El-Sayed may be 'full-blown communist' despite socialist denial: top Republican

Michigan’s highest-ranking House Republican is crying foul on Abdul El-Sayed's claim that he is not a socialist.

"If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck," House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital.

"So maybe he's not a socialist.

Maybe he's a full-blown communist." El-Sayed, a former public health official, scored an upset victory for Democrats' leftmost flank in Michigan's Senate primary earlier this month.

He defeated Rep.

Haley Stevens, D-Mich., a House lawmaker who was heavily favored by the Democratic establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

It was part of a larger wave of victories by candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), several of whom have toppled sitting House Democratic lawmakers in primaries in New York and Colorado in addition to Michigan.

2026 MIDTERMS STATE OF PLAY: KEY RACES UNFOLD AS STEVENS, EL-SAYED BATTLE IN MICHIGAN And while El-Sayed himself is not a DSA member, some of the biggest names to campaign alongside him — including Sen.

Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep.

Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. — are self-proclaimed democratic socialists.

El-Sayed told CBS News in an interview posted to YouTube last week that he was working on building a broad coalition that included supporters of President Donald Trump as well as DSA members, even though he is neither.

"Folks who come here, like, with two weeks left in the election, really, really want to label me a socialist.

I don't know why, except for maybe it fits into a nice telling of a broader national story.