Politics · Michigan Senate · October 14, 2026

Abdul El-Sayed Called Mohamed Soltan “My Friend” in a 2021 Post. Soltan’s Group Has Since Given $50,000 to a Michigan Super PAC.

In October 2021, Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed (D), now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, wrote on his Substack that an Egyptian prison had held “my friend Mohamed Soltan, an American citizen.” The Washington Free Beacon reported on Oct. 14 that the post has since been taken down or made private, and that Soltan was jailed in a case tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Free Beacon’s headline sounds bigger than the post. The one sentence about Soltan does not mention the Brotherhood, or funding, or any charge. What is documented is narrower, and stranger: a friendship, a 2015 Egyptian sentence, and FEC records that show money from Soltan’s organization flowing to a Michigan super PAC.

2 × $25,000 — contributions to Fighting for Michigan PAC from the American Committee for Middle East Rights, received June 12 and Aug. 31, 2026 · Source: FEC filings
Life sentence — handed to Soltan, then 27, by an Egyptian court on Apr. 11, 2015, on terrorism-related charges including belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood · Source: NBC News
49–48 — El-Sayed over former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) in an Oct. 6 YouGov poll of likely voters, inside the margin of error · Source: Political Wire
No response — from El-Sayed or Soltan to the Free Beacon's requests for comment at publication · Source: Washington Free Beacon

§ 01 / What the Post Actually Says

The post, titled “The hypocrisy of police rejecting vaccine requirements,” is preserved in an Internet Archive capture from November 2022. It is an argument about police unions and vaccine mandates. One sentence reads: “Go to Egypt, where the personal whims of a dictator may mean you’ll find yourself in the bowels of an Egyptian prison, as happened to my friend Mohamed Soltan, an American citizen.”

That is the entire reference. The Free Beacon describes the post as deleted or set to private; we could not independently confirm its current status, only the archived text. The Free Beacon’s characterization of Soltan as jailed for funding the Brotherhood is the outlet’s framing of his case, not language from El-Sayed.

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§ 02 / Who Mohamed Soltan Is

Soltan is a U.S. citizen and the son of Salah Soltan, a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, per the Free Beacon. He was arrested in Cairo in 2013 after the security forces’ dispersal of a sit-in, and NBC reported he was shot there. On Apr. 11, 2015, a court sentenced him to life on terrorism-related charges including belonging to the now-banned Brotherhood and spreading false news. His family called the trial unjust. Soltan wrote in a 2019 New York Times op-ed that he is “not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” the Free Beacon reports.

Cartoon satire: a heavy iron cell door with a small barred window in a stone hallway, a blank sheet of paper slid under it, and a folded blank letter resting on a long wooden bench in a shaft of light — A cell door and an unsent letter. We did not find a published Egyptian court ruling to cite for Soltan's case.

In 2020 Soltan sued Egypt’s former prime minister, Hazem el-Beblawy, in U.S. court over alleged torture, Human Rights Watch reported. The sentence is a matter of record; the underlying conduct is an allegation made by Egyptian prosecutors.

§ 03 / The Money, From the FEC

The Daily Wire reported on Aug. 25 that Soltan leads the American Committee for Middle East Rights, or ACMER, and that it gave to a super PAC backing El-Sayed. FEC data confirm the transfers: ACMER gave Fighting for Michigan PAC (committee C00919373) $25,000 on June 12 and another $25,000 on Aug. 31. The second gift was not in the Free Beacon or Daily Wire reports.

Super PACs are legally barred from coordinating with candidates, so the gifts do not by themselves show El-Sayed asked for them. The Daily Wire also reported Soltan gave the maximum individual contribution to the campaign in April; FEC data show receipts from Soltan, but we did not match each to a committee, so we do not repeat that figure.

Jewish Insider — El-Sayed declined to answer when asked about Muslim Brotherhood

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§ 04 / The Response, and the Race

El-Sayed has denied Brotherhood ties. After Rogers raised them in a debate, El-Sayed said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” per Jewish Insider, “the only reason he said those things is because he really wanted to repeat the word Muslim.” Bridge Michigan’s fact check found no evidence El-Sayed has Brotherhood ties or pledged support to it. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has accused him of such links at a Senate hearing, per JNS. Separately, the Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed’s half-sister wrote in 2012, “My family has long been MB,” and that the campaign did not respond.

The stakes are real. On Jan. 13, 2026, Treasury and State designated Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations; the Egyptian and Jordanian chapters were designated for material support to Hamas, per Treasury. Michigan votes on Nov. 3, and the race is a statistical tie.

What We Do Not Know

Whether the Substack post was deleted, or only made private.

Whether El-Sayed knew about, or solicited, the ACMER donations.

Whether Soltan holds any current Brotherhood affiliation; his case rests on a 2015 Egyptian court.

“Go to Egypt, where the personal whims of a dictator may mean you'll find yourself in the bowels of an Egyptian prison, as happened to my friend Mohamed Soltan, an American citizen.”
Abdul El-Sayed, Substack, October 2021, via Internet Archive

The bottom line: the documented record shows a friendship, an Egyptian sentence from 2015, and $50,000 in FEC-confirmed gifts from Soltan’s organization to a super PAC. It does not show that El-Sayed supports the Brotherhood, which he denies. Voters can weigh the connections on those terms.