Abdul El-Sayed Height, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Abdul El-Sayed

• He grew up in Rochester Hills, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.

• His parents were Egyptian immigrants.

• His father, Mohamed, was raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He later moved to the United States to study for a PhD at Wayne State University.

• Mohamed raised his son, Abdul, in the Detroit area with his second wife, Jacqueline, who was from Gratiot County, Michigan.

  

  A childhood picture of Abdul El-Sayed

• In 2003, while studying at Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, he was a team captain in wrestling, football, and lacrosse.

• After completing his schooling, he attended the University of Michigan, where he played for the men’s club lacrosse team.

• In 2007, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Distinction.

• On his graduation day, he delivered the commencement speech. He then became known for his strong public speaking skills.

• After his speech, former US President Bill Clinton, delivered a commencement speech in which he mentioned El-Sayed. Clinton said,
  

  I don’t want to embarrass your senior speaker, but I wish every person in the world who believes that we are fated to have a clash of civilizations, and cannot reach across the religious divides, could have heard you speak today.”

• According to El-Sayed, former President Bill Clinton had a conversation with him after the ceremony.

• Clinton encouraged El-Sayed to think about a career in public service.

  

  Abdul El-Sayed while meeting Bill Clinton

• Later, El-Sayed received a full-tuition scholarship to attend the University of Michigan Medical School.

• After that, he studied medicine there for two years and wished to become a neurosurgeon.

• El-Sayed became interested in public health after losing his aunt and uncle in Egypt, who both died from preventable diseases. His life was saved as he receive life-saving vaccines while growing up in the United States. This incident inspired him to study medicine and epidemiology.

• During his medical studies at the University of Michigan Medical School, he started a student medical mission to Peru.

• He also led a student group that collected money and organized community service for a local free clinic.

• After that, he applied for a Rhodes Scholarship. In his application, he wrote,
  

  My religion teaches that if one saves a life, she has saved all of humanity. I remember reading this verse with my father as a boy: “How great,” I thought, “would it be then to save a life every day?” Quick to share my thoughts with Baba, I told him that I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up. My father, a professor, thought for a moment, and reasoned, “Abdulrahman, wouldn’t it be better to learn why people die, and then teach everyone around you to save lives? Wouldn’t that save more lives?” His reasoning stuck; but so did mine.”

• El-Sayed received the Rhodes Scholarship when he was a second-year medical student.

• After that, he was enrolled to Oriel College, Oxford, where he studied public health. He completed a D.Phil. in 2011.

• During his studies at Oxford, he was a lacrosse player. He became captain of the men’s lacrosse team and earned a full blue.

  

  Abdul El-Sayed during his college days

• During his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, his study was supported by a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and the Medical Scientist Training Program.

• After that, El-Sayed did not apply for a medical license. He chose to work in public health and epidemiology.

• El-Sayed is an author of more than 100 scholarly articles, abstracts, and book chapters.

• His literary work covered public health policy, social epidemiology, and health differences between different groups.

• In 2014, he started working as an assistant professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in the epidemiology department.

• After that, he was appointed as the director of Columbia’s Systems Science Program and Global Research Analytics for Population Health.

• During this period, he received many research awards and was named one of the Policy Innovators of Carnegie Council.

• He also created and taught the first course on systems science and population health of Mailman School.

• He, along with Sandro Galea, co-edited the textbook Systems Science and Population Health, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

  

  The cover of the book Systems Science and Population Health

• In August 2015, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan appointed El-Sayed as the Health Officer and Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department.

• He then became the youngest health officer of a major U.S. city at the age of 30.

• During this period, El-Sayed was given the responsibility to rebuild the Detroit Health Department.

• The department had faced major changes after public health services were provided by a nonprofit during Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy in 2012.

• During his first year as director, he made efforts to control higher sulfur dioxide emissions from the Southwest Refinery of Marathon Petroleum. These efforts helped in reducing the overall emissions from the refinery.

• He also visited many Detroit schools after the Flint water crisis.

• During this period, he provided free glasses to children in Detroit public schools. He also worked to improve and change the Animal Control department of the city.

• After that, El-Sayed was appointed to the governor’s statewide Childhood Lead Elimination Board.

• He also served on the Public Health Advisory Commission of Michigan. He was also on the Advisory Committee to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Healthy People program.

• In 2016, Crain’s Detroit named El-Sayed one of its “40 under 40.” The Michigan League of Conservation Voters also named him “Public Official of the Year.”

• On 9 February 2017, he left his job as health director and contest for the post of governor of Michigan in the 2018 Democratic primary. He officially announced his campaign on 25 February 2017.

• El-Sayed stated in a media talk that the Flint water crisis inspired him to contest for governor. He said that he watched Governor Snyder and his team cut the costs and made poor decisions.

• He added that the sitting Governor’s lack of attention to the communities poisoned thousands of children. He said that those children were the same children he was serving as health director.

• He mentioned that he did not believe in that kind of government. He believed government should work for the people and be run by the people.

• During his speeches, El-Sayed promised that he would not accept campaign money from corporations. He collected more than $5 million from individual donors.

• During elections, he received support from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic congressional nominee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 2017 Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour.
  

  Abdul El-Sayed with Linda Sarsour (in hijab)

• He was also supported by Justice Democrats and The Nation magazine.

