Abdul El-Sayed is running for governor of Michigan, and the Detroit-born Muslim-American alleges fellow Democrats are using “Trump’s ‘birther’ tactics” to question his eligibility for office.

El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat popular with Bernie Supporters, is the 33-year-old son of an Egyptian immigrant who The Guardian dubbed the “next Obama” for a “rhetorical style and charisma that draws easy comparisons” to the 44^th president.

He hasn’t officially declared his candidacy, but is considered a strong contender against Democratic frontrunner Gretchen Whitmer for the August primary. El-Sayed was born and raised in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan Medical School. He also served as a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York between 2013 and 2016, before returning to Michigan to helm the Detroit Health Department at age 30, The Intercept reports.

Late last month, Bridge Magazine, a publication of the left-leaning “nonprofit” The Center for Michigan, published an expose about El-Sayed’s time in New York and quoted anonymous elections lawyers who contend it bans him from running for governor.

The Michigan Constitution states gubernatorial candidates must be a “registered elector in this state” for four years before the election, and Bridge Magazine alleges he was registered to vote in New York in 2015.

The Bridge article prompted El-Sayed to fire back in a fundraising email, claiming the issues is the work of “establishment Democrats resorting to the kind of birther tactics that opponents to Barack Obama used to discredit his run for the presidency,” The Intercept reports.

El-Sayed’s campaign spokesman, Adam Joseph, also defended his boss’ eligibility for office.

“Abdul is 100 percent eligible to be governor of Michigan. He has been continuously registered to vote in Michigan since he was 18 years old, and he has maintained continuous residence in Michigan since his childhood,” Joseph wrote in a statement.

“He is a son of Michigan – born and raised in this state, went to public schools in this state, and had a daughter in this state.”

Michigan Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams confirmed to The Intercept that El-Sayed has been a registered Michigan voter since 2003.

“I can confirm that, according to the state’s voter records, El-Sayed has been continuously registered to vote since 2003. El-Sayed has not filed to run for governor so we have no further comment. Candidates have until April 24 to file,” Woodhams wrote in an email.

Multiple attorneys for El-Sayed’s campaign, including former chairman of the Federal Election Commission Robert Lenhard, defended the candidate’s eligibility.

“He has been a property owner, a taxpayer, a registered voter and a resident of Michigan throughout the qualifying period under State law,” Lenhard said. “Michigan law has never held that absences from the state for work or school cause you to lose your residence. This issue is just a red herring.”

“Let’s be clear, this is a political attack, and nothing more, and it falls in line with a long history of attacks on certain kinds of people when they aspire to leadership in our democracy,” Joseph wrote in a statement.

“While we knew the attacks were coming, we didn’t think they would come in the form of insider Democrats using Trump’s birther tactics.”

Donald Trump is well-known for questioning President Obama’s birthplace, and publicly entertained the idea Obama was born in Kenya for years.

But Democrats including Hillary Clinton were among the first to use Obama’s family ties to Kenya to raise questions with voters during 2008 presidential primary.

Breitbart reports:

The Clinton campaign discussed targeting Obama’s “lack of American roots,” which led to campaign staff circulating a photo of Obama in Muslim garb. (The Obama campaign was not above such tactics, with a campaign memo referring to Clinton as “(D-Punjab),” due to her family’s financial links to India.) Later, Clinton supporters (though not the candidate or campaign, according to available information) began circulating the rumor that Barack Obama was born abroad. One, Philip J. Burg, filed one of the more notable lawsuits challenging Obama’s Democratic Party nomination (dismissed for lack of standing).

As unnamed attorneys postulate about El-Sayed’s eligibility, he’s raised nearly $2 million in his quest for governor. And while the latest controversy draws even more comparisons to Obama, the young Muslim has repeatedly clarified that he’s not a big fan.

“ … There are a lot of things I disagree with President Obama on – in terms of both domestic, and certainly, international politics,” El-Sayed told Vox. “I’m not him, and I have no intention of being him.”