When Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democrat who was declared the winner of the Senate primary in Michigan today, strode to the lectern for his victory speech, he did not exactly look like himself.
After all, he was wearing a suit.
It was a notable departure from the tight, black V-neck T-shirt and jeans that had become El-Sayed’s uniform on the campaign trail — a dressed-down look reflective of the dressing down he promised to give the establishment, a point of differentiation with his opponent, Representative Haley Stevens, and unquestionably part of his communications strategy.
As a result, even though the T-shirt and jeans weren’t on the candidate, they were still part of the conversation.
It’s one thing to promise change. It’s another to put your wardrobe where your words are — and then to make it a talking point. Not to mention a quasi slogan.
“Minimal look, maximal politics” is the way El-Sayed described his attire before the election to Sophie Strauss, a Michigan self-titled “stylist for regular people” on an Instagram reel-cum-promotional appearance.
That reel featured Strauss offering him various shirts to try on, each representing a different plank of his campaign — green for his sustainability platform (he rejected it because green also represents money, which he is campaigning to keep out of politics); camo, which he rejected because he wants to stay out of wars; and so on — before he opted to stick with his usual black V-neck.
The tee made another appearance in El-Sayed’s take on the social media trend “What’s in my pocket?” as he pulled out keys, a phone, a “ridiculously large charger,” a protein bar and an “extra black T-shirt — V-neck, of course,” among other items that served as a shorthand for both his personal and political semiology.
Indeed, he wore the tee, or its colder weather cousin, a black long-sleeve three-button placket-front pullover, so consistently — with jackets, without jackets, making speeches, in the gym — that The Atlantic christened it his “signature.”
And though the look may seem simple, like the sort of casual clothes in everyone’s closet just thrown on in the morning, it is rife with pressure points.
In choosing black for his T-shirt instead of white, and wearing form-fitting tees rather than baggy styles, the better to show off his very bulked-up biceps, the association El-Sayed is leaning into becomes less weekend James Dean and more bodybuilder with a military streak.
It gives credence to the insistence by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley that he is a “fighter.” In his own words, spoken to supporters in the small hours of Wednesday morning while they were still awaiting the verdict, in reference to his rival’s financial backers, “We’ll have taken $70 million on the chin and kept fighting back.”
In its unbranded basicness, its democratic accessibility, the T-shirt and jeans combo underscores El-Sayed’s rejection of money in politics — and counteracts the privilege implied by his being a former Rhodes Scholar with a comfortable net worth. Even more, it allowed him to dismiss Stevens as “a suit with a large AIPAC bank account” — because, well, like many in Washington, she generally wears a suit.
Even his accessories have a symbolic role to play, including his health tracker (he cares about wellness!), his friendship bracelets (he has children) and his somewhat more pricey watch, a SAR Rescue Timer — worn, his spokeswoman told The Washington Free Beacon, “because he is trying to rescue our politics from corporate corruption.” That’s one way to make your jewelry work for you.
None of which would have escaped El-Sayed, who went through med school and was thus trained not only in health but also in the ways clothing — particularly a white coat — connects to stereotypes buried deep in the prefrontal cortex. Such a coat, he would know, puts someone immediately into a position of power or, conversely, when doffed, makes them suddenly accessible. He has simply applied the same logic to politics.
In this, he is part of a new wave of power players, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City and Prime Minister Andy Burnham of Britain, who have made personal image as much a part of their political identity as any policy.
Certainly, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has not missed the point. Rogers has already posted an A.I.-created ad depicting the Democrat, along with Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, as Trojan Communists — complete with togas and helmets, hiding inside a large horse. The suggestion being, of course, that no one should trust the way they look.
Whether voters agree will be revealed in November. In the meantime, the fact that El-Sayed has started to don his jacket a little more regularly — not just for his victory appearance, but also on TV and occasionally to stump with current members of Congress — suggests that he is fully aware of electoral norms and expectations (even if he has made part of his case on rejecting them). And he may already be testing a new sartorial strategy as he heads into the general election.
