Abdul El-Sayed calls for new Democratic leadership and a bold agenda: NPR’s Newsmakers: NPR
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, Democrat of Michigan, said Americans “temporarily” placed their trust and hope in Democrats during the midterm elections, but if his party does not act boldly when it takes control of Congress, he fears they will lose that trust. The 42-year-old, considered a progressive, said voters have been clear: Democrats need new leadership and an ambitious legislative agenda.
“I deeply appreciate Senator Schumer,” El-Sayed told NPR’s Leila Fadel on the video podcast. News actors. “But this is a question of leadership on the part of the American public, and if all we do is go back to what we did at a time when we were given a mandate, I fear we cannot earn our mandate.”
El-Sayed said he wants Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in December’s leadership election. Van Hollen, a 67-year-old progressive, made headlines in 2025 when he traveled to El Salvador to visit Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported by the Department of Homeland Security without standard due process.
“He’s willing to take risks when it counts — flying to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a real risk,” El-Sayed said of Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador. “I want people to think about what it means to get this mandate that we just received. To me, it means taking righteous risks and fighting righteous fights.”
Beyond the change in Senate leadership, El-Sayed said Congress must end the war in Iran, pass “Medicare for All” and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When asked how — with Democrats just a few seats away from a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate — El-Sayed said he was ready to work with his new Republican colleagues.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with U.S. senators who have said some really, really terrible things about me,” El-Sayed said. “You know, we talked about auto policy because we make cars in Michigan.”
He said he had not yet spoken to President Trump, who posted “Mr. Veto” on social media after the Democrats’ resounding victory in the midterms.
“Donald, if you’re listening, there’s a lot of things we could work on,” El-Sayed said. “Happy to have a meeting. Let’s see what we can work on and do.”
The former Detroit public health official even floated the idea of naming major health care legislation after Trump.
“Put his name on it,” El-Sayed said. “He’ll probably accept it. I have no hesitation in doing that. I don’t care what it’s called.”
At the same time, he appeared to welcome an impasse with the president on the health care issue.
“I challenge Donald Trump to veto it. I challenge him,” El-Sayed said, “because if you want to make the case that Democrats want to get results for you, do it. Ask him to veto it.”
During the campaign, Trump called El-Sayed a “crazy jihadi” who was “on the side of the terrorists.” El-Sayed said he saw these bigoted insults “a mile away” when he decided to run, but said he knew Michigan voters wouldn’t believe them.
“The opposition decided to make my name a hot topic and my faith such a hot topic,” El-Sayed said. “And so, you know, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is as American as Mike Rogers. He’s as American as Donald Trump. He’s as American as everything JD stands for. It’s an American name.”
In January, Vice President Vance will administer the oath of office to all newly elected senators. During the campaign, Vance called El-Sayed a representative of “terrible evil” and a “little weasel.”
“I hope he doesn’t make things awkward,” El-Sayed said of Vance. “There is, as I said, a delicious irony in the fact that he is constitutionally obligated to swear me in.”
El-Sayed’s victory is historic: he is the first Muslim elected to the American Senate. In taking the oath, he said he would probably take the oath on the Quran, but he decides which one. Right now, he said, it could be the one owned by Thomas Jefferson or the oldest Quran in his state, which is at the University of Michigan.
“Whatever my name is, however I pray, that’s not the book you take your oath to. That’s the book you swear your allegiance to,” he said, referring to the Constitution. “This document is the reason that no matter how I pray, I can run for office and the people of my state can elect me. What an incredible thing.”
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