Anti-Billionaire Leftist Candidate Ranks In State’s Top 1%

Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Michigan Senate hopeful, just revealed he is in the top 1% of the state’s wealthiest earners.

This comes after El-Sayed faced pressure from his Democratic primary opponent, Haley Stevens, to keep his promise of transparency and release his tax filings before the primary election, Wood TV, an NBC affiliate, reported.

According to El-Sayed’s 2025 partial tax release, he and his wife reported $130,749 in wages, $262,299 in capital gains, and $292,881 in “additional income.” This totals to an adjusted gross income of $675,246. 

This adjusted gross income puts him well above the threshold of $611,000 to be in Michigan’s top 1%, according to Axios.

The partial release does not disclose all his streams of income. Additionally, his net worth is not disclosed, though it is estimated to lie between $580,000 and $1.7 million.

El-Sayed’s campaign said that the capital gains come from the sale of a house El-Sayed’s in-laws have bought for him and his wife, along with El-Sayed’s little-known podcast America Dissected and his wife’s psychiatry practice, Mind Work Psychiatry.

El-Sayed claimed the delay in the release of his tax filings was not to try to conceal financial records, but that “my wife and her family own property abroad, so getting all those tax forms is a thing,” The Washington Free Beacon reported.

El-Sayed previously stated that he had a “mundane,” “standard” tax return. However, El-Sayed has previously let slip that his wealth situation differs from that of many in his state.

In an interview, El-Sayed affirmed that he is most likely a millionaire, saying that his and his wife’s combined assets would “add up to something like that,” but insisted, “My career has never been about trying to maximize on money.”

On his website, El-Sayed describes himself as a physician who moved into politics and says he “is fighting for an economy that works for everyone” and “healthcare for all” and that he will fight against Trump’s billionaire friends.

Though El-Sayed has distanced himself from Democratic Socialism, he has gained the support of democratic socialists, including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, according to The National Review.

El-Sayed has recently been under fire for other issues. The Washington Free Beacon exposed El-Sayed’s wife for not accepting Medicare or any other insurance for her psychiatry work, even though one of El-Sayed’s major party platforms is “Medicare for All.”

The primary between Stevens and El-Sayed will take place on August 4, and the winner will face Republican Mike Rogers in November for the Senate seat of retiring Democrat Senator Gary Peters.