81 things Abdul El-Sayed said, verbatim, from June 7, 2026 to September 24, 2026, each linked to where it ran. Grouped by the questions at issue, with who supported, disputed, or qualified each one.
43stories
81statements
Sep 24latest entry
Positions
01
Abdul El-Sayed 'pals around with' people who sympathize with terrorism because of his ties to streamer Hasan Piker.
Disputes
“nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople”
“You got false Muslim prophets like Abdul Abdul El Sayed in Michigan, who literally pals around with terrorists, and his best friend believes that 3,000 people deserved to die here in America 25 years ago yesterday.”
02
El-Sayed should unequivocally affirm Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.
Disputes
El-Sayed said he struggled with the question of whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state, arguing that the formulation raised questions about what constitutes a Jewish state.
“What good is defending the historic homeland of our ancestors and demanding that candidates acknowledge its right to exist if the planet upon which it rests is no longer inhabitable?”
Steve Gold co-founder of "Jews for Abdul" Supports
“needs to be answered yes, full stop.”
03
Abdul El-Sayed should publicly disavow Hasan Piker by name.
Disputes
“If you want to make this race about a streamer in California, I just think you’re missing the boat.”
Mike Rogers Republican U.S. Senate nominee Supports
“He can’t condemn his running mate Hasan Piker because they’re in total lockstep, and now he’s degraded the second lady of the United States of America,”
05
Vance's description of El-Sayed as 'evil' is a fair characterization of him.
Disputes
“Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires. Evil is making people pay more for groceries and gas while pushing for trade wars and actual war. Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power,”
Melissa Miller animal welfare advocate appointed by El-Sayed to lead Detroit animal control Disputes
“he inherited an extremely dysfunctional and inhumane department”
More on the record
Abdul El-Sayed on The Middle East7
In their own words
“The idea that somehow we are going to use the specter of anti-Semitism to defend what a foreign government is doing actually has does a deep disservice to the well-being of Jewish Americans in this country.”
“I believe in a two-state solution. He has attacked me by name for purporting that the people of Palestine and the people of Israel deserve to live side by side peacefully. The goal is always long-term peace,”
“I want my tax dollars spent here in Michigan to provide schools in Michigan, to build health care in Michigan, to invest in Michigan rather than to be sent abroad to kill Palestinian people due to genocides and apartheid,”
on tensions between Trump and Mamdani over Netanyahu policy
“JVP Action has shown that standing against antisemitism and standing up for the lives and dignity of Palestinians are rooted in the same commitment to our shared humanity. I’m deeply humbled and energized by their support and the movement they’ve built.”
“AAPAC understands that we can only achieve that promise by investing in our communities here at home instead of sending our tax dollars to fund killing, genocide, apartheid and endless war,”
“For too long our foreign policy has been handed to us by the likes of the state of Israel and AIPAC, who has made sure that both Democrats and Republicans are doing their bidding,”
“For too long, our foreign policy has been handed to us by the likes of the state of Israel and AIPAC, who has made sure that Democrats and Republicans are doing their bidding,”
“When it comes to the question of capitalism, allocating capital based on supply and demand at the level at which it’s supposed to work, where you have free entry and exit into markets, you know, I support that idea.”
“You’re seeing that kind of resonance here in Michigan for sure. And I’m not surprised that you’re seeing that in New York, too. Government ought to be available to set an equal playing field for everybody and to offer those basic things that everybody needs and deserves,”
“I’m just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works. The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation. It was always monopoly.”
“Congresswoman, if you enjoy podcasts about public health, I welcome you to take a listen. You seem very concerned about that. I’m more concerned about the fact that people can’t pay for their gas, they can’t pay for their groceries.”
