Abdul El-Sayed, who has drawn endorsements from far-left figures, quietly scrubbed a series of social media posts from 2020 and 2021 that backed the “defund the police” movement, and that choice has become a live political issue as he vies for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan. His past posts and comments track with a moment when anti-police rhetoric roiled national debate after George Floyd’s death, and they invite scrutiny from voters who want public safety taken seriously. The campaign insists El-Sayed has worked with law enforcement and learned from those experiences, but the deleted posts and old statements keep raising questions about judgment and priorities.
El-Sayed’s deleted posts included blunt critiques of policing funding and practice that were posted amid the 2020 unrest. Those messages reflected a broader left-wing argument that cities spend too much on policing and too little on social services, a line that has become toxic to many voters who prioritize safety. The removals now read like political damage control rather than repentance, especially to conservative and swing voters watching the Michigan contest closely.
Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty,” El-Sayed wrote in a June 2020 post on X, then-Twitter, just several weeks after the death of George Floyd. “Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about.
— Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) June 2020
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Another post from the same period took an even sharper tone about police power and tilt toward a radical critique of institutions. Those lines landed in a moment when many voters were unsettled by talk of shrinking police budgets and by rhetoric that painted officers as enemies of the communities they serve. For a statewide race in Michigan, those comments can be political poison for anyone who wants to present a practical plan for law and order.
“The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people,” El-Sayed said in a separate post on social media from around the same time.
— Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) June 2020
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Supporters on the left have leaned into El-Sayed’s progressive brand, with prominent endorsements from representatives of the far left and from self-described democratic socialists. Those alliances signal his ideological direction, and opponents on the right are already using the deleted posts to paint a picture of a candidate out of step with mainstream voters. In a state that values safety and practical governance, those attacks can resonate hard at the ballot box.
The campaign responded by pointing to El-Sayed’s time in local government and his work with law enforcement to fix a juvenile detention facility and raise wages for officers. One campaign release insisted that “On his third week as Wayne County’s Health Officer, Dr. El-Sayed declared a public health emergency at the Juvenile Detention Facility, working alongside law enforcement to fully rebuild it from the studs, raising officers’ wages by 35% and funding a safer, more humane system.” That line is meant to show partnership rather than confrontation.
Still, voters hear a contrast: scrubbed tweets carrying radical slogans versus campaign statements about collaboration and endorsement lists. The tension is real for swing voters who want both safer streets and smarter services. Republican strategists will frame the deletions as evidence a far-left candidate knows his record will not survive scrutiny in a general election.
The Michigan race is crowded on the Democratic side, with several well-known names running and Republicans eyeing the seat as winnable. National attention to similar races elsewhere, where candidates were forced to apologize for past anti-police comments, shows how damaging this can be when opponents pound the message. In that context, past statements that went beyond policy critique and into blanket condemnation of police are hard to spin away.
Voters deserve to see a clear record and to hear straightforward answers about law enforcement and public safety priorities. El-Sayed’s deleted remarks and his alliances with high-profile progressive backers make that transparency question unavoidable. For those who value community safety and practical solutions, the episode is a reminder to demand clarity from every candidate on how they will protect citizens while improving services.
“I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers, and I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day,” Mamdani added.
