Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed once called for repealing a Michigan law that made it a felony for people who knew they had HIV to have sex without first informing their partner — a position he is standing by eight years later as he campaigns in one of the nation's most competitive Senate racesAs he unsuccessfully ran for Michigan governor in 2018, El-Sayed repeatedly took aim at the law.The law carried a prison sentence of up to four years for people who knew they were HIV-positive and engaged in sexual penetration without first informing their partner of their HIV status."You should not be criminalized for a disease.
That is absolutely wrong.It’s hateful.
It’s discriminatory, and we can, as a state, do better.You can count on me for that," El-Sayed said as he ran for governor.MICHIGAN STUDENT CONFRONTS EL-SAYED OVER IRAN STANCEUS Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan Abdul El-Sayed speaks with reporters during a Student Meet and Greet at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 26, 2026.
(JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP via Getty Images)Fast-forward eight years and El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and a former health director for Detroit-anchored Wayne County, is battling former Republican Rep.Mike Rogers in the midterm race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen.
Gary Peters.The showdown in Michigan is a must hold for the Democrats as they try to win back control of the Senate from the GOP.As he ran for the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nomination — a contest he lost to now-two-term Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer — El-Sayed's campaign website stated, "Repeal HIV/AIDS criminalization laws and the exclusion of transgender Michiganders from state Medicaid."When asked in 2018 if he supported the decriminalization of HIV through legislation that would create two levels of misdemeanors, El-Sayed said at the time, "One of the big things that we have to recognize about HIV is that no disease can be illegal.The continuing forward of these laws on the books st...