When Abdul El-Sayed ran for governor of Michigan in 2018, progressive media hailed him as the next Barack Obama.
asserted
media → run → Obama
El-Sayed did not appreciate the comparison.
asserted
Sayed → appreciate → comparison
"I get compared to Obama because my name is funny, and I'm brown, and my politics are about inspiring us to believe in each other again," he told Vox at the time.
asserted
he → compare → time
He did not intend that as a compliment.
asserted
He → intend → compliment
El-Sayed believed the administration's policies were not nearly progressive enough—indeed, he believed Obama had betrayed the agenda he ran on.
asserted
he → believe → agenda
The far-reaching financial, environmental, and labor regulations that Obama pushed through were not nearly enough for El-Sayed.
asserted
Obama → reach → Sayed
You are reading Free Media from Robby Soave and Reason.
asserted
You → read → Soave
El-Sayed ultimately fell short in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
asserted
Sayed → fall → primary
Eight years later, he's a much savvier political operative; now running for the U.S. Senate, he has welcomed Obama's support this time.
asserted
he → run → support
Yet El-Sayed's commitment to a left-wing agenda has hardly diminished.
asserted
commitment → diminish → agenda
If he defeats his opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R–Mich.), he will be one of the most far-left politicians to win a statewide election in recent memory—and in a purple-ish swing state that President Donald Trump won twice.
asserted
Trump → defeat → that
Like his friend and mentor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), El-Sayed is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA); unlike Sanders, El-Sayed maintains that he is a capitalist rather than a socialist.
asserted
he → maintain → Sanders
Yet his political project has much in common with the DSA, and he has given every indication that he will align himself with DSA-affiliated members of Congress—veterans such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) and likely newcomers such as Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, both of New York, who rode similar waves of populist resentment to victory over establishment Democrats.
asserted
who → have → Democrats
The Democrat proposed giving the federal government vast new powers: up to 50 percent control over AI companies, a socialized health insurance program along the lines of Medicare for All, and price controls on the domestic oil industry.
asserted
Democrat → propose → industry
Asked what he would do to bring down the national debt and pay for all the new spending he wants, he had a simple, three-word answer: "Tax.
asserted
he → ask → answer
El-Sayed's support for higher taxes exempts one important constituency: seniors.
asserted
support → exempt → constituency
Like many Democrats—and Republicans such as Rep. Nancy Mace (R–S.C.)—El-Sayed wants to exempt retirees from property tax increases, a policy that critics have branded "total boomer luxury communism" because it forces younger, less wealthy Americans to shoulder ever more of the social burden.
asserted
it → want → burden
The new wave of leftist Democrats think that higher taxes on the 1 percent, combined with cuts to the military budget, would be sufficient to pay down the debt while vastly expanding the social safety net.
asserted
taxes → think → net
In fact, El-Sayed has proposed tying Pentagon spending to education, such that an increase in money for the military would necessitate more funding toward schools.
asserted
increase → propose → schools
Don't expect this to work the other way around: Under El-Sayed's plan, a decrease in Pentagon spending would not force the government to stop throwing so much money at failing schools.
asserted
decrease → expect → schools
Ann Arbor and Onward
El-Sayed was born on Halloween in 1984.
asserted
Sayed → bear → 1984
He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, an affluent, predominantly white suburb north of Detroit.
asserted
He → grow → Detroit
His parents divorced when he was young, and El-Sayed lived with his Egyptian father and white stepmother.
asserted
Sayed → divorce → father
He continued to play on a club lacrosse team at the University of Michigan, which he attended from 2003 to 2007.
asserted
he → continue → 2007
(We overlapped briefly, though I never met him: I attended Michigan from 2006 to 2010.
asserted
I → overlap → 2010
That meant going to Ann Arbor, a progressive college town with a long history of radical activism.
asserted
That → mean → activism
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the prototypical '60s New Left student activist group, was founded in Ann Arbor in 1960; its first president, Alan Haber, still lives there.
asserted
president → found → 1960
The White Panther Party, a sort of hippie counterpart to the Black Panthers, was based in Ann Arbor for a while; in the 1970s, the socialist Human Rights Party won multiple seats on city council.
asserted
Party → base → council
Liberalism, as well as radicalism, has thrived in Ann Arbor: The same year the SDS was born, future President John F. Kennedy came to the town to propose the international volunteer organization that eventually emerged as the Peace Corps.
asserted
that → thrive → Corps
In the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, the student-run Michigan Daily naturally endorsed the inspirational liberal candidate, Obama, over the establishment favorite, Hillary Clinton.
asserted
Daily → endorse → favorite
Over the course of the next decade—as left-wing enthusiasm for the Obama project faded and was replaced by bitter disappointment—El-Sayed enrolled in Oxford University and then Columbia University, pursuing a career in public health.
asserted
Sayed → fade → health
(He never completed a residency, which has led to some scrutiny, even from friendly media figures, regarding his decision to describe himself as a physician.)
asserted
which → complete → physician
In 2015, the mayor of Detroit appointed him the city's executive health officer.
asserted
mayor → appoint → officer
He resigned that position in 2017 to run for governor.
asserted
He → resign → governor
That pattern repeated itself a few years later: He was appointed health director of Wayne County, which includes Detroit, in 2022, and resigned in 2025 to run for Senate.
asserted
which → repeat → Senate
Unlike in 2018, El-Sayed's hard-left politics and contempt for the Democratic establishment were now well-calibrated to prevail in the primaries.
asserted
politics → calibrate → primaries
He defeated a more moderate candidate, Rep. Haley Stevens (D–Mich.), in part due to her support for Israel—an issue that El-Sayed frequently discusses.
asserted
Sayed → defeat → that
The same phenomenon has played out all over the country, with establishment Democratic figures paying a huge price when perceived as indifferent to voter outrage over Israel.
asserted
figures → play → Israel
What works in the Democratic primaries does not always do as well in the general election.
asserted
works → work → election
But while El-Sayed's politics are well to the left of the state he seeks to represent, the president's unpopularity may be enough to push him over the finish line.
uncertain
unpopularity → seek → line
…and 33 more, not listed.
The Aporia
