Abdul El-Sayed, 32, is running for governor of Michigan and if he wins, he will be the first Muslim governor in U.S. history. In this in-depth profile from the Guardian, the publication declares that the young politician is “trying not just to win, but to also change American politics itself.”
El-Sayed resume is extensive – he was a doctor, Rhodes Scholar, Ivy League professor, and director for the health department in Detroit, making him the youngest health director in any major city. His orator skills often draw comparisons to a young Barack Obama. Tamanika Terry Seward was in the audience of a recent campaign event in Ann Arbor and remarked: “I think the last time I sat there and gave that kind of smirk is when I first heard Obama in Chicago, when he was running for senator.”
Though still a year out from the Democratic primary, the Guardian states that El-Sayed “has a real chance of winning.” He has raised more than one-million dollars through individual donations, “Bernie Sanders style.” According to the publication: “He has pledged to take no corporate Pac money and is unabashedly disdainful of big money influencing elections… He has pledged universal healthcare to all Michiganders… and says he will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and make Michigan a ‘sanctuary state.’”
In a recent campaign speech El-Sayed said that he believed in a clear separation of church and state. “I can tell you that my ability to practice my faith in person, in my own home, when I choose to, where I’m allowed to, because of freedoms in this country have everything to do with that separation of church and state. If I am going to want to be able to put my face on the ground 34 times a day, like I do, because I’m Muslim, I want to make sure no one can take that right away from me. And I will not take that right away from anyone else.”
