Critics Claim Abdul El-Sayed Leveraged Race-Focused Research for Political Advancement
Critics allege that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed used his academic research on race and religion to accelerate his political career, a journey that also received financial backing from the Soros family.
Critics contend that Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed utilized his academic research, which focused heavily on race and religion, as a means to advance his political career, according to a review of his publications and statements from critics.
Between 2007 and 2014, El-Sayed authored over 50 papers during his time at Columbia Medical School, with many concentrating on racial and religious themes. One study from 2011, funded in part by National Institutes of Health grants, examined suicide rates among Arab Americans in Michigan between 1990 and 2007. The research, published in the Public Library of Science journal, indicated that Arab men had approximately half the suicide rate of white men, and Arab women had a rate 24% lower than white women. El-Sayed noted in the study's conclusion that suicide is considered forbidden in traditional Islamic Sharia law, and families of victims may face ostracism.
Other studies El-Sayed conducted include "Birth outcomes among Arab Americans in Michigan before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001," published in 2008, and "Ethnic Inequalities in Mortality: The Case of Arab Americans" in 2011. He also explored "Racial and insurance-based disparities in the treatment of carotid artery stenosis" in 2015 and "The Color of Debt: Racial Disparities in Anticipated Medical Student Debt in the United States" in 2013.
A 2011 paper, which resurfaced recently, suggested that Arab women should only have children with members of their own ethnic group to achieve optimal health outcomes. El-Sayed, then using the name Abdulrahman M. El-Sayed, wrote that "interethnic mating may be associated with increased risk for adverse birth outcomes among Arab ethnicity mothers." Critics, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.), have described this research as "racist and eugenics" pseudoscience.
In 2012, El-Sayed received the $90,000 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans to pursue a PhD in epidemiology at Columbia University. He completed his PhD in 2014 and subsequently became the executive director of the Detroit Health Department in 2015. Jeff Soros, nephew of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, stated at a 2026 fundraiser that he interviewed El-Sayed as a finalist for the fellowship.
El-Sayed has also faced scrutiny over alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization designated as a terror group by some countries. Critics, such as Julian Epstein, former chief counsel for the Democratic House Judiciary Committee, have voiced strong disapproval of El-Sayed's research and political strategies. Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy has commented on the Brotherhood's objective to prevent Muslim Americans from assimilating into American culture and to leverage political power in the U.S. to support international activities with the ultimate goal of imposing Islamic law globally.