MICHIGAN—Abdul El-Sayed says America’s food and water are making people sick.
And he says the people in power who promised to fix it haven’t held up their end of the deal.
The Democrat running for US Senate this week released his new “Building a Healthier America” agenda—a formal plan to ban toxic pesticides, guarantee clean drinking water, and take on the corporations that he blames for creating a national epidemic of chronic disease and cancer.
“Through my time as a public health doctor, I’ve seen the catastrophic consequences of our country’s food safety crisis up close,” El-Sayed said in a statement. “Corporations care more about their bottom line than the health of their consumers. … I will fight to get toxins out of our food, prioritize local farmers over corporate monopolies, and guarantee clean water for all.”
The plan is essentially a direct pitch to Michiganders who backed President Donald Trump in 2024 on promises from US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “Make America Healthy Again”—voters who El-Sayed says have since been sidelined in favor of corporate interests.
“I think they’ve been completely let down and lied to,” El-Sayed told CBS News this week.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved to roll back federal limits on PFAS—also known as “forever chemicals”—in drinking water nationwide. And this year, the administration sided with Monsanto at the US Supreme Court, which ruled in June that people who say the company’s Roundup weedkiller gave them cancer can’t sue under state law.
“Corporate influence pushes the mass production of ultra-processed food and the overuse of pesticides that pollute our water and drive up rates of chronic disease and cancer,” El-Sayed said. “Trump and RFK Jr. have had the chance to act—and instead, they’ve kept protecting the same multinational corporations that pad their profits at the expense of our wallets and health.”
What’s in the plan?
El-Sayed’s “Building a Healthier America” agenda has eight parts.
As Michigan’s next US senator, he says he’d fight to:
- Get toxins out of food by banning pesticides that are already outlawed in Europe and backing federal legislation to ensure manufacturers can be held liable for harm.
- Put farmers first by rehiring the USDA staff that was fired by the Trump administration and shifting farm subsidies to reward soil health and less reliance on chemicals.
- Break up corporate monopolies that inflate prices for seed, fertilizer, and more.
- Protect clean water by restoring and strengthening federal PFAS limits, as well as supporting efforts to replace lead pipes and eliminate microplastics from drinking water.
- Expand healthy school meal programs that are supplied by local farmers.
- Invest in agricultural supply chains and boost demand for healthier, minimally processed food by leveraging the buying power of schools and other public institutions.
- Support healthier food programs that recognize access to fresh food is a key determinant in overall health—like the mobile food market trucks in Wayne County.
- Hold polluters accountable by opposing liability shields for agrochemical and PFAS manufacturers and getting industry lobbyists out of the agencies that regulate them.
Finding common ground
El-Sayed told CBS News that many voters who were drawn to the MAHA movement backed Trump because “a lot of them felt like Democrats weren’t paying enough attention to their fears.”
But there’s one major area where El-Sayed and the movement part ways: vaccines.
Kennedy’s long record of vaccine skepticism has been facing renewed scrutiny this year—especially as the US records its worst year for measles in more than three decades.
El-Sayed said he won’t budge on the science but he doesn’t think that has to be a dealbreaker.
“I will always be evidence-driven when it comes to vaccines,” El-Sayed said. “But the key thing is that you want to know that what you’re feeding your kids and what you’re putting in the body is pure. And RFK Jr. and Donald Trump and Mike Rogers have failed that test in droves.”
Asked whether he’d work with Kennedy in the US Senate, El-Sayed said it would depend on whether the health secretary is willing to take on Big Pharma, Big Ag, and ultra-processed food.
“If he wants to do any of those things, let’s talk about it,” El-Sayed said.
Checking the receipts
Trump and Kennedy aren’t the only ones El-Sayed is calling out this week. He also said his Republican opponent, former US Rep. Mike Rogers, “represents a serious threat to Michiganders’ health” and has “voted against fundamental policies to make our food safe.”
Much of that record dates back to Rogers’ 14 years representing Michigan’s 8th District.
Specifically, Rogers voted against allowing states to enact warning labels for cancer, birth defects, reproductive health issues, and allergic reactions associated with certain foods. He also opposed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to expand federal authority on food recalls.
In a statement, El-Sayed’s campaign also accused Rogers of helping “architect the opioid crisis” during his time in Congress and argued he’d serve as a “yes-man” to Trump in the US Senate.
Food and water safety is one of several health issues dividing the two candidates.
El-Sayed has also made Medicare for All a centerpiece of his campaign, even co-writing a user’s guide to the policy. Rogers’ campaign has attacked that idea, with a spokesperson telling CBS News that El-Sayed wants to “put the government in charge of your healthcare.”
US Sen. Bernie Sanders recently told a national nurses union that if Democrats win back the US Senate, he would likely chair the chamber’s health committee—and that he’d put El-Sayed on it.
“We need his voice as a physician, as a doctor fighting for Medicare for All,” Sanders said.
The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up. It’s the only Democratic-held US Senate seat in the country with that rating, making it one of Republicans’ top targets in November.
Election Day is Nov. 3. Absentee voting is underway. Early in-person voting starts on Oct. 24.
READ MORE: Why is Bernie Sanders backing Will Lawrence for Congress?
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