Abdul El-Sayed

Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (born October 31, 1984) is an American epidemiologist and politician who is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan. Born and raised in southeast Michigan, El-Sayed graduated from the University of Michigan and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he earned a doctorate in public health. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University. He later served as an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and as executive director of the Detroit Health Department from 2015 to 2017. From 2023 to 2025, he served as director of the Wayne County Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services. A progressive Democrat, El-Sayed supports Medicare for All, ending US military funding to Israel, and abolishing ICE. In the 2026 Michigan Democratic Senate primary, El-Sayed defeated U.S. representative Haley Stevens. He faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim member of the U.S. Senate.