“Number two, we need to stand up to themonopolies and oligopolies that are picking our pockets. Number three, we need to stand up to increase wages, and I mean standing with unions like the UAW and the nurses who endorsed us.”
on his platform against monopolies and for higher wages in the Maine Senate race
“We’re going to take on corporate greed together, rebuild an economy that works for working people, strengthen collective bargaining and ensure that the future of manufacturing in Michigan is built by union workers,”
on UAW endorsing El-Sayed in Michigan's Senate Democratic primary
“He’s this guy who holds himself out as a working-class hero, as a guy who’s going to fight for the working class. How does he fight for the working class? By flooding his state and his country with low-wage immigrants.”
on criticizing a rival politician's record on immigration
“We’ve got to make sure that in this state we are not discriminating against documentation status. Right now, if you’re undocumented, you don’t get access to a driver’s license. You’re stuck,”
“the country’s top infectious disease expert has to routinely spar with another doctor in the Senate over basic science around getting vaccinated or wearing a mask in the pandemic.”
“If you look at where the science and where the science has been. The CDC itself has suggested that we ought to shut things down. And we know that shutdowns in the past have been successful whether it was in the Spring or the Fall. This is a responsibility.”
“So we basically are saying that in our country, care provided for a black child, for example, is reimbursed at nearly half the rate as a white child. We’re basically valuing that child’s body differently.”
“Now, the challenge when your health care is not reimbursed at the same level is that you end up getting discriminated against at the point of care. And I’ve seen that with my own eyes. It is heart-wrenching,”
on racial disparities in care caused by unequal insurance reimbursement rates
“Uh-oh, Mike Rogers is really, really mad ... because I called him a pharma lobbyist. My mistake, he just spent so much time in Congress helping the pharmaceutical industry that I thought he was a pharma lobbyist,”
“Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty. Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about,”
“The last thing we have to remember is that jails and policing in America are like the ‘duct tape’ that people bring out to fix all the other broken systems,”
on his prison abolition webinar where he called for mass release of criminals
“So, I think we have this notion sometimes on shows like this that we cannot or should not talk to certain groups of people. And I will tell you that the three million people who listen to Hasan are people I want to make sure understand that there’s a pathway into our politics …”
on his defense of appearing on Hasan Piker's show despite Piker's 9/11 comments
“His ideas are old, his perspective on politics is old — and he’s going to find that people don’t want that perspective anymore. So, of course he’s going to do the same thing that MAGA always does, which is try to divide us.”
on attacking a rival politician's outdated approach in a campaign
“We've got 13 weeks to beat Mike Rogers. And however we might feel about the campaign we've just come through, I want you to understand that it pales in comparison to the cynicism, in comparison to the corporatism, in comparison to the lies that Mike Rogers and Donald Trump are going to tell,”
“anybody who wants to take on fascism, anybody who wants to get money out of politics, anybody who wants to fight for union rights, anybody who wants to make sure that people can live free with clean air and drink clean water, anybody who wants to guarantee healthcare.”
on the coalition of causes his Senate campaign says it represents
“The problem too often with the Democratic party, we have an instinct to say the right thing, but we're bought off by the people who are on the side of doing the wrong thing,”
on the Michigan Senate race and Democratic Party infighting
“You know what people hate more than Trump? Politics as usual. They hate politics as usual so much that they were willing to take Trump, warts and all,”
“When we talk about unkindness, I also just want to speak to the fact that, on behalf of my opponent, UDP — another name for AIPAC — has been running attack ad after attack ad after attack ad on my character,”
on AIPAC-linked attack ads against him in his race
“People are going to pay attention to properties that literally my wife's family inherited, and then put in their kid's names and then sold. And I wonder why they're so focused on foreign properties with a name like mine. Do you think it might fit within a well-worn trope?”
on accusations of foreign ties over inherited family property in the Michigan Senate debate
“I try to make a habit of showing up and delivering, and that’s the basis of the support that we’re earning in and around Detroit, Wayne County and in the Black community.”
“I will just say this: I wouldn’t be surprised. When you ask me about why establishment, elite Democrats are so worried about me, it’s because there are a lot of people who listen to her who are going to vote for me in the general election.”
