Who is Said, the young politician running to become the first Muslim senator in the United States?

Like my cousins, I was supposed to be a taxi driver in Egypt, but in a historical accident, my father immigrated to Detroit (in the United States) and I became known as an American.

Abdul El Said, who has suddenly sparked discussion in US politics in early August after securing the Democratic nomination from the state of Michigan, told his supporters about his family's past in his victory speech.

He is not the only one who is being talked about because of his Egyptian immigrant parents or because he is a Muslim politician. Analysts believe that the political commitment of this former public health official, his anti-Israel stance and his demand to end American funding of the militaries of various countries have played an important role in making him a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Michigan.

His campaign slogan was Money Out of Politics, Money in Your Pocket, Healthcare for All - that is, taking money out of politics and putting it back in the hands of the people and making healthcare accessible to the general public.

At the same time, by criticizing President Trump's policies, he has attracted voters who are angry with Trump's first two years of his second term.

In addition, his opposition to US funding of any country's military, including Israel, has also made him popular among his supporters. He has criticized funding the Israeli military as "the worst use of our tax dollars."

Surprisingly, he did not receive the support of the central leaders of his own party in the race for the Democratic Party nomination in the state of Michigan. For this reason, he is called an "outsider".

El Said, who follows leftist ideology, has been supported in the election by leaders of leftist ideology such as Democratic Party's Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Osorio-Cortez.

In the US midterm elections in November, Abdul El Said will compete with Republican Party's Mike Rogers, who is known to be close to Trump, for the Michigan state senator position.

And if he wins that election, he will become the first Muslim senator in US history.

How he rose to politics

Although the forty-one-year-old El Said is called an outsider in US politics, his first active participation in mainstream politics was seen in 2018, during the Michigan state gubernatorial election.

At that time, he lost the gubernatorial election, but he received more than 30 percent of the total vote. In that election too, his main agenda was to ensure healthcare and eliminate the financing of capitalist institutions from politics.

However, it is believed that El Said's initial inspiration for entering politics came in 2007, when he met former US President Bill Clinton.

In April of that year, Abdel El Said delivered the valedictorian speech at the University of Michigan's commencement ceremony in the presence of the chief guest, Bill Clinton. After his speech, Bill Clinton praised his speech in front of the guests during his own speech.

Later, Mr. Clinton met him separately and praised him.

Ten years later, in 2017, Abdel El Said announced that he would run for governor of Michigan. He left his job as director of the Detroit, Michigan, Department of Public Health to run in that election.

When El Said became director of the Detroit Department of Public Health in 2015, at the age of 30, he was the youngest person to hold such a position in a major US city. During his time in office, he took popular measures such as reducing infant mortality, providing free glasses to students and testing lead levels in hundreds of schools.

At that time, El Said also received widespread support from the Muslim community in the United States.

He came into the spotlight again after announcing his candidacy for the Michigan primary election in April of this year.

In this election campaign, El Said has presented himself as a labor leader who wants to confront corporations, who is vocal against pro-Israeli financiers and leaders who believe in party politics.

And because of this stance, Donald Trump has criticized him as an "anti-Semite". After Abdul El Said won the Democratic nomination in the state of Michigan, Trump said, "This man (El Said) does not love Jews, he does not love Israel, he hates them." El Said, however, has responded to this criticism on several occasions.

When asked what he thinks about the Jews in his constituency, he has repeatedly said that he wants to provide them with the same level of security as he wants to provide for his two daughters.

How he came to the discussion

According to analysts, the main role behind the Democrats' victory in the Michigan primary election was played by the differences in the two candidates' proposed policies on the Israel issue.

El Said was vocal against US intervention in the Middle East and funding for Israel. While some sections of Michigan's Jewish community supported him for his stance on US-Israel relations, others opposed him.

On the other hand, a large part of the election funding for his opponent, Hayley Stevens, came from the pro-Israel American government organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Ms Stevens herself believes that the US should continue to support Israel without any conditions.

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