Abdul El-Sayed Billed County Taxpayers $9,000 a Month in ‘Consulting’ Fees While Running for Senate.
On April 3, 2025, Abdul El-Sayed (D) stepped down as director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. Two weeks later he announced a run for the U.S. Senate. Six days after that, according to county records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the same department approved a contract to pay him for “consulting services.”
The terms: $9,000 a month for 30 hours of work, through the end of 2025, for up to $72,000. El-Sayed is now the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, and the contract is a documented example of a candidate’s exit from a public job followed within weeks by a paid contract from the same department.
- $72,000 the most the Wayne County contract authorized, at $9,000 a month for eight months — Washington Free Beacon
- ~$300 an hour the implied rate: $9,000 a month for 30 hours of work — Washington Free Beacon
- 6 days between El-Sayed's Senate launch (April 17, 2025) and the contract's approval (April 23, 2025) — Free Beacon, Michigan Advance
- $407,000 total earned income on El-Sayed's Senate financial disclosure, including $72,000 from Wayne County — The Detroit News
The sequence is short and well documented. El-Sayed resigned the county post on April 3, 2025 after two years in the job, saying he was weighing a Senate bid, Michigan Public reported. He formally entered the race on April 17. On April 23, the department he had just left approved the contract.
Its stated purpose, as quoted by the Free Beacon: “provide strategic support to the County in efforts to ensure smooth and effective leadership transition and aligning operational priorities with the County’s broader vision for public health and human services.” The county is run by County Executive Warren Evans (D).
Nine thousand dollars for 30 hours works out to roughly $300 an hour, a rate paid by a county government to its own former department head, six days after he began running statewide. The payments were routed through AME Higher LLC, which, per the contract, El-Sayed created as a pass-through for his consulting and speaking income.
His Senate financial disclosure, as reported by the Detroit News on July 28, 2026, lists $72,000 in Wayne County consulting fees — the full authorized amount. The Free Beacon adds that the disclosure shows El-Sayed paid himself a $64,000 “salary” and took another $103,000 as a “member draw” from AME Higher.
“While Abdul was improving services and making government more efficient for Michigan taxpayers, Mike Rogers was spinning through the revolving door, cashing checks from the same industries he used to regulate in Congress…”
Roxie Richner, El-Sayed campaign spokeswoman · via Washington Free Beacon (excerpt)
That excerpt is the campaign’s reply to the Free Beacon’s reporting on his LLC and taxes. It turns to his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), and the excerpt does not address the contract’s terms. No source reviewed disputes them.
Precision matters here. Nothing in the Free Beacon’s reporting alleges the contract broke the law, and an outgoing director helping manage a handoff is a recognizable government practice. The story is about the public record: what the county agreed to pay, to whom, and when.
Documented: the contract’s approval date, rate, hours, $72,000 ceiling, and LLC pass-through, per the Free Beacon; the $72,000 on his disclosure, per the Detroit News.
Not established: what deliverables the county received for the $300-an-hour rate, and whether the work could have been done by the staff he had been leading until April.
The county was not his only client. The Free Beacon reports the disclosure indicates he started the second job no earlier than July 2025, after his campaign launched. The Detroit News reported $82,000 in consulting fees on the same filing from an Illinois health firm; the Free Beacon identifies it as One Health Partners, a Chicago-area nonprofit owned by businessman Ali Karim, who gave El-Sayed’s campaign the maximum $7,000. The Free Beacon reports that former employees have accused Karim of “exploiting Medicare” and that Wisconsin securities regulators sanctioned him; those are claims from that reporting, which we have not independently verified, and El-Sayed’s spokeswoman said he provided the consulting services as disclosed.
Together, the two streams total $154,000 of the $407,000 in earned income El-Sayed reported; the reporting reviewed does not break out the remainder.
El-Sayed won the Aug. 4 primary over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) by roughly one point, 48.5% to 47.5% per the Washington Post, and faces Rogers in November. His pitch leans on his Wayne County tenure. The Free Beacon separately reports that, in 2023, state investigators found the county juvenile detention center, which it says he oversaw, “flooded with sewage and garbage.” CBS Detroit separately covered state licensing action against the facility that year.
Voters can weigh a $300-an-hour handoff against that record. What they should have is the timeline: a resignation, a launch, and a county check six days later.
Abdul El-Sayed (D) resigned as Wayne County health director on April 3, 2025, launched his Senate campaign on April 17, and on April 23 was approved for a county consulting contract at $9,000 a month for 30 hours — up to $72,000, roughly $300 an hour — paid through his own LLC, according to the Washington Free Beacon. His Senate disclosure lists $72,000 in Wayne County consulting fees. No source alleges the contract was unlawful; no source reviewed disputes its terms.
