With Michigan voters set to decide a critical U.S. Senate race by Tuesday, Nov. 3, South Side Chicago pastor Corey Brooks has published a sharply worded critique of Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, accusing him of repeating what Brooks calls decades-old “liberal condescension” toward Black Americans.
El-Sayed, a progressive running for the Senate seat, has called for Medicare for All and the abolition of ICE, and counts Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez among his supporters. He describes himself as a capitalist, not a socialist, and has not been formally endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
Brooks notes, however, that El-Sayed spoke at six DSA chapter events between 2017 and 2020, including the keynote address at a 2019 fundraiser, and that Detroit DSA has referred to him as “a longtime friend of Detroit DSA.” Roughly 50 DSA members reportedly traveled from New York to canvass for El-Sayed ahead of the primary.
El-Sayed lost Detroit in the August primary. Since then, he has visited Black churches, appeared alongside Black pastors, and released a policy agenda for Black communities covering housing timelines, minority business loans and school repairs.
‘Unpaid Debts’ Comment Draws Criticism
In September, speaking to a room of female faith leaders in Detroit, El-Sayed said: “When it comes to Black communities in Michigan, when it comes to Black communities in America, there are unpaid debts that have long since come due that we are unwilling to acknowledge, let alone pay down.”
Brooks, founder of Project H.O.O.D., a Chicago organization focused on job training and mentorship, argues that language casts Black Americans as a dependent class rather than emphasizing personal responsibility and accountability. He points to statistics showing the share of Black children born to unmarried mothers rose from 23.6% in 1963 to 69% in 2023, and attributes part of that shift to Great Society-era welfare policies he says discouraged marriage and work.
DSA Platform Cited
Brooks also highlights positions taken by the DSA, which campaigned for El-Sayed even without formally endorsing him. The organization’s 2026 program, “Workers Deserve More,” calls for abolishing the Senate and the Electoral College and replacing the presidency and Supreme Court with “an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” A 2021 DSA convention resolution stated the United States “has never been and will never be a force for liberation,” and DSA National Political Committee member Amy Wilhelm has said the role of socialists is “to facilitate the defeat of our own nation.”
El-Sayed has not signed on to that platform and has instead proposed ending the Senate filibuster.
Family Ties Questioned
Brooks’s piece also revisits allegations about El-Sayed’s family background. In 2012, El-Sayed’s half-sister wrote online about
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