Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has spent his Senate campaign insisting he’s a capitalist, not a socialist. His own sister just told a stranger otherwise.
In a video published Thursday, El-Sayed’s sister, Eman Abdelhadi, is recorded at the Socialism 2026 conference, held September 4-7 in Chicago, responding to an attendee who described recruiting a nephew to knock doors for El-Sayed’s campaign.
“He got super sketch about it with the whole ‘I’m a capitalist,'” the attendee told Abdelhadi. “I was like, ‘Dude, don’t worry about that. Abdul is not a f**king capitalist.'”
“All we care about is the policies at this point.”
Abdelhadi did not correct the attendee. Instead she reacted with enthusiasm — “Yeah, ohh! Ohhh amazing!” — when told her nephew was door-knocking for the campaign, and agreed that policy was what mattered, not the label.
That directly contradicts what El-Sayed has told Michigan voters. Asked in an interview whether he’s a socialist, he said flatly: “I’m not. I’m a capitalist.”
He went further in a July interview with WJBK: “I’m not a socialist, I’m just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works. The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation, it was always monopoly.” El-Sayed has argued government should rein in monopolies so consumers have more choices and workers aren’t shortchanged.
Yet his platform includes Medicare for All and a call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He has said he is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. His campaign has drawn backing from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Voters can decide for themselves which version of Abdul El-Sayed to believe: the one who tells reporters he’s a capitalist, or the one his sister described to a room full of socialists.
