Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has criticized “greedy landlords” and proposed cracking down on corporate ownership of housing, owns three rental properties with his wife, including two overseas properties inherited through her family.
Financial disclosures show the couple’s three rental properties are valued at up to $1 million, with two located in Dubai and India and another in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
El-Sayed said the Dubai and India properties were inherited from his wife’s parents and are jointly owned by family members. Together the two properties are valued at up to $500,000 and each generate up to $15,000 in annual rental income, according to his financial disclosures. The couple’s Ann Arbor rental property is also valued at up to $500,000 and generates up to $15,000 annually.
When questioned about the foreign rental properties, El-Sayed suggested racism could be at play.
“People that pay attention to properties that literally my wife’s family inherited and put in their and all of their kids’ names and then sold. … I wonder why they are so focused on foreign properties for somebody with a name like mine. Do you think it might fit within a well-worn trope? I don’t know,” he said.
Despite earning rental income himself, El-Sayed has criticized “greedy landlords” while campaigning on a housing platform that would crack down on corporate ownership of housing.
Financial disclosures also show El-Sayed and his wife earned $686,069 in 2025, placing them among the top 1% of Michigan’s highest earners. His campaign website argues that “extreme wealth is an existential threat to our economy and our democracy and it demands a crisis-level response.”
Asked whether he considered himself a millionaire, El-Sayed responded, “Well, if you take my assets and her, my wife’s assets together, then I guess they add up to something like that,” El-Sayed said in late June. “But my career has never been about trying to maximize on money. Otherwise, I would have just gone and been a surgeon.”
Recently, he argued he had no problem with millionaires, just billionaires.
“So a lot of folks are like, ‘Well, Abdul, you know, you just don’t want people to get rich.’ No! I don’t begrudge anyone their millions,” El-Sayed said at a campaign event. “But I do begrudge everyone their billions.” The campaign event was with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
El-Sayed has spoken at multiple Democratic Socialists of America events over the years, though he denies being a member or a socialist. The group argues that workers create economic value while corporate owners capture an outsized share of the profits. The organization has backed significantly higher taxes on top earners, including a 70% marginal income tax rate on earnings above $10 million — a proposal that Ocasio-Cortez has also championed.
El-Sayed supports aggressive tax policies of his own, with his campaign website stating he supports taxing long-term capital gains over $1 million at the same rate as ordinary income. The tax code taxes all capital gains held longer than a year at a maximum of 20%. El-Sayed’s new tax rate would follow the marginal income tax rate — even rising as high as 70% if the Democratic Socialists of America succeed in changing the tax code.
Capital gains taxes had the same top tax rate as ordinary income in 1988, 1989, and 2000. Supporters of lower capital gains taxes argue higher taxes disincentivize investment while lower taxes encourage investment, leading to economic growth.
.png)
.png)
