Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed sought to peel away a coalition of health-conscious voters from his Republican rival on Tuesday, as the candidate’s campaign seeks to make gains in the final weeks of one of the country’s closest races.
El Sayed is attempting to keep the Michigan seat blue, as GOP nominee Mike Rogers gives Democrats a run for their money, with polls showing the two are neck and neck ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
This week, el Sayed sought to gain an edge, announcing an initiative designed to appeal to Make America Health Again voters. His “Building a Healthier America” agenda pushes policies commonly attributed to the MAHA movement, including targeting toxic pesticides and microplastics, framing “food as medicine,” attacking corporate influence over the agriculture industry, and getting “industry lobbyists out of the agencies charged with regulating their former employers.” Those are all policies favored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a beacon of the MAHA movement before being tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“President Trump and RFK Jr. have had the chance to act—and instead, they’ve kept protecting the same multinational corporations that pad their profits at the expense of our wallets and health,” el Sayed’s campaign said in a press release. “Mike Rogers helped architect the opioid crisis when he was in Congress, and if you leave it up to him, he’ll serve as a yes-man to President Trump to continue to aggravate our current health crisis.”
Before running for the Senate, el Sayed, a doctor, held top positions in the Detroit and Wayne County health departments.
His pitch to MAHA voters comes as cracks have emerged in the health movement, with some in the coalition angry at Kennedy for not doing more on issues he advocated before coming to Washington. Still, key MAHA groups remain aligned closely with Republicans, announcing last month a “seven-figure” media campaign designed to help GOP candidates in tight reelection races.
When pressed during a CBS News interview on whether he would work with Kennedy to implement health proposals if he is elected to the Senate, el Sayed said it depends.
“Does he want to stand up to pharmaceutical corporations? Do you want to get pollutants out of our food environment? Does he want to stand up to Big Ag and Big Food? Does he want to take on ultraprocessed food? You know, that’s what I’m focused on,” el Sayed told the outlet. “If he wants to do any of those things, let’s talk about it. But right now, what he’s done is DOGE-ed out the parts of government that protect us and then bent over to all of the corporations he said he’d never support. So I see him as a profound failure for what he said he was trying to work on.”
Polls indicate el Sayed remains in a tight race with Rogers, who is fighting to flip the seat red.
El Sayed leads Rogers 48%-45% among likely voters, putting the contest within the 3.9-point margin of error, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released earlier this month.
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Aside from his latest MAHA-styled pitch, el Sayed holds a range of socialist-leaning positions. He wants to eliminate medical debt and institute Medicare for All. He supports a wealth tax on those earning over $100 million, along with a capital gains tax hike, a personal income tax hike, and the elimination of corporate tax breaks. He has appeared to concede that the middle class, or those earning under $1 million, will face higher taxes to finance his progressive healthcare model.
On housing, el Sayed has vowed to target “corporate landlords against unfair evictions,” wants to ban large corporations from owning homes, and supports barring algorithmic rental price-fixing software that he says allows landlords “to collude to raise rent.” The Michigan Democrat also wants to pause artificial intelligence development and has endorsed, as “a really good way forward,” Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) proposal for the government to control over half of the largest AI companies, put a one-time 50% tax on their stock, and give Washington direct influence over their decision-making.
