Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has a long history of attending events hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) despite his insistence that he is not a socialist.<\/p>\n
Between 2017 and 2020, El-Sayed attended and spoke at six events held by the DSA, including a 2019 fundraiser which he headlined. Despite the longstanding relationship, El-Sayed has distanced himself from the DSA when interviewed by the press and outright rejected being labeled as a “socialist.”<\/p>\n
“I’m not technically or practically DSA,” El-Sayed told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. In an interview with CNN, he similarly stated that “I am not somebody who is a socialist. I believe in capitalism, I just believe that capitalism has to be regulated.”<\/p>\n
FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: VOTERS SAY THEY\u2019RE IN ECONOMIC PAIN, BUT WILL DEMOCRATS GAIN?<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n While El-Sayed has made a point to separate himself from the DSA, the organization made it clear that the two were close.<\/p>\n At the 2019 event, which raised $10,000 for the organization, El-Sayed was described by DSA organizers as “a longtime friend of Detroit DSA.” He was photographed smiling next to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a self-described socialist, behind a table with a poster on it depicting a hand labeled “DSA” choking a snake labeled “capitalism.”<\/p>\n El-Sayed\u2019s first recorded appearance at a DSA event was during his run for Michigan governor in 2017. Other DSA events he spoke at focused on Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.<\/p>\n BERNIE SANDERS, DSA REVEAL DEMANDS FOR DEM PARTY AFTER SOCIALISTS SWEEP NEW YORK ELECTIONS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The Washington Free Beacon first reported on El-Sayed\u2019s attendance at the DSA events.<\/p>\n El-Sayed faces Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate, in the state\u2019s Democratic Senate primary. Some have speculated that his efforts to distance himself from the DSA are part of a strategy to appeal to Michigan\u2019s relatively evenly split electorate.<\/p>\n In addition to his years-long relationship with the DSA, self-described socialists have also thrown their support<\/a> behind El-Sayed.<\/p>\n SOCIALIST-BACKED DEM WHO RIPPED THE WEALTHY CRACKS STATE\u2019S TOP 1%, TAX RETURNS SHOW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sen. Bernie Sanders, for instance, endorsed El-Sayed<\/a> on the same day he launched his campaign for Michigan\u2019s Senate seat. The Vermont senator also endorsed El-Sayed\u2019s ill-fated gubernatorial bid.<\/p>\n El-Sayed explained at greater length in an interview with Politico that, while he agrees with many of the policies put forward by DSA-aligned politicians, he remains a capitalist<\/a> at heart.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t have to be a socialist to think that big corporations shouldn\u2019t be able to nickel and dime us at every turn. I don\u2019t have to be a socialist to believe that everybody in the richest, most powerful country in the world can have guaranteed health insurance,” he told reporter Dasha Burns. “\u200b\u200bLike again, maybe I\u2019m just making the mistake of trying to be nuanced in our politics, but I believe that we can have healthcare, that we can regulate on the biggest corporations in the world, that we can make it easier for you to make your first million rather than for Elon Musk to make a trillion. And that doesn\u2019t make me a socialist. That just makes me somebody who wants government to work for people.”<\/p>\n El-Sayed himself very well could be a millionaire, with recently released tax returns<\/a> showing that he and his wife collectively earned $686,069 in 2025. The Senate hopeful also has an expansive collection of luxury watches.<\/p>\n The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has a long history of attending events hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) despite his insistence that he is not a socialist. Between 2017 and 2020, El-Sayed attended and spoke at six events held by the DSA, including a 2019 fundraiser which he headlined. Despite the longstanding relationship, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}