The Michigan Democrat is struggling to attract black voters in the high-stakes primary, and is also dogged by allegations of workplace sexism
As Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed celebrates “Black Women’s Equal Pay Day” this week, records show the left-wing Democrat’s salary as health director of Wayne County—which includes all of majority-black Detroit—far surpassed his predecessor and successor, both of whom are black women.
El-Sayed asserted in social media posts Tuesday that “black women have to work an extra 7 months to earn what white men earn in a year,” citing a disputed claim from the left-wing Economic Policy Institute. “Equal work deserves equal pay,” wrote El-Sayed, with the hashtag “BlackWomensEqualPayDay.”
Unmentioned is that El-Sayed was on the positive end of a gender and race pay gap when he served as director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services.
El-Sayed was hired to the position in March 2023 at a salary of $200,000 plus benefits and “paid parking,” according to Wayne County commission records, and he appears to have gotten a raise. El-Sayed disclosed a salary of $278,939 from Wayne County in his financial disclosure in June 2025.
El-Sayed’s replacement, Kennyle Johnson, a black woman, earned far less. Johnson was hired in November 2025 at a salary of $180,000 plus benefits, records show. Johnson had served as El-Sayed’s chief of staff at the health agency.
El-Sayed’s predecessor, Melita Jordan, was hired at a salary of $180,000 on May 3, 2021, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jordan is also black.
El-Sayed’s “equal pay” post comes as he has both struggled to woo black voters—a critical constituency in the looming Democratic primary—and faced allegations of misogynistic rhetoric. Rep. Haley Stevens (D., Mich.), El-Sayed’s primary challenger, leads El-Sayed among black voters by 46 points, according to a recent poll. The Congressional Black Caucus and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.), an influential black Democrat, recently endorsed Stevens. El-Sayed is bolstered by Michigan’s large Arab community.
Groups supporting Stevens have accused El-Sayed of anti-woman remarks and “sexist attacks” on Stevens, following widespread mockery of her comportment by El-Sayed’s supporters. El-Sayed himself said Stevens was “unable to string together two coherent sentences.” He later called publicly for his supporters to stop making fun of her.
And in 2019, eight former El-Sayed colleagues at a New York City medical school filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit that alleged El-Sayed told an older female colleague he did not want to work with “anyone over 40,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
El-Sayed has landed endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), and other high-profile leftists, thanks in part to his staunch anti-Israel views. El-Sayed also has broad support in Dearborn, a heavily Muslim enclave in Wayne County that has been called the “Jihad Capital of America” because of the heavy concentration of Islamic clerics and community leaders who support terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
El-Sayed’s campaign and the Wayne County Health Department did not respond to requests for comment.
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