HRC Endorses Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's US Senate Race
The LGBTQ+ civil rights group says the contest could help decide control of Congress
The Human Rights Campaign PAC has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's U.S. Senate race, calling the Detroit Democrat a "pro-equality champion" in a press release announcing the endorsement Sept. 17.
HRC President Kelley Robinson frames the race as pivotal for LGBTQ+ Michiganders and for Congress overall, given that LGBTQ+ adults make up nearly 11% of the state's population, according to HRC Foundation population data. She says a win for El-Sayed is essential to building a pro-equality majority capable of pushing back against the Trump administration.
It's a role El-Sayed has been building toward publicly for months. When Pride Source sat down with him over the summer, the physician and former Detroit and Wayne County health director laid out exactly what he'd bring to the Senate on LGBTQ+ issues. "I want the community to know that I intend to be a lion for rights," he said. "When somebody's coming for you, I intend to stand in the cut to protect you."
He was direct about trans rights too, telling Pride Source he had noticed some longtime allies going quiet. "There's a reason that if I'm asked, I always say that I support trans rights because I believe in all rights," he said. "I want folks to see their own rights in the plight of a trans person who's being discriminated against."
The HRC endorsement notes that while El-Sayed served as health director for Detroit, he partnered with LGBT Detroit to expand affirming public health services and led the city’s Ryan White HIV program, a connection he also raised with Pride Source, saying the goal was making sure health services were "as open, inviting, accepting and empowering as possible." He's pledged to restore federal HIV and PrEP funding cut under the Trump administration and refuses corporate PAC money.
"LGBTQ+ Michiganders deserve leaders who will have their backs when it matters most, not just when it's politically convenient," El-Sayed says in the HRC release.
In November, the former health director will face former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, whose voting record HRC lays out with citations to congressional records. Rogers voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and against marriage equality on multiple occasions. In a 2006 interview with Lansing City Pulse, Rogers said he'd call being gay a "lifestyle choice," even for one of his own children, and that he'd still have voted for Michigan's same-sex marriage ban. He added that his position "doesn't mean I would have loved my children any less at all," but said moving what he called a lifestyle choice "into the public arena, into the courtroom" had ramifications he didn't support. HRC's Congressional Scorecard gave Rogers a zero every year he served.
Michigan has more than 2.4 million Equality Voters, the bloc HRC defines as unified around LGBTQ+ rights regardless of party. The organization has invested heavily in the state in past cycles and says it's going "all in" for El-Sayed ahead of November.
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