Bloomfield Hills Andover High School graduate Abdul El-Sayed leads Republican Mike Rogers in early polls for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat.

El-Sayed, 41, won the Democratic primary on Aug. 4, edging U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens 48.5% to 47.5%. The general election is Nov. 3. A Bridge Michigan profile published Sept. 25 detailed El-Sayed's public health record and the attacks he faces from Rogers.

The seat opened after Sen. Gary Peters, a Bloomfield Township Democrat, announced in January 2025 he would not seek reelection.

At Andover, El-Sayed captained the wrestling, football and lacrosse teams before graduating in 2003. That football background became a campaign flashpoint after Rogers used a clip from El-Sayed's podcast in an attack ad. In a February 2023 episode of "America Dissected," El-Sayed said he loved football but hated admitting it, arguing the sport's brutality posed serious health risks. El-Sayed responded by challenging Rogers to a game of tackle football without pads.

Born in Rochester Hills to Egyptian immigrant parents, El-Sayed earned his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2014. He does not hold a Michigan medical license, a point Rogers has seized on. El-Sayed has said the criticism should be directed at Columbia, noting in July that he graduated from a school "literally called Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons."

El-Sayed served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department from August 2015 to February 2017, when he resigned to run for governor. He lost that 2018 Democratic primary to Gretchen Whitmer by more than 20 points.

He later joined Wayne County's Department of Health, Human and Veteran Services as a consultant in December 2022, becoming director March 1, 2023, according to a Wayne County announcement. He led the department until April 2025, when he resigned to launch his Senate campaign. During that stint, his medical debt payoff program cleared more than $95 million in bills for over 100,000 Wayne County residents, according to Bridge Michigan. The program fell well short of his stated $700 million goal.

El-Sayed also partnered with the nonprofit Vision to Learn to distribute free glasses to children. County officials reported 10,000 pairs distributed by February 2026. His office launched the Well Wayne Stations initiative in 2024, a free Narcan distribution program that has delivered more than 36,000 kits across 92 locations.

Matt Grossmann, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, told Bridge Michigan in a Sept. 25 interview that El-Sayed faces perception challenges heading into November. "He's trying to counteract those messages that came out in the primary, with mixed success," Grossmann said.

Rogers, a White Lake Township Republican who narrowly lost to U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024, has painted El-Sayed as part of "the most fringe extremists in the nation," saying in an Aug. 5 campaign statement that electing him would mean handing Michigan's future to them. Bridge Michigan found no evidence to support a separate Republican claim that El-Sayed pledged support to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Polls show El-Sayed with a lead, though the race remains competitive. An Emerson College survey conducted Sept. 12–14 put El-Sayed at 48% and Rogers at 46%, within the 3-point credibility interval. An EPIC-MRA poll published by the Detroit Free Press in late August showed El-Sayed ahead 47%–43%. A Suffolk University poll released Sept. 22, the most recent available, showed El-Sayed leading by 7 points, WXYZ reported. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the seat a toss-up.

The candidates face off Oct. 8 at WOOD TV8 in Grand Rapids and Oct. 21 at WXYZ-TV in Detroit.