Abdul El-Sayed Vilified Beloved American Holiday, Pushed For Day Of Reparations Instead

Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed once said that one of America’s favorite holidays should be a day for “reparations.” 

El-Sayed argued on Thanksgiving Day in 2019 that the United States was built on the “systematic annihilation” of American Indians and said they should be given reparations. The anti-Thanksgiving post resurfaced as the Michigan Democrat faces questions about his calls to cancel Fourth of July fireworks, hatred for Mackinac Island, and “toxic” masculinity critique of football. 

“Just a reminder this #Thanksgiving. This country was built on the systematic annihilation of Indigenous Peoples, whose ancestors suffer some of the highest rates of homelessness, joblessness, and mortality today,” El-Sayed posted. “We owe so much more than ‘thanks.’ Time for Reparations.” 

He replied to the post to clarify that he meant to say “descendants” instead of “ancestors.” 

El-Sayed deleted the post at some point, but not before it was archived online. The post was first reported by The Washington Free Beacon in May 2026. El-Sayed has scrubbed numerous posts and videos as he gears up for what is expected to be a tight race against Republican Mike Rogers. 

His reparations proposal mirrors comments made by Thanksgiving-hater Francesca Hong, who narrowly lost her bid to be the Democrat gubernatorial nominee in Wisconsin on Tuesday. She pushed for Thanksgiving to be canceled in a November 2020 social media post and struggled to explain her stance in subsequent interviews on the campaign trail.

“Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621,” she said at the time. “If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed indigenous folx [sic] and women, so be it.”

Conservative commenters pointed out that El-Sayed’s anti-Thanksgiving message was posted even before Hong posted her thoughts on it.

“Not for nothing but the dream of killing Thanksgiving was alive and well in Abdul El-Sayed long before Hong came along,” said Scott Jennings. 

The Thanksgiving post was not the only time El-Sayed has argued in favor of reparations.

“I believe we owe it to engage in reparations. … There are so many ways in which we need to have a conversation about reparations. We need to invest in reparations. We need reparations in this country,” he said in a campaign stop in a video posted by The Gander.

Other posts deleted by El-Sayed include comments in which he argued for defunding the police, suggested the Second Amendment should be traded out for the “right to have health care,” and that “fireworks suck.” He also attacked Michigan’s beloved Mackinac Island and claimed football was a breeding ground for “toxic masculinity.”