- Ads funded by outside groups in Michigan’s US Senate race claim Abdul El-Sayed has a history of ‘disrespecting women’
- The ads cite past comments and other sources that don’t explicitly suggest El-Sayed made offensive comments about women
- His campaign called the ads ‘misleading and offensive,’ and El-Sayed said some of the claims have impacted his family
Michigan attack ads and mailers claim Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has a history of “disrespecting women,” a suggestion his campaign calls “misleading and offensive.”
The ads, paid for by a group supporting rival Haley Stevens, cite four main sources: A 2010 opinion column El-Sayed wrote for The Guardian on then-First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative, 2018 campaign criticisms of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s corporate connections, a 2022 lawsuit against El-Sayed’s former employer and complaints made by a former El-Sayed staffer to a conservative news outlet.
The 2010 and 2018 criticisms of Obama and Whitmer appear to be rooted in policy, not gender, a Bridge Michigan analysis found. The ad’s other cited examples don’t explicitly reference gender-based or misogynistic language. A recent Detroit Free Press analysis reached similar conclusions.
Still, the message has persisted on the campaign. US Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Grand Rapids Democrat and Stevens supporter, told CNN’s Jake Tapper this week that there is a “uniquely sexist bent to the things that he has said about women.”
Scholten cited comments El-Sayed made to the media outlet Semafor where he described opponent Haley Stevens as “a suit with a large AIPAC bank account” and suggested “maybe they find some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences.”
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In recent comments on Vox Media’s “America, Actually” podcast, El-Sayed called the claims “personal attacks” that have impacted his family.
“If you’re a voter in Michigan, every time you turn on the TV, you are being bombarded by ads that cherrypick things that I said…to make an argument that somehow I have poor character,” he said, adding that his 8-year-old daughter is being asked by friends “whether or not her dad is disrespectful to women.”
On the Semafor comments, El-Sayed told Vox that “the congresswoman is plenty smart, there’s no doubt about that” but questioned why she hasn’t fully explained “what is expected when you take that much money” from corporations and outside groups.
Stevens said Friday she found the comments offensive, noting that she’s been stringing sentences together “time and time again” while “getting real bills passed.”
Bridge Michigan scrutinized the claims against El-Sayed as he and Stevens fight for the Democratic nomination to pursue Michigan’s open US Senate seat. The winner will face Republican Mike Rogers in a general election to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
Who’s paying?
Ads and mailers espousing the claims are funded by the United Democracy Project, a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
Through Thursday, the group had spent nearly $25 million on ads touting Stevens or criticizing El-Sayed ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.
El-Sayed, a critic of the Israeli government and the war in Gaza, frequently rails against AIPAC and other outside groups who have poured money into the Michigan race to attempt to defeat him.
In a statement to Bridge, El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner called the attack ads “misleading and offensive,” saying El-Sayed worked to improve the lives and health of women and children as a public health official.
Asked about the characterizations in the attack ads, Stevens said Friday she’d let El-Sayed “answer for himself” but suggested he’s “taken shots” at Whitmer and other women in politics.
“We can do better than that,” she said.
Obama’s anti-obesity campaign
In a 2010 column for The Guardian, El-Sayed — then a doctoral student and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University — critiqued US policymakers’ handling of childhood obesity, calling the political response “uninspired.”
The column juxtaposed Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign with comments from Republican Sarah Palin on her reality television show. El-Sayed said Palin’s criticism of the Obama initiative was “flippant treatment” of a dangerous epidemic.
He also called Obama’s Let’s Move campaign “commendable, if ineffectual,” later arguing that a major flaw in the agenda “is that it primarily addresses individual behaviors, largely neglecting the structural factors that are so important in shaping them” such as race, poverty, neighborhood and access to healthy foods.
In the piece, El-Sayed praised Obama’s attempts to “tackle the issue in a non-partisan manner.” The article did not explicitly reference Obama or Palin’s gender.
Mailers attacking him drop that context, however, saying only that he called Obama’s work with kids “uninspired” and “ineffectual” and claiming it is part of a “pattern of disrespecting women.”
Whitmer‘s 2018 fundraiser
El-Sayed unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, losing the Democratic primary to Whitmer. Like in his 2026 Senate run, he was frequently critical of the influence of money in politics.
That included spending by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the health insurance giant whose executives had urged company employees to donate to Whitmer as part of an invitation to a March 7, 2018, fundraiser for her campaign.
El-Sayed responded to a Detroit News report about Blue Cross fundraising for Whitmer in a statement posted to Twitter: “Michiganders are clear on one thing: they are sick of corporate politicians who are bought and sold,” he said.
Attack ads now running against El-Sayed cite that tweet as evidence he disrespects women but do not provide any of the larger context about the Blue Cross fundraiser.
Bridge analyzed similar El-Sayed critiques of Whitmer in 2018, including his claim that Whitmer was using a “corporate dark money PAC” to help her win the election, finding it “half accurate.”
Past lawsuit, former employee complaint
The ads also reference a lawsuit against the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, housed in the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, that accused the health system of sex, age and race discrimination.
El-Sayed is not a named defendant in the lawsuit, though he was mentioned in the 2022 complaint as an example of then-director Dr. Prabhjot Singh’s tendency to hire younger, less experienced men over more qualified women candidates.
The 2022 complaint references a comment El-Sayed allegedly made to one of the plaintiffs that he was excited to not be working with “anyone over 40” as part of a young team, though the plaintiff does not explicitly accuse El-Sayed of gender discrimination during his brief time there.
The discrimination lawsuit against Mount Sinai remains ongoing.
Another claim referenced in the ads points to comments that a former El-Sayed campaign employee made to the conservative outlet Michigan Enjoyer.
Though the former employee is quoted sharing several criticisms about El-Sayed’s foreign policy platform and association with controversial streamer Hasan Piker, the article does not make any specific allegations regarding El-Sayed’s treatment of women.
Bottom line
The examples referenced in anti-El-Sayed ads don’t back up claims that he has a pattern of disrespecting women.
The 2010 and 2018 criticisms of Obama and Whitmer appeared to be focused more on policy than gender. Other examples cited in the ads are less clear, but don’t explicitly point to instances of El-Sayed using gender-based or misogynistic language.
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