“We also don’t need politicians bought off by corporations in this race… The question is not whether or not you’re a millionaire, the question is whether or not you are bowing down to billionaires”
on corporate money in the Maine Senate race amid pressure on Platner
“I’m the only one on this stage who doesn’t have a talent agent trying to pitch me for paid speeches, and unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see”
on his rivalry with Graham Platner in the Maine Senate primary race
“I welcome her supporters to our movement to stand up against money in politics, to put money back in pockets, and pass Medicare for All. We cannot allow the establishment to decide our nominee for us.”
on Mallory McMorrow ending her Michigan Senate campaign
“AOC has spent her career taking on the powerful on behalf of everyday people, and she has shown all of us what courageous, smart, values-driven leadership looks like,”
on AOC endorsing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's Democratic primary
“It is a pretty crazy thing that we want to hold people accountable for things that other people have said. And I just don't think normal people think that way,”
on holding candidates accountable for what influencers or associates say
“How do you bring everybody together, especially when there are difficult conversations, where there aren’t easy answers? You don’t fan the flames and stoke division just to get attention,”
on courting Jewish voters without moderating his views on Israel
“So, I think people want a Democratic party that is willing to show up and fight on the issues that are the most important in their lives, and they’re just not seeing that.”
on Democrats needing to fight harder for voters, amid comparisons to John Fetterman
“These are the issues that keep people up at night, and they feel like the party is just completely absent from the playing field, trying to fight the last battle, and even then, fought it poorly,”
on Democrats seeming absent on the issues that worry voters most
“It’s not radical … that you don’t think the president should be able to deny elections, or make $2.2bn out of his role in office. It’s not radical to believe all of us should be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Those are the things that I’ve been fighting for.”
on limiting presidential power over elections and profiting from office
“Differences that we hashed out are so much smaller than the similarities that we share: a responsibility to stand up to Donald Trump and the ways that he’s used his power for his own gain, for his family’s finances, rather than to improve your family’s finances,”
“The disease is this system that allows billionaires and corporations and special interests like AIPAC to buy and sell politicians to rig the system against us.”
“If you think you can beat money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All, come. But I’ll tell you what people don’t want, they don’t want money in a foreign government. They want money here.”
on El-Sayed responding to attacks by alleging foreign government money in politics
“You say you want to give people health care but take money from the people who are keeping us from having health care. You say you want to stand up to Big Tech and take money from Big Tech.”
“The disease is the system that allows big corporations, billionaires, special interest groups like AIPAC, to buy and sell politicians in ways that leave them rigging the system against us.”
“They’re gonna point at me, they’re gonna point at my name, like, ‘Wow, he’s different.’ That’s the best you got? You can’t actually talk about what you want to do? My name is not raising your gas prices. My name is not taking us to war.”
on right-wing attacks against him centered on his race during the campaign
“My commitment to our Black communities didn’t start because I wanted to come and take a photo op. It started when I left my tenure-track job at an Ivy League school to come back to rebuild the health department in the city of Detroit, which is the largest majority-Black city in the country,”
on El-Sayed's record rebuilding Detroit's health department to court Black voters
“We can condemn antisemitism, and at the same time, we can be talking about how we bring people together, and we can be talking about everybody's pain, and I think anybody who does not want to do that is not serious about actually addressing the hurt that we see across the board,”
on balancing condemnation of antisemitism with addressing broader pain in the Michigan Senate primary
“I always wonder, why would you call someone like me dangerous? It’s not like people who look like me have ever been called dangerous. It’s not like you’re falling into a well-worn groove that’s been around for 25 years, calling people who look like me with names like mine dangerous.”
“They’re going to try and paint me as a certain thing, given my name. But I also think it’s important for us to recognize that America has a long history of embracing,”
“Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way,”
on wanting to live by Shariah-compliant choices rather than the easier path
“When I was the new director of the Detroit Health Department, I inherited a part of the job that I never trained for and never thought I would do, which is Detroit Animal Control,”
on El-Sayed inheriting Detroit Animal Control duties as health department director
“You and I both know that you will wither in front of your own crimes, but I'm gonna make sure Michiganders know about them. By the time we're done, you are not going to have safe quarter from people holding you accountable for what you've done,”
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, and Micah Johnson explain how single-payer health care would work and answer common objections.
