Abdul El Sayad hired bodyguard due to threats during run for governor

(WJBK) - He finished second in the Democratic race for governor and for the first time Abdul El Sayed is revealing he hired a body guard to ward off death threats that he received while campaigning. 

By most accounts, the first Muslim to run for governor in Michigan really connected with his progressive audiences, but turns out not everyone on the campaign trail was so enthusiastic about his bid for governor.

"People will come up to you and say I hate the way you do this, the fact that you do that, I hate the way your use your hands when you speak," said El Sayed.

In fact, it got so bad that when the death threats came in, he hired a body guard.

"The kind of vile things that I would hear or see, or what I would have directed at me in the mail, by the end of the campaign or in the middle, we had a full time body guard," he said. "Because my life had been threatened so many times."

El Sayed has met with the winner Gretchen Whitmer and while they still have disagreements on some issues, he says he is all in on getting her elected.

He is not nearly as kind during his post-election analysis about Shri Thanedar.

He argues the race would have been different had Thanedar not run, and then he adds this about his opponent.

"I think he is an opportunist and he doesn't have a moral core," said El Sayed.
 
The very lowest point of the campaign? He claims somebody deliberately planted a false story that stop his momentum dead in its tracks - it was suggested that he was not properly registered to be on the ballot.

It took four months to get out from underneath that story, but in the meantime - the money dried up.

"You've got to raise money and we estimated that that attack during the four months we sat under it, costs about $2 million," he said.

The high point of the campaign was when Bernie Sanders rallied with him in Detroit but it was not enough to provide the victory.

So is he done with politics? Nope, he says he will run again for something but will take some time to decide what that will be.

"I’m figuring it out. I will continue to walk the same path I've been walking since I was in college," said El Sayed.

In other words, you have not heard the last of Abdul El Sayed.