A progressive Michigan Senate candidate endorsed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has deleted a series of old social media posts supporting the “defund the police” movement as his campaign gains national attention.
According to Fox News, Abdul El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director and current Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, reportedly made more than a dozen posts between 2020 and 2021 expressing support for defunding police departments.
The posts were quietly removed from his social media accounts as first reported by CNN.
“Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty,” El-Sayed wrote on X in June 2020, following the death of George Floyd. “Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about.”
In another post, he added, “The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people.”
El-Sayed echoed similar views during a 2020 interview, saying, “When we make a choice to invest in policing in a majority black community, rather than to invest in public schools, that choice is influenced by systemic racism.” He went on to describe the “defund” debate as “a question of asking how do we right-size government away from the racist ideologies that have led us to investing in war material for policing rather than public health for children.”
The Senate hopeful is running in a crowded Democratic primary against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, while former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is the frontrunner on the Republican side.
El-Sayed’s campaign responded to scrutiny by highlighting his work with law enforcement during his tenure as Wayne County’s health officer. “He learned and grew through the process—and has earned endorsements from a sitting Sheriff, a former Sheriff, and a Detroit Police Commissioner,” a campaign spokesperson said.
The statement also criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for “militarizing” agencies like ICE, insisting that El-Sayed is “challenging government choices that defund food, healthcare, and social services while militarizing agencies.”
Tlaib, who has long aligned herself with the progressive “Squad,” recently praised El-Sayed, calling him “a health equity champion” and “a fighter.” He has also secured endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
El-Sayed has drawn comparisons to New York’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who also faced backlash over past anti-police comments. Mamdani apologized publicly for his remarks, saying, “I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers… they put their lives on the line every single day.”
Despite the mea culpa, police morale in New York has reportedly plummeted, with a 35% rise in officer departures in the months leading up to Mamdani’s election. El-Sayed appears undeterred by the parallels, having declared earlier this year, “Zohran won. Abdul is next.”
