Abdul El-Sayed — FULL SPEECH: Abdul El-Sayed rallies at the University of Michigan with Hasan Piker & Rep. Summer Lee

How about them Wolverines? It's great. Thank you. Well, we got to give it up, 'cause, you know, it's great. To be a Michigan Wolverine is great, to be a Michigan Wolverine is great, to be a Michigan Wolverine is great, to be a Michigan Wolverine. That's right. National champions, baby. And look, I'm all four big winners out of Michigan, huh? Now, I gotta tell you what I'm about. Money out of? Money in your? Medicare 4? Money out of? Money in your Medicare for? That's right. My name is Abdul Al Sain. And I got no business running for U.S. Senate. At least that's what they tell me. I also told me I got no business having a conversation with all of you. They tell me I got no business, having a meeting with somebody like Hassan or Summer Lee or Rasheeda. But here's the thing. Whether you're talking about West Ann Arbor with Yusuf. Or you're talking about West LA with Hassan. Or you're talking about West PA with summer. Or you're talking about the West in general. We've got an opportunity to change the face of American politics, and we will not back down. We will not back down. Now, look, I was never supposed to run for public office. I pray the wrong way. I got the wrong skin color. I come from the wrong part of the world. I wanted to be a doctor. I will tell you why. I could go 15 hours. from where I grew up to my family's native Egypt. I cross a 10 year life expectancy gap. I saw that imprinted in the lives of the people I loved. My grandmother lost 2 babies before their 1st birthday. I didn't have to go 15 hours. I could go 15 minutes. From where I grew up into the city of Detroit. And I could cross the same 10 year life expectancy gap. And y'all, it shouldn't matter the color of your skin. Shouldn't matter what your parents do for work. It shouldn't matter where you live, you should have a long, healthy life in these United States of America. And I became a doctor to do something about it. And in my final year of medical school, I came to realize that the healthcare system, I was training to be a part of, wasn't just not part of the solution too often, it was part of the problem, chewing up and spitting people out, simply because they couldn't get monetized enough to feed the CEOs of the pharmaceuticals or the hospitals, or the insurance companies that have sicked their tentacles on our healthcare system, and monetized us because we dare to get sick. I decided instead to go into public health. I got the opportunity to reap public health. There it is. I got to rebuild Detroit's Health Department after the state of Michigan, moved through the city, forced it into bankruptcy, forced them to shut down a 185 year old health department in a city with a higher infant mortality rate than my father's native Egypt. We rebuilt it around kids. We did things like guarantee every child a free pair of glasses delivered at school within two weeks of a vision test, a program that's done 50,000 pairs of glasses across our state. When in Rasheeda's neighborhood. Marathon Petroleum wanted to raise their emissions of sulfur dioxide, we stood up and said, Enough is enough. We forced them to invest their own money to reduce their emissions when they had wanted to increase them. Put air quality monitors, all over our county. So, folks, you get real time information about the air they breathe. Mike Rogers, when he was in Congress, he helped to pass through the most damaging pro opioid legislation in American history. Led to millions of people dying. You know what he got on the back end? They gave him a $14 million payout when he finally retired and moved to Florida to finally get what it was that we're going to pay him off to do in the long term. We put Narcan, life-saving, anti-overdose medication, in vending machines for free in a 100 locations across Wayne County to do something about it. After Flint, I'm never gonna forget that experience of watching what was happening and thinking that our kids in the city of Detroit could be exposed to the same lead we were hearing about in the place where we systematically concentrate our most vulnerable people for most of the day, most of the year in their schools. So we had every school, daycare, and head start tested for lead in the water. In the 1st First 68 schools we tested, 19 of them. Tested positive for lead. Got them on a pathway to being led free, got to work with folks like Dr. Mona to help rewrite the state's led policy after that. And when we found out that Wayne County. ranked number 8 for medical debt nationwide, with a whopping $700 million of medical debt, we realized we could eliminate it for pennies on the dollar. So guess what we did? We eliminated it for pennies on the dollar. And I'm... I'm never going to forget that day. sitting in my office. When this administration decided to freeze federal funds. Y'all remember that? I'm sitting there looking at all the line items, they've just frozen in my budget, budget, food on the table for moms and babies through WIC. The last line of healthcare defense through federally qualified health centers. Vaccines froze all of them. And I'm sitting at my office, and I get a push notification to my phone. And I learned that day that after his long career, our current U.S. senator is not seeking reelection, that there's going to be an open U.S. Senate. Now I had to ask myself, where is the fight for the public's health now, and I believe that fight should take us all the way to the U.S. Senate. No. I don't know if she remembers. But the first text message I got was from our sister, Rasheeda. Happyibi, this one looks like yours. That's because I'm not new to this. I ran for governor back in 2018. Now... I was 32. I had no clue what I was doing. Trump had just been elected. I said, you know what, I'm gonna go big or go home. I went big, and then I went home. But not after taking $340,000 votes. We ran a campaign on ideas and ideals. And I said something at the time, folks weren't quite ready to hear, which is that Donald Trump himself is not the disease of our politics. He's just the worst symptom of the disease of our politics. The disease is the system, that tells us that corporations and billionaires. And special interests should be able to buy and sell politicians to do their bidding. It's the reason that we pay more for the stuff we gotta