Abdul El-Sayed rejects ‘socialist’ label, says ‘I’m a capitalist who understands capitalism’

WASHINGTON, DC: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed pushed back directly against Republican efforts to brand him a socialist, saying in a recent interview that he’s a capitalist who believes markets need rules to work right. When asked point-blank if he considers himself a socialist, El-Sayed didn’t flinch.

"I'm not. I'm a capitalist who just understands capitalism," he said.

Pointing to phones, planes and market concentration

El-Sayed grounded his answer in the writings of Adam Smith, the 18th-century economist widely credited as the father of modern capitalism.

"The term capitalism, it was coined by a guy named Adam Smith. And Adam Smith said, 'There is no market without morals,'" El-Sayed said. "He also said that the biggest danger to capitalism was not government regulation; it was monopoly."

El-Sayed made his case with familiar examples of market concentration he claims has entered almost every part of the American economy.

He said, “And you think about all the stuff you got to buy, right? Chances are almost everybody who's listening's got a phone in their pocket. That phone's probably made by one or two manufacturers. Got one of three carriers.”

“Let's say instead of drawing people, you decide you're gonna you're gonna go visit grandma in another state. You're probably flying on one of three carriers, on one of two kinds of planes, Boeing or Airbus. We've got monopolies and oligopolies up and down our economy.”

El-Sayed said true capitalism is simply using supply and demand to allocate scarce resources, a system he supports, but believes has been distorted by corporate consolidation and political influence.

He added, “Capitalism is just using supply and demand to allocate where scarce resources ought to go. I believe in that, but I don't believe that it was intended to allow huge corporations to dominate any given market.”

Part of a broader fight over his political identity

The comments come as El-Sayed, a physician and former Michigan health director who is running for the state’s open Senate seat, has been relentlessly attacked by Republicans and some Democratic critics who have branded him a democratic socialist, a label he has refused to accept throughout the campaign.

“And in the end, I believe in a market, and that's why I believe we got to regulate these corporations and make sure they're not buying politicians,” he said.

That debate over how to define his politics has become a regular flashpoint in the race, with GOP-aligned outlets and strategists repeatedly using the “socialist” label to associate him with the broader leftward movement some Democrats have taken in recent primary contests.

El-Sayed has tried to reframe his platform as pro-competition and anti-monopoly rather than anti-market, portraying himself instead as a critic of corporate consolidation and campaign-finance influence over regulators.