Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s 2026 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, is again facing scrutiny over comments he made during his unsuccessful 2018 campaign for governor about the state’s HIV specific criminal law. Fox News revived the issue on September 25, but the underlying record is more nuanced than a simple claim that he wanted to “abolish penalties.”
In a 2017 PrideSource report, El-Sayed said the law should “absolutely” be repealed and argued that people should not be criminalized for having a disease. In a separate 2018 interview, when asked about state lawmaker Jon Hoadley’s reform proposal, El-Sayed said he supported it and added that “no disease can be illegal.” At the time, Michigan law allowed felony prosecution of a person who knew they had HIV and engaged in legally defined sexual penetration without first informing a partner.
What the old law did, and what changed
The former statute did not expressly require prosecutors to prove an intent to infect or that transmission actually occurred. A conviction could carry up to four years in prison. In December 2018, after that year’s election, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bipartisan rewrite that took effect in March 2019.
The current law is narrower. It treats specific intent to infect as a felony; reckless undisclosed conduct that results in HIV transmission can also be a felony; and reckless conduct without transmission is a misdemeanor. The statute also says a person following medical treatment and meeting accepted standards for viral suppression is not acting with reckless disregard for purposes of the provision.
What the current dispute is about
The renewed campaign argument is not whether intentional infection can carry legal consequences. It is about whether criminal liability should be tied to HIV status and nondisclosure without considering intent, transmission risk and modern treatment. El-Sayed’s campaign now says he supports the bipartisan reform that Michigan ultimately enacted. The reviewed sources do not support the claim that he sought to legalize intentional HIV transmission.
