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SINGLE-PAYER CHAMPION ABDUL EL-SAYED IS RUNNING FOR SENATE  
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Interview with Abdul El-Sayed
February 3, 2026
Jacobin [[link removed]]

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_ Physician Abdul El-Sayed, one of the most prominent advocates of
Medicare for All, is now running for US Senate in Michigan. Jacobin
spoke to him about his campaign and the continuing fight for
single-payer health care. _

With Abdul El-Sayed’s Democratic primary campaign for Senate, the
fight over Medicare for All is happening right now in Michigan, which
Axios has called “ground zero” for the struggle for single-payer
health care., Monica Morgan / Getty Images

 

Apart from Bernie Sanders, few public figures stump more often and
more energetically for single-payer health care than
physician-turned-public-servant Dr Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed is now
campaigning to become Michigan’s next US senator. In his recent
endorsement, Sanders cited
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El-Sayed’s experience as a physician and epidemiologist as to why he
is uniquely suited to address the country’s broken health care
system. If elected, El-Sayed will be in a stronger position than ever
to advance the cause of Medicare for All.

The stakes could not be higher. Each day brings fresh attacks from the
Trump administration on an already anemic public health
infrastructure, forcing medical professionals and patients on their
back feet. Public health agencies charged with disease prevention,
environmental regulation, scientific research funding, and the
provision of life-saving vaccines are on the chopping block. Measles
infections, once eradicated in the US, now risk becoming commonplace.
And nearly five million Americans are expected to lose
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their health insurance due to premium increases as a result of
Republicans’ refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced
tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Medicare for All took center stage in the 2016 and 2020 presidential
elections but then disappeared
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after Joe Biden took office. But single-payer may be poised to make a
comeback. A large majority of Americans — 65 percent — continue to
support the creation of a national health insurance program, according
to a recent poll
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conducted by Data for Progress. Not only does Medicare for All enjoy
the support of the majority of Democrats and independents; the
transformational reform is also backed by nearly half of Republicans.

“If Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s mayoral election
is any indication,” Meagan Day wrote
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recently, “the Sanders-inspired economic left has plenty of runway,
which means the fight over Medicare for All within the Democratic
Party is likely to reignite at some point.” With El-Sayed’s
Democratic primary campaign for Senate, that fight is happening right
now in Michigan, which Axios has called “ground zero
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for the struggle for single-payer health care. El-Sayed’s outspoken
support for Medicare for All places him at odds with the Democratic
establishment; neither of his two primary opponents support
single-payer.

_Jacobin _contributor Jonathan Michels recently sat down with El-Sayed
to discuss his Senate campaign, his long fight for health care reform,
and his call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in
the wake of its latest abuses.

Jonathan Michels

What led you to become a vocal proponent of single-payer?

Abdul El-Sayed

I was in medical school when the ACA passed, and I was so grateful
that we had an American president that was willing to jump on this
issue. But as it got negotiated, I realized that the broader promise
of health care in America  as we were reading about the history of
the unmet promise of health care — during the Truman years, and then
again during the LBJ years, and then again under the leadership of
folks like Ted Kennedy, and then under the Obama administration — we
still have yet to make good on that promise.

I realized that I did not want to be a part of a system that did not
provide the best medical care to people who need it the most.

As I went through my medical education, I came to realize, training in
hospitals in New York, which are some of the best, most prestigious
hospitals in the world — these hospitals too often are incentivized
to do all they can to ignore the plight of folks in their communities,
while flying in people from all over the world to get access to the
most technologically advanced care for people who can afford it. I
realized that I did not want to be a part of a system that did not
provide the best care to people who need it the most right in their
backyard. And so I’ve been an advocate for Medicare for All,
frankly, since medical school.

A lot of my work in public health has been about recognizing that in
our system, the inability to provide health care for people who need
it is part and parcel of our failure to provide preventive services
for all of us. I think we need to build a system that guarantees every
single person the care that they need and deserve and also invests in
the means of keeping us healthy in the first place.

 

Jonathan Michels

Often candidates publish political memoirs that say very little about
themselves or their policy stances. Your 2021 book, _Medicare for All:
A Citizen’s Guide_, seems to have had a real-world impact, as it is
used by single-payer advocates as an educational and organizing tool.
What does _Medicare for All _say about you and your priorities?

Abdul El-Sayed

Too often politics is transacted at the surface level: “Do I like
them? Could I have a drink with them? Do I think they are being
honest?” I want folks to understand that when I say we can guarantee
health care in this country, I mean it. I’ve thought about it;
I’ve dreamt about it. I put pen and paper to it, and I want folks to
understand exactly how we could do it.

Jonathan Michels

Why do you think pursuing elected office is the best way to advance
the cause of a national health program?

Abdul El-Sayed

Three reasons. We haven’t had a Democratic doctor in the US Senate
since 1969, and our current health care policy shows that. And in the
Senate, I think there is an opportunity to actually put pen to paper
on the legislation that would carry it forward and [help develop] the
thinking and the architecture about how to do that.

The other part of it is that a lot of folks want to push back on the
political possibility of [enacting single-payer]. As a US senator,
specifically from a state like Michigan — which is such a microcosm
of the broader country — I get to demonstrate the political
feasibility, right from the political heart of our country, of
advocating for Medicare for All and getting elected.

Then third, as a senator, yes, you are involved in sponsoring and
passing legislation. But you’re also a political advocate and a
persuader, and my goal is to use that platform as a persuader to
continue to have the conversation with the American public about just
how critical it is that we pass Medicare for All in our country.

