In an April 17 interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, Dr. Abdul El Sayed, former director of the Wayne County Public Health Department, announced in candidacy for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

“I’ll be running to make sure that in the richest, most powerful country in the world that we do things about how hard it has gotten to live in this country,” he said. “Whether you’re talking about the ability to afford your groceries, or to get your kids childcare or to see a doctor and not to be hit by medical bills that’ll send you into collections.”

El Sayed said those are challenges everyone faces and that we have to be answering those questions.

He also said that as a two-time public health  official who has made his career building agencies who deliver for people and as someone who has advocated for public health and healthcare at a time when too few people have access, he has the opportunity to continue the conversation he started with Michiganders when he ran for governor in 2018.

“I believe that when we listen, when we learn what is giving folks anxiety when they look in their kids eyes as they’re trying to fall asleep, when we deliver real solutions that are tailored to the challenges of real people and not what some corporate mega donor thinks, I think we can win.”

He added that not only could he win the seat, but Democrats could take back the senate, take back our government and “deliver for real people.”

El Sayed also said some elected officials have forgotten that there’s both a procedural and a leadership part of the job.

“You got elected to do both,” he said. “And just because the procedural part doesn’t give you very many options doesn’t mean the leadership part goes away.”

He also pointed out that “Abdul” is “not the best political name”, but added that it also means you “learn some things about being someone who doesn’t always fit in, just as a function of your name.”

He also said one worry he’s had is that for a long time, there’s been a fundamental schism between what voters want and what donors want.

“My point is, forget the donors for a minute,” El Sayed said. “Go talk to people. Ask them about the challenges in their life. Talk to those problems and say it like you mean it.  And if you do that, that’s how you ignite the fight.”

On the issue of health, El Sayed said that over the course of COVID-19, people in public health were trying to get people to take a vaccine that hadn’t existed a year earlier for a disease they didn’t necessarily have yet.

“Meanwhile, a lot of folks in our country can’t afford basic insulin, despite the fact that they know they need it because they have diabetes,” he said. “It’s a difficult thing when you know there’s a medicine you need and you cannot afford it and somebody else who ostensibly is supposed to be the person who’s fighting for your healthcare is coming to you with a new medication that didn’t exist a year ago.

“We don’t often think about the fact that if you’re not out there fighting for the things that people know they need, then when you show up and say, ‘hey, this is a thing I think you need’ they might not trust you. So we have to be about guaranteed health insurance for everybody.”

He also said public health agencies have to be fighting the fight for public health in times when there aren’t health crises.

“That’s why, when I was director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services, up until just a few weeks ago, we were out there erasing medical debt for upwards of 300,000 people, $700 million in medical debt. Because you shouldn’t be saddled with the cost of debt to go and see a doctor if and when you get sick.”

El Sayed will be competing against Democratic State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

Other potential Democratic candidates include Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, while possible Republican candidates include U.S. Reps. Bill Huizenga and Lisa McClain.

For more information about El Sayed’s candidacy visit abdulforsenate.com.