El-Sayed wants to pass ‘S‑‑‑ Lettuce Elimination Act’

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) told reporters that if he was elected to the upper chamber, he wanted to pass an act related to 2026’s cyclospora outbreak: The S‑‑‑ Lettuce Elimination Act.

“For a long time here in Michigan, right, over the summer, there were a lot of people who ate lettuce and then had, you know, they ate the s‑‑‑ lettuce. And we shouldn’t have s‑‑‑ lettuce in the United States of America,” he said Sunday.

The act is an ongoing joke from the Democrat who previously mentioned it during a campaign event in September but is related to his campaign’s public health priorities.

“We have to rebuild the part of the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] that makes sure that people are eating lettuce where other people have not shat,” El-Sayed continued. “And we need to make sure that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] can count the number of cases of s‑‑‑ lettuce. It’s a clean bill.”

El-Sayed was referring to one of the country’s largest outbreaks of cyclospora in history. It saw more than 12,000 reported cases in the U.S. with 570 hospitalizations, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was eventually linked to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico that has since been recalled.

The foodborne illness causes watery diarrhea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC.

More than 5,000 cases and the outbreak’s two deaths were recorded in Michigan . Health officials reported an end to the outbreak in September, which marked the country’s largest outbreak of cyclospora.

At the Monday press conference, El-Sayed said his first priority in the Senate was to block cuts to Medicaid. He is also advocating for “Medicare for all,” a topic he authored a book on.

The Democrat faces off against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in a battleground Senate election that could decide the majority in the upper chamber.