buy and get paid less for the work that we do. It's the reason that they misappropriate our tax dollars to go and drop bombs on other kids and their schools and their hospitals, rather than building schools and hospitals for our own kids, right here in Michigan. For four years, we dealt with the symptoms, but we never dealt with the disease. And in this election, here, right now, we have a choice about whether or not we are willing to stand up against that disease of our politics, to take on corporations, where we find them, to do our bidding in our politics rather than theirs. It is no longer appropriate for them to pick our pockets simply because we got sick. It is no longer going to be acceptable for DTE to raise our rates faster than 46 other states. And no longer are we going to sit idly by while APAC tells us that the number one goal of our foreign policy is to align with a foreign government. You know, when I talk about APAC, everybody says, well, it's because you're Arab. Listen. No, it's not. It's because I'm fucking from Michigan. And I want my tax dollars spent in Michigan, protecting Michigan Kids, providing Michigan Healthcare, fixing Michigan Roads, building Michigan schools. Now I want to be absolutely clear about one thing. This is a movement built on our love for people. All of us, love and revere, Jewish folk, our Jewish neighbors, the faith of Judaism. Trust me, nobody will fight harder. Against anti Semitism. Then somebody who intimately understands what it's like to be discriminated against because of how I pray. But that love and reverence for the Jewish people is founded in a love and reverence for all people. So how dare I say that I love the Jewish people without standing up against a genocide against Palestinian people? Because at the end of the day, it is the same love that should move us to stand when we see injustice against Palestinians, that should also move us to stand up when we see injustice against Jewish folk. It is the same love for humanity. Now, I heard that our friends, students supporting Israel, we're going to be protesting us. But I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this. At the end of the day, they would we be welcomed here. Because at the end of the day, we believe in the courage of our convictions and our ideals. We believe in the ability to actually have a discussion about the kind of politics we want. Because at the end of the day, for me, all of us should be in the business of supporting America. And that is the work in front of us. And in America, we believe that it should be one person, one vote, not $100 million, corrupting our entire politics, 'cause Apax said so. That right. Let him hear you. Let him hear you. Now, look. Apac told me, right? They told all their friends. In a memo, they circulated, that Abdul el Sayid is the single most dangerous candidate in the 2026 election cycle for the U.S. Israel relationship. I wish they'd have made me a shirt, on a warrant today. Because I don't know about you. I don't spend my tax dollars. I'm about to pay taxes. I don't pay taxes, so another country gets a tank, or a bomb, I pay my taxes, so our kids get schools, and health care. And everybody asks, why are you always talking about APAC? Well, 'cause they're gonna be the biggest spender in this entire race. You know, if you wanna win the argument, win the argument. But don't pretend that somehow, this is a fair fight. When you're willing to stack $100 million of cash that gets funneled into, you name the super pack, to run ads that have nothing to do with your central issue, you have decided that you've already lost the argument, and it doesn't matter. And to me, I studied in these halls. I learned about a democracy that was built about having a persuasive discussion about the kind of America we need and deserve. You know what they didn't tell me? That $100 million SuperPac was going to come and drop attack at after Attack at after Attack at. I'll tell you this, though. There is one upside. I'm an Arab dude, y'all, okay? And, uh, the one thing you're supposed to have is an Arab dune, is a nice beard. And I was never gifted with that. But for three months, this summer, Apex about to give me the beard of my dreams. I'm gonna be so lined up. My wife turned down the volume and just be like, Baby, that's the beard I could have had. Who knew it took APAC to give it to me? $100 million beer. You gotta have fun with this. Now, look, I want to talk about some issues here. At the privilege of being invited to Minneapolis. at the height of Project Metro Search. I went because I wanted to stand in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis. Now I wanted to understand what it looks like. When our government spends $185 billion, which, by the way, is bigger than the budget of the FBI, it is bigger than the budget of the U.S. Marines, spent that much money to weaponize itself against the Constitution and lay siege to a city in our own country. And the people I met there, they had a courage about them. I met a guy. He was in full on hunting gear, real tree. And I asked them, I said, well, you know, have you done this before? He said, no, I've never done this before. I said, did you, who'd you vote for? He said Trump twice. I said, well, then why are you here? He said, because I never knew it would get to this. And he taught me 2 things that I hope we all take with us. Number one, people have the immense capacity for change. And number two, that when faced with injustice, people are willing to do extraordinary things. And I take his story with me and I share it here. Because I want to contrast his bravery. It takes a lot to say that you were wrong. It does. I want to contrast his bravery with politicians who tell us. that we can reform. Or retrain ice. Have you ever thought about like what that would actually mean? Maybe it's because I actually ran government agencies that I understand that you cannot reform this. Like, how do you teach somebody? Who was willing to use a child as bait? That that's wrong. Like, can you imagine the PowerPoint slide? Like, what's on the slide? You have the kid, and then you have that, one of those big circles with a slash in it. Don't take the kid? I'm so sorry, but if you're willing to use a child as bait, you do not belong in the U.S. government. Ice cannot be reformed. Ice cannot be retrained. Ice needs to be abolished. Rockeyes. And just