George Soros’s nephew told donors he interviewed Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for a family fellowship that funded his education, as El-Sayed rails against billionaire money in politics.
Fox News Digital obtained footage from a Monday night fundraiser at the California home of Jeffrey Soros, the wealthy Hollywood producer and nephew of billionaire donor George Soros.
There, Jeffrey Soros welcomed supporters of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, and described a personal bond dating back more than a decade. Attendees had been asked not to record the event.
The remarks put fresh pressure on El-Sayed’s core campaign message. He has made “money out of politics” a signature theme while the Soros family network has poured millions into committees backing his run.
Jeffrey Soros, CEO of the Los Angeles Media Fund, did not hide the history.
He told the room he has known El-Sayed since 2012 and took part in selecting him for a family program.
"I just wanted to welcome you here and express my appreciation for coming. And it's been a privilege,"
Soros said, before adding the sharper detail.
"Speaking of privilege, I've had the pleasure of knowing Abdul since 2012. I got to interview him as a finalist for my parents. Fellowship, the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans."
El-Sayed won that fellowship in 2012. The program, named for Jeffrey Soros’s parents and aimed at immigrants and children of immigrants, pays winners tens of thousands of dollars in stipend and tuition support. Its website still lists El-Sayed among its success stories.
A flyer for the fundraiser said guests could give as much as $57,800 to the Abdul for Michigan Victory Fund. Hollywood notables were among those invited.
Neither El-Sayed’s campaign nor the Los Angeles Media Fund answered Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on Tuesday.
That silence lands beside El-Sayed’s repeated attacks on wealthy donors. In a 2025 local news interview, he framed big money as the central rot in American politics.
"The fundamental corruption of our politics has been the system that allows corporations and would-be oligarchs and billionaires to buy politicians,"
he said. In a follow-up, he put his agenda in plain terms.
"I want to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, pass Medicare for All,"
Those lines have traveled with him on the trail, including campaign stops in Detroit and at the Michigan Democratic Nominating Convention in Lansing.
Yet the candidate who denounces “would-be oligarchs and billionaires” was raising money in the home of a Soros heir whose family has already steered millions into political committees supporting his Senate bid.
Republicans moved quickly to frame the night as proof of a double standard. Alyssa Brouillet, communications director for GOP nominee Mike Rogers, tied the California event to earlier Democratic money hunts in Washington.
"Abdul El-Sayed raising dark Soros money in California after begging Chuck Schumer for money in DC is the least surprising thing he’s done all cycle,"
Brouillet said. She went further.
"That’s what a conman does, says one thing and does another. Michiganders can’t trust this guy."
El-Sayed’s campaign answered the broader money fight by pointing at Rogers. It argued that corporate special interests are spending millions of dollars in dark money to try to buy Rogers a Senate seat, claiming he has spent his career enriching himself and his billionaire donors while Michigan families pay the price.
That exchange leaves voters with two competing dark-money charges and one hard fact from the closed-door night: the Democratic nominee accepted a high-dollar reception from a Soros family host who once helped decide a fellowship that paid for part of his education.
El-Sayed is not a fringe hopeful. He is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, a state where working voters hear endless talk about fairness, wages, and who writes the rules.
He sells a simple bargain: strip corporate and billionaire cash out of politics, put money back in household budgets, and expand government health coverage. The fundraiser footage undercuts the first half of that pitch.
A candidate free to denounce “oligarchs” still showed up for maximum donations at the home of George Soros’s nephew. The same family apparatus that interviewed him for tuition help in 2012 has, according to the reporting, dumped millions into committees behind his 2026 race.
Jeffrey Soros called the long relationship a privilege. El-Sayed calls billionaire influence corruption. Michigan gets to decide which claim matches the donor list.
Voters who want money out of politics should start by noticing whose living room still writes the checks.
