Dr Abdul El-Sayed has launched a high-profile Senate campaign in Michigan that could make history by electing the first Muslim to the United States Senate, representing a major milestone for the progressive movement.

Dr Abdul El-Sayed has launched a high-profile Senate campaign in Michigan that could make history by electing the first Muslim to the United States Senate, representing a major milestone for the progressive movement.

Dr Abdul El-Sayed has launched a high-profile Senate campaign in Michigan that could make history by electing the first Muslim to the United States Senate, representing a major milestone for the progressive movement.

Dr Abdul El-Sayed's Senate campaign attracted international attention, as he could make history by becoming the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. The progressive movement would have a feather in its cap should the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee defeat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan. Dr El-Sayed is the progressives' highest-profile candidate, although he does not identify as a DSA member, nor is he endorsed by the organisation.

Here are five facts about Dr Abdul El-Sayed that you may like to know:

  • "Dr. El-Sayed was executive director of the Detroit Health Department and Health Officer for the city from 2015 to 2017. In 2017 he resigned as health director to run for governor of the State of Michigan. In September 2018 he founded Southpaw Michigan, a political action committee, to help elect other progressive candidates in Michigan. He was also formerly an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University," Ford School of University of Michigan  said in its website.

  • Dr El-Sayed is a political contributor at CNN, the author of Healing Politics: A Doctor's Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic and Medicare for All: A Citizen's Guide (co-authored with Micah Johnson), and the host of America Dissected with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a podcast about politics and public health.
  • El-Sayed was born in 1984 in the Detroit metropolitan area. His father, Mohamed, emigrated from Egypt. He studied biology and political science at the University of Michigan. He went on to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oriel College at Oxford University, earning a doctorate in public health in 2011. El-Sayed completed his MD at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2014.
  • He served on the State of Michigan Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board and Public Health Advisory Commission, as well as the US Department of Health and Human Services National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Advisory Committee.
  • His wife, Sarah, is a mental health doctor, and the couple resides in Metro Detroit with their daughter Emmalee.

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