this morning, I don't know if you've been watching the Twitters, but apparently the most important thing happening on Twitter was whether or not we were gonna campaign with Hassan. Our president is waging a genocidal, illegal, unjustifiable war in Iran that is torching our tax dollars to the tune of $1.5 billion a day. Spiking our gas. That was the most University of Michigan comment I've ever heard. I'm sorry, sir, what are the error bars on that estimate? And... I don't know if you filled up recently. I paid an extra 20 bucks. And just this morning, the president talks about wiping out a whole civilization. Now, I don't know about you, but like, when I heard that comment. The 1st thing I thought about was my kids. Uh, 2 little girls. Ethnically half Egyptian, ethnically half Indian. I get their looks from their mom, thank God. 100% American. And I would do anything for those little girls. The people in Iran would do anything for their kids. 93 million people, conservatively. 30 million of them are children. And this guy's talking about a genocide of 93 million people, 30000000 children. And somehow Fox News found it fit to cover this rally, six fucking times. And not talk about the fact that the president wants to commit a genocide in Iran. Here's the thing. This is the thing that gets me the most. I understand that that guy is a narcissist. With no functional mental capacity. I understand that he does stupid shit every day. I also understand he's got a weird obsession with the drapes. But what kills me the most is when members of my own party. want to do this double speak. Where they talk about, well, it's an illegal war, but if they ask me for funding, I would definitely vote to fund it. It's either illegal and you wouldn't fund it, or you think it's perfectly legal and agree with it, but stop playing games. Don't let us. We have to believe. that we can move past this. Told you about my little girls, and one of the hardest things about doing this is I'm gone all the time. I got to spend a couple of days with them on end in the last 3 days, and one of the hardest parts about it is it took my daughter a couple of days to stop asking when I was going to leave. And we got home, and I had to tell her, my 3 year old, today, I'm going to not be here when you come home. And she said, today's the day you're going to leave? I said, yeah, today's the day I'm going to leave. But I'll come home. Inshallah. And the only reason that you can justify that is because you believe that you are building something that is worthy of those kids. And... I want to speak... Right to all of you. I can't credibly call myself young anymore, okay? I'm 41 years old. Like, once you get that four, they're gone, okay? But I remember what it was like to be young. And it's a weird thing that older people do, which is they, they think that young people should know what it's like to be older. Which is ridiculous, because y'all never been old. But we've been young. And I remember what it felt like to be young, the endless possibility of a life in front of you. And I was blessed to be young at a time when our politics looked somewhat hopeful. If you're 25 right now, you were born in the year 2000. I'm glad you're happy about it. And I just can't imagine the sum total of your lived experience in this place. I mean, when you were 8 years old, you either lost your home or you watched a family near you, lose their home in the worst financial crisis, for which the banks who caused it paid nothing. You have been alive with the internet existing your whole life. I don't know how Hassan does it, but like, the internet sucks your eyeballs and eardrums. And you've had to live in that reality forever. You were, what, 10? 15 when Donald Trump came down that hideous escalator? He's been a fixture in your politics ever since and before that, you have to tell people, you have to watch people, him tell people that they got fired from a job they never had. You... You have been alive for wars almost your entire life. and were yet again fighting another one. I understand the nihilism. For every one of you who's here, God bless you. I know you know 10 other people who wouldn't be caught dead in a political rally. Belief itself is an act of hope. And I'll just tell you, like, I can't promise you, that will win. But I can promise you that someday, there will be someone, you look in the eye like I look those little girls in the eye, and you will want to tell them what you did when democracy was at risk. You will want them to know how hard you worked so that they could have a better life than you did. And my ask is, I want you to think about that. And I want you to picture that conversation that you have one day, and I want you to put all of yourself into this, because we may not win, but for damn sure, if we don't try, we will lose. And look, winning is right there. We live at the golden edge of a horizon of our own making. We get to choose every day, whether or not we want to forge that for ourselves and for the people we leave after us. And I'm asking you. We are going to put all of ourselves into these next 4 months and the next 3 months after that and the 6 years that come after that. I'm asking you to join us. I'm asking you to join us for the people that you will leave behind. I'm asking you to join us for the people who are you are here with. We can have nice things. We just can't do it alone. That's the choice we have in front of us. Now, look, I know the forces are arrayed against us. I know that they think that they can pound us into oblivion. I know they think that if they pressure us that we're going to back down. But guess what? We don't back down. When... when they tell us, we can't get Super Pac money out of our politics, we don't back down. When they tell us that we cannot stand with our Union sisters and brothers, We don't back down. When they tell us, we can't guarantee healthcare in the richest, most powerful country in the world, we don't back down when they tell us that we cannot stand up against stupid, endless wars. We don't back down when they tell us that we cannot stand up and abolish ice. We don't back down when they tell us that we can't build an economy that includes all of us. We don't back down when they tell us that we cannot believe in a future, that is bigger than the present we have, we don't back down. I'm Abdul El Sayed, I am running for U.S. Senate