{"id":7446,"date":"2025-09-21T18:21:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:40:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T00:40:53","slug":"ive-been-abdul-my-whole-life-el-sayed-talks-run-for-u-s-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/ive-been-abdul-my-whole-life-el-sayed-talks-run-for-u-s-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve been Abdul my whole life\u2019: El-Sayed talks run for U.S. Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI want money out of politics, money back in your pocket, and Medicare for All.\u201d El-Sayed says his platform is connecting with voters.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The field for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate being vacated by Gary Peters is already crowded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congresswoman Haley Stevens<\/a> and Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow<\/a> jumped in right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s entry into the fray<\/a> is not a surprise. An epidemiologist by trade, he served as health director for the City of Detroit \u2013 then ran for governor in 2018. He finished second in the primary to Gretchen Whitmer. El-Sayed picked up the most votes in Detroit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El-Sayed returned to the world of public health and directed Wayne County\u2019s health department<\/a>. He resigned from that position in April to run for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a conversation with Detroit Public Radio\u2019s Russ McNamara, El-Sayed laid out his platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenging the system<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want money out of politics, money back in your pocket, and Medicare for All,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, there\u2019s a brewing class war and politicians have made it too easy for people to become billionaires at the expense of the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fundamental corruption of our politics has been the system that allows corporations and would be oligarchs and billionaires to buy politicians, who then rig the system so that corporations can charge you more for the things that you have to buy from them, and pay you less for the work that you have to do for them,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El-Sayed says that means\u2014much like his run for governor in 2018\u2014that he isn\u2019t taking money from corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And despite his progressive credentials, El-Sayed claims he sees political challenges in a different framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in left and right,\u201d El-Sayed says. \u201cI instead believe, \u2018are you part of the system locking people out, or are you working for the people who want to unlock the system?\u2019 For them, I\u2019m focused on unlocking the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re willing to have an honest conversation, if you\u2019re willing to be truthful and direct and specific about what you want to do, people are willing to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019ve been Abdul my whole life<\/strong>\u2018<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

El-Sayed says he understands that there are some people who won\u2019t vote for him because he is Muslim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou get pretty good at explaining yourself, and I\u2019ve learned that when people get past the name, they\u2019re a lot more interested in what you have to say,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says he\u2019s not about the change who he is, or his message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the guy named Abdul who stood up and took on corporate polluters. I\u2019m the guy named Abdul that helped to rewrite the state\u2019s lead laws after Flint, when we had every school, daycare and head start in Detroit tested for lead in the water. I\u2019m the guy named Abdul who put glasses on tens of thousands of kids faces,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic Party and Gaza<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the recurring threads to last year\u2019s presidential election was the Biden Administration\u2019s indifference to Israel\u2019s ongoing military operation in Gaza. Vice President Kamala Harris largely refused to engage with Palestinians, and pro-Palestinian activists. At the Democratic National Convention, organizers refused<\/a> to let a Palestinian speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israel was committing genocide<\/a> in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want our tax dollars to stop killing children,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a human rights expert to see the deaths of 18,500 kids, the attempt to render their homes unlivable, to destroy their parents lives and livelihoods and to ship them off into another place because they happen to speak the same language, and call that what it\u2019s called.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling has shown that people who identify as Democrats are largely against sending more bombs to Israel\u2014something that is not reflected in party leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that our party was on the wrong side of that obvious truth for a very long time is itself an indictment,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El-Sayed says he has had many discussions about difficult subjects at campaign stops across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re willing to have an honest conversation, if you\u2019re willing to be truthful and direct and specific about what you want to do, people are willing to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/wdet.org\/2025\/09\/17\/ive-been-abdul-my-whole-life-el-sayed-talks-run-for-u-s-senate\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI want money out of politics, money back in your pocket, and Medicare for All.\u201d El-Sayed says his platform is connecting with voters. The field for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate being vacated by Gary Peters is already crowded. Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow jumped in right away. Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s entry into the fray is […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-news","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7446"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7458,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions\/7458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}