Barack Obama will head to Detroit this month to rally with Abdul El-Sayed, a show of establishment support for a progressive insurgent in Michigan, one of the most consequential Senate races in the country. The former president will appear with El-Sayed and the gubernatorial nominee, Jocelyn Benson, on 24 October, the state’s Democratic party announced on Monday. The rally falls on the first day of the state’s in-person early voting period and 10 days before election day.
Ready,” El-Sayed wrote on social media as he confirmed the appearance. The event is a significant endorsement for a candidate who survived tens of millions in an out-of-state ad blitz to beat the congresswoman Haley Stevens by less than a percentage point in August, making the contest a national proxy battle over the party’s direction. El-Sayed, a doctor and former Wayne county health director, ran on Medicare for All and a refusal to take corporate Pac money, and was backed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
He made opposition to US military aid to Israel and criticism of its conduct in Gaza central to his campaign, and has described Israel’s actions there as genocide. Aipac and its allies as a result spent a record-breaking $30m trying to stop him, and in total Stevens and her allies outspent El-Sayed’s side nearly nine to one on advertising, according to AdImpact. Stevens, a moderate, was backed by the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, incumbent senator Gary Peters, and the party establishment.
Obama’s presence matters most in Detroit, which is more than three-quarters Black and where he is still highly popular. Stevens