WASHINGTON – 314 Action Fund, a group working to elect Democratic scientists, on Tuesday endorsed Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, handing the progressive hopeful another win in his hotly debated primary race against moderate Rep. Haley Stevens.“We’re proud to endorse Abdul for the U.S. Senate and look forward to supporting his campaign,” Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, told HuffPost in a statement.“As an epidemiologist and a doctor, Abdul El-Sayed saw firsthand how broken the healthcare system was and how broken policies are making Michiganders sick,” Naughton said. “He’s already proven he can make change—as a public servant, Abdul secured free glasses for kids, removed lead from Detroit’s elementary schools and spearheaded a program that will cancel up to $700 million in medical debt for 300,000 Michiganders.”“As Trump and Republicans gut Medicaid, SNAP, and public health programs, we need new, bold, progressive leaders like Abdul working to create systemic change,” she added. “He has the vision, grassroots support, and proven experience to win.”El-Sayed is a natural pick for 314 Action. The group is on a mission to elect 100 new doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals to public office by 2030.“I never planned on getting into politics, but when I realized that our healthcare system set Americans up to fail, I had to make a change,” El-Sayed said in a statement. “The reality is that too many working families are facing impossible decisions that are sometimes life or death. Michiganders deserve better. I’m proud to have 314 Action’s support in this fight and I look forward to working with them in Congress.”314 Action Fund has endorsed Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.via Associated PressA political newcomer, El-Sayed is at the center of a Democratic intra-party fight over whether a staunchly progressive candidate like him – he supports Medicare for All, abolishing ICE and cutting off funding to Israel – can win over enough moderate voters in November to defeat the Republican nominee, Rep. Mike Rogers.The party’s establishment is backing Stevens, a centrist candidate who has benefitted from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spending millions of dollars on ads supporting her campaign and attacking El-Sayed. But the idea that she’s the most electable contender in the August 4th primary doesn’t really line up when El-Sayed is leading in virtually all of the latest public polls.Mallory McMorrow, a former candidate in Michigan’s Senate Democratic primary race, previously accused El-Sayed of overstating his medical credentials, something he’s made central to his campaign.“The truth is he never held a medical license, never did his residency, never passed the boards, and never practiced medicine independently,” McMorrow spokesperson Hannah Lindow said in a May statement, before McMorrow dropped out of the race. “If Michigan voters can’t trust El-Sayed to be honest about something that is so central to his entire rationale for running, how can they trust him to be honest about what he’d do as a United States Senator?”On Tuesday, Naughton dismissed that line of attack, saying El-Sayed is a doctor and that voters have made it clear they trust medical professionals. She cited a 2024 Pew Research study that found 76% of Americans express a great deal or fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests.“Research confirms voters overwhelmingly trust doctors to make healthcare policies, not career politicians. This is a healthcare election and it’s more important than ever to elect the first Democratic doctor to the U.S. Senate in nearly 60 years,” she told HuffPost. “Michiganders are looking for solutions, not a fight over semantics and Abdul has the right prescription for America.”Related2026 electionsAbdul El-SayedPolitical endorsement314 Action Fund