Jonathan Michels

Throughout the history of the single-payer movement, doctors have
played an important role in both promoting and opposing transformative
health care reform. The American Medical Association
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was the single most powerful opponent of national health insurance for
much of the twentieth century. On the other side of the ledger are
physicians like Dr Quentin Young with the Medical Committee for Human
Rights
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Dr Sidney Wolfe [[link removed]] of
Public Citizen, and the founders of Physicians for a National Health
Program
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(PNHP) who have fought to make healthcare a human right.

Do you feel like a minority voice among physicians today, or do you
think your opinions about single-payer actually represent the majority
of clinicians?

 

Abdul El-Sayed

There are good numbers on this. Polling of doctors show that the
majority support Medicare for All.

Certainly among younger doctors, whose opportunities have been
foreclosed upon because of our corporatized health care system,
watching mergers and acquisitions increase the power of health care
corporations against their employees. . . . Doctors, increasingly, are
employees. In 2018, the median physician no longer worked for a
physician-owned practice. They worked for a large health care system.
And in 2018, the median physician began to support Medicare for All.

The numbers have only grown, and so I represent where doctors are. A
lot of times, the doctors who’ve been in the Senate as Republicans
represent where money is. Increasingly, as it’s become harder for
physicians to own their own businesses and harder for physicians to
compete against big corporate practices, they’ve come to realize
that the only fair platform is one that’s fair for both patients and
doctors.

Jonathan Michels

How does the Michigan Democratic primary underscore the importance of
voting in primaries for candidates backing progressive causes?
Oftentimes, it seems like policies such as Medicare for All are killed
at the primary level before they even get to the general election.

Abdul El-Sayed

Michigan is both a microcosm of the broader country, and it is the one
of the most important states at the crossroads of our political
conversation in America. We are paving a pathway through Michigan
built by people coming together around solutions to one of their
biggest problems, which is health care.

I’m running on a simple platform: money out of politics, money in
your pocket, Medicare for All. All three of those things interlock,
and we’re building a movement of people who didn’t vote at all,
who voted for Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and who voted for Donald
Trump. And they’re coming together because they recognize that the
current system is not working.

We can build a broad-based movement of people coming together around
this kind of politics as we do it right here in Michigan. If we could
prove that out, it suggests a way forward in the rest of the country.
I think it’s why people need to get involved, especially here in
Michigan, but also to pay attention to this race and to important
campaigns that are willing to speak truth to power and also speak
truth to pain.

Jonathan Michels

Why do you think the Democratic Party is dead set on playing defense
to protect insufficient poverty-relief programs like Medicaid — and
when Democrats are in a position of power to pass comprehensive
legislation, they instead promote less ambitious policy reforms like
the ACA, which saw public funds funneled into private coffers?

Abdul El-Sayed

Too many Democrats take money from the same corporations who make
money on our current system. So they’re in this position where
they’re trying to appease people in front of them but also appease
the corporations who write their campaign checks.

I’m the only candidate in my race who’s never touched corporate
money. I’m also the only one running on Medicare for All. Those two
things are not a coincidence.

Jonathan Michels

Do you think Zohran Mamdani’s historic campaign for New York City
mayor is a bellwether for how to organize for Medicare for All and
similar policies — campaigns that address broad issues like
affordability by making an argument for expanding public goods?

 

Abdul El-Sayed

New York is obviously a different place than Michigan, and I’m
really focused here on Michigan. But what we do know is that people
are sick and tired of a politics that is bought and paid for by
corporations. They want a politics that’s willing to speak
truthfully and honestly to the challenges that they face and about how
to take them on, and we know that if we speak to those issues
honestly, directly, and specifically, we can win. That’s exactly
what we’re doing here in Michigan.

I’ve been up and down my state. I’ve met people who survived
cancer three times and made it with their life savings intact, only to
get cancer a fourth time and lose them then. I’ve met folks who have
to make a decision between their health care and their mortgage.
I’ve met people who are worried about why we are sending our tax
dollars to drop bombs on other people’s kids when we can’t afford
health care here at home. I’ve met people in all sorts of
industries, whether it’s automotive manufacturing or agriculture,
who can’t afford health care and are worried about whether they can
provide it for their families. I have met small businesses who will
tell me every single time that health care is the single biggest issue
that they face.

ICE has become the danger it says it is protecting us from. We cannot
continue to pour funds into a rogue paramilitary entity while almost
half the country can barely afford health care.

All of them need and deserve something different. And we’re speaking
to all of them. That’s how you build a broad-based movement.

Jonathan Michels

The unprecedented ICE incursions into our cities and towns represent a
threat to all Americans regardless of immigration status, as evidenced
by the recent murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal
immigration agents in Minneapolis. Tell me about your recent call to
abolish ICE, which has put you at odds with your Democratic opponents.

Abdul El-Sayed

Americans are sick to their stomachs about what we’re seeing on our
peaceful streets. Renée Good and Alex Pretti were murdered by their
own government. ICE has become the danger it says it is protecting us
from.

We cannot continue to pour funds into a rogue paramilitary entity
while almost half the country can barely afford health care. I went to
Minneapolis last week because we as Americans must hold our government
accountable for the violence they’re committing against our
neighbors. I could see the writing on the wall in 2018, when I called
to abolish ICE then. Because an agency with its expressed mission,
with these kinds of leaders, can very easily spiral out of control.

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* Abdul El-Sayed; Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide; Michigan;
Campaign for US Senator;
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