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Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed once called for repealing a Michigan law that made it a felony for people who knew they had HIV to have sex without first informing their partner — a position he is standing by eight years later as he campaigns in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races
As he unsuccessfully ran for Michigan governor in 2018, El-Sayed repeatedly took aim at the law. The law carried a prison sentence of up to four years for people who knew they were HIV-positive and engaged in sexual penetration without first informing their partner of their HIV status.
“You should not be criminalized for a disease. That is absolutely wrong. It’s hateful. It’s discriminatory, and we can, as a state, do better. You can count on me for that,” El-Sayed said as he ran for governor.
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US Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan Abdul El-Sayed speaks with reporters during a Student Meet and Greet at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 26, 2026. (JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP via Getty Images)
Fast-forward eight years and El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and a former health director for Detroit-anchored Wayne County, is battling former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in the midterm race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. The showdown in Michigan is a must hold for the Democrats as they try to win back control of the Senate from the GOP.
As he ran for the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nomination — a contest he lost to now-two-term Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — El-Sayed’s campaign website stated, “Repeal HIV/AIDS criminalization laws and the exclusion of transgender Michiganders from state Medicaid.”
When asked in 2018 if he supported the decriminalization of HIV through legislation that would create two levels of misdemeanors, El-Sayed said at the time, “One of the big things that we have to recognize about HIV is that no disease can be illegal. The continuing forward of these laws on the books stigmatize people with the disease.”
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Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed campaigns at a rally on the campus of Wayne State University July 28, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Whitmer also supported changing the law, which dated to 1988, saying as she ran for governor, “It’s wrong to criminalize sickness, which is what this law has effectively done. It absolutely should be revisited.”
The law was reformed in early 2019. The revised statute limited the felony provisions to vaginal and anal intercourse involving an intent to transmit HIV or cases in which HIV was actually transmitted, reduced certain non-transmission offenses to misdemeanors and protected medically suppressed people from prosecution under the law’s reckless-disregard provision.
“Abdul supports the bipartisan reform bill that passed in 2019 through a Republican legislature that eliminated the discriminatory laws on the books,” campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner told Fox News Digital. “As a public health professional, Abdul has fought to support programs that stem the spread of diseases, including HIV.”
Richner added that “the Trump administration has completely exacerbated this crisis by defunding the organizations and programs that do frontline care to prevent transmission and exposure in the first place. In the US Senate, Abdul will fight back against Donald Trump and RFK Jr’s attempts to dismantle our public health infrastructure and ensure all Americans have access to the care they need.”
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Republican Senate nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan stands for a Fox News Digital interview, on August 2, 2026 in Farmington Hills, Michigan (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
El-Sayed also stands by his past comments on fighting discrimination aimed at those with HIV.
Last week, as he landed an endorsement from the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ advocacy group, El-Sayed highlighted that if elected to the Senate, “I’ll fight to ensure every Michigander can live without discrimination and never have to wonder whether their rights will still be there tomorrow.”
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El-Sayed, who narrowly edged more moderate Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens in August in a contentious primary that further exposed the rift between the party’s left-wing and establishment factions, would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected.
He has made support for “Medicare for all” a major component of his campaign. El-Sayed has also called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has been a vocal critic of Israel during its war against Hamas, characterizing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” against Palestinians.