• In August 2017, El-Sayed received 340,560 votes, about 30% of the vote, in the Democratic primary. He lost the elections to his opponent Gretchen Whitmer.

• That same year, the University of Michigan honored him with its Bicentennial Alumni Award.

• In September 2018, he founded Southpaw Michigan, a political action committee. It worked to elect progressive candidates and support ballot initiatives in Michigan.

• In 2018, El-Sayed supported the removal of Michigan state laws that stop local governments from putting a municipal sales tax in place or making rent control laws.

• As a progressive Democrat, El-Sayed supports Medicare for All. He also helped in writing a book about it.

• In his rallies, he promised that he would not accept donations from political action committees, known as PACs. He accepted donations only from individual people.

• He supports capitalism. Once, during a speech he stated that he was not a socialist and was a capitalist who understood how capitalism works. He said,
  

  I want stronger enforcement of laws against monopolies and wants to end corporate tax breaks.

• In 2019, El-Sayed started a podcast named “America Dissected with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed,” and hosted about politics and public health. The program is produced by Crooked Media.

• In 2020, he started working on the Joe Biden-Bernie Sanders Unity Task Force on healthcare.

• That same year, he worked as a national campaign surrogate for the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders. He spoke for Sanders at public events and all media channels.
  

  Abdul El-Sayed posing with Bernie Sanders during a political rally

• In March 2022, El-Sayed called the Russia-Ukraine war a war between democracy and dictatorship, self-government and fascism. He criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and called him an authoritarian dictator.

• In December 2022, El-Sayed was appointed as the director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services in Wayne County. He started the job in March 2023. He served in the position till April 2025.

• In January 2024, El-Sayed spoke about the Gaza war during a podcast. He said that the war was a public health disaster and requested for a ceasefire. He also called the Gaza genocide a test of morality. He asked how people could stand against Donald Trump or drug company CEOs if they could not call the situation a genocide.

• On 17 April 2025, El-Sayed announced that he would contest for the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 2026 United States Senate election.

• He made the decision after Senator Gary Peters announced that he would not seek reelection.

• On 7 April 2026, El-Sayed organised campaign events at many Michigan university campuses with U.S. Representative Summer Lee and political streamer Hasan Piker.

• Hasan Piker’s participation in El-Sayed’s rallies became controversial within the Democratic Party because of his past comments about the September 11 attacks, Hamas, and Israel.
  

  Abdul El-Sayed with Hasan Piker

• In 2025, he listed clean air and clean water as major priorities on his campaign website.

• He also wanted that the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality should combine and become Department of the Environment. He promised that Michigan would receive 100% renewable energy by 2030.

• El-Sayed often opposes US military for providing aids to other countries. However, he supported US actions during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in Serbia during the 1990s as examples of useful US action.

• In April 2025, El-Sayed said that US military aid to Ukraine was different from aid to Israel because it followed the decisions of many international organizations.

• In September 2025, he said that the military aid to Ukraine was about following the rules of the international system together with US partners.

• In 2026, he stated in the media that he would stop US military aid to Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

• In April 2026, El-Sayed stated in a media talk that killing tens of thousands of people makes someone very evil. He said,
  

  Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil. It’s not how evil is this one versus that one. Hamas: evil. Israeli government: evil. We can say both. The question of Israel’s existence is not a question. I’m not going to play this gotcha game about whether or not it has a right to exist. The question, ultimately, is about whether or not we want a politics that dignifies equal rights.”

• In June 2026, El-Sayed issued a plan to put more rules on artificial intelligence companies.

• In July 2026, he said in a speech that the existence of Israel was not the issue. He said,
  

  I don’t believe in ethno-states, and I certainly don’t believe that our country is responsible to sustain ethno-states.”

  

  Abdul El-Sayed speaking during a political rally

• El-Sayed also spoke about campaigning with Hasan Piker. He said that it was a way to reach Piker’s audience. He added that he did not agree with everything Piker had said.

• On the morning of 5 August 2026, the Associated Press declared El-Sayed the winner. He faced Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the general election.

• El-Sayed is a member of the National Writers Union, American Federation of Teachers Local 477 and 6244, SEIU Local 500, and the American Association of University Professors, and supports their efforts to protect workers’ rights.

• El-Sayed supports to end ICE because he believes that it no longer works as a proper law enforcement agency.

• He supports protecting the Mexico-United States border and supports some types of border law enforcement. He called ICE,
  

  Corrupted at its soul.”

• El-Sayed supports unions. He has been a member of SEIU, AFT, UAW, and the National Writers Union.

• He also supports the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and union efforts in other professions, including doctors.

• In June 2026, the UAW, along with Jocelyn Benson’s campaign, supported his campaign for governor.
  

  Abdul El-Sayed during his Senate campaigning

• In one of his speeches, El-Sayed blamed AIPAC’s influence in US politics for the 2026 Iran war. He called Israel a “rogue state” and accused it of human rights abuses, genocide, and apartheid.

• He said that the US should stop giving the Israeli military unlimited funding.

• He said that he disagrees with the idea of having an ethno-state. He also opposes Egyptian and Saudi Arabian ethno-nationalism and Zionism.

• In August 2026, El-Sayed became the first Muslim American to serve in the US Senate.