewer than 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million cast in the Democratic primary elections held in Michigan state in early August, the result caught national and international attention.

The playing field had been weighted heavily against him. Outside groups spent more than $60 million supporting Ms. Stevens, against roughly $3.5 million in independent expenditure backing Mr. El-Sayed, and she had the endorsement of the Democratic establishment. The single largest source was the United Democracy Project, the super PAC directed by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which poured $30.6 million into the contest — the largest sum it has ever spent on a single race.

Mr. El-Sayed’s win was the latest in a recent run of victories by progressive candidates over establishment-backed rivals, though unlike several of them, he has never described himself as a socialist, saying “I’m just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works”. Mr. El-Sayed’s candidacy was backed by prominent figures on the American left, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The reasons for their backing were not too difficult to fathom. Mr. El-Sayed’s key policy platform was to call for “Medicare for All” — a universal single-payer health care system in which one public insurer covering everyone replaces the private insurance industry and is funded through taxation, akin to Canada’s Medicare system. This plank has been championed by Mr. Sanders for decades now before more Democrats have started to do so, including several progressives who are now in the U.S. House and Senate. Mr. El-Sayed also evinced a strong critique of Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza, going on to call the country a rogue state and an ethno-state, and has pledged to end the U.S.’s funding of its military apparatus, besides that of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America — the recently elected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in particular — have been vocal about their opposition to Israel’s actions, and this has been electorally helpful to them as opinion among Democrats and party adherents has steadily shifted against Israel. A Pew survey in April found 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents viewing Israel unfavourably, up from 53% in 2022.

He has also been a trenchant critic of President Donald Trump and his anti-immigration policies and the notorious U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which he has called for abolishing.

Another issue that binds Mr. El-Sayed to those adhering to the Democratic Socialists is support for regulating campaign finance and keeping “money out of politics”, an issue that has resonated with young people across the U.S., and in Michigan in particular, who rallied for Mr. El-Sayed. By taking a steady position against corporate and PAC donations, Mr. El-Sayed has also articulated a strong opposition to Big Tech companies building a series of artificial intelligence data centres that have become a huge bone of contention in Michigan due to high electricity rates (among the highest in the Midwest region), water use and noise pollution, and metamorphosed into an all-areas-encompassing electoral issue. Analysts in the State suggest that this issue was the clincher for Mr. El-Sayed due to his steadfastness on it.

Not an easy race

Mr. El-Sayed, who completed his DPhil in public health on a Rhodes scholarship at Oriel College, Oxford, also took a medical degree from Columbia University, but went on to become an epidemiologist. At 30, he became Detroit city’s health officer, then the youngest in any major American city and helped rebuild the health department in a city that had gone bankrupt. He also took on corporations over refinery emissions and pollution issues during his tenure. He ran for Governor in 2017, with Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement, but lost the 2018 primary to Gretchen Whitmer, now the State’s Governor, after winning only 30% of the vote. He was Wayne County’s health director from 2023 to 2025 and further built his following via a public health podcast that he has hosted since 2019.

Despite his win in the primary, the race in November will not be easy for Mr. El-Sayed, who will be the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Senate if he succeeds. The Republicans have sought to brand all progressives and especially the democratic socialists as radicals and communists, using a new version of the Red Scare. Mr. El-Sayed faces Mike Rogers, a former Congressman, who has Mr. Trump’s endorsement and is well funded. After Mr. El-Sayed’s win, Mr. Rogers was quick off the blocks to accuse him, without evidence, of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, an attack that was aimed at his faith.

AIPAC has also said it will continue the fight to get Mr. El-Sayed rejected. He, however, got the backing of major Democratic leaders, including those who endorsed Ms. Stevens, and the latter herself as soon as the primary results were out. Liberal commentators are, however, unenthusiastic about the triumph of progressives like Mr. El-Sayed and other democratic socialists, whom they call insurgents within the Democratic Party and who, they argue, do not have the broad acceptance in closely contested Rust Belt States such as Michigan which features pockets of urban Democratic support and also large rural areas that have swayed towards Mr. Trump and MAGA support. The Senate race in Michigan will be a litmus test of whether the progressive and democratic socialist current can win beyond Democratic strongholds in the U.S.