Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is standing by his long-held call to repeal a Michigan law that once made it a felony for people who knew they had HIV to have sex without first disclosing their status to their partner. He made the position clear eight years ago and continues to defend it as he campaigns in one of the country’s most competitive Senate contests.
During his unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Michigan governor, El-Sayed repeatedly criticized the statute.
At the time, the law allowed for 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.
“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 during his gubernatorial campaign.
Eight years later, El-Sayed — an epidemiologist and former health director of Detroit-based Wayne County — is facing former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Michigan’s Senate contest is a critical hold for Democrats as they seek to regain control of the chamber from Republicans.
While pursuing the 2018 Democratic nomination for governor — a primary he lost to now two-term Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — El-Sayed’s campaign website called for the repeal of “HIV/AIDS criminalization laws and the exclusion of transgender Michiganders from state Medicaid.”
Asked in 2018 whether he supported legislation that would decriminalize HIV by establishing two levels of misdemeanors, El-Sayed said, “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.”
Whitmer also backed changes to the law, which had been on the books since 1988. During her own campaign for governor, she said, “It’s wrong to criminalize sickness, which is what this law has effectively done. It absolutely should be revisited.”
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The statute was overhauled in early 2019 after a Republican-controlled legislature approved the changes with broad bipartisan support.
The revised law limited felony charges to vaginal or anal intercourse involving an intent to transmit HIV, or situations in which transmission actually occurred. It also reduced certain offenses that did not involve transmission to misdemeanors and shielded people whose HIV was medically suppressed from prosecution under the 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 also said 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.”
El-Sayed continues to stand by his earlier calls to combat discrimination against people living with HIV.
Last week, after receiving an endorsement from the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ advocacy organization, El-Sayed said 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.”
El-Sayed narrowly defeated more moderate Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens in August in a contentious primary that underscored the divide between the party’s progressive and establishment wings. If elected, he would become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history.
A central part of his campaign is his support for “Medicare for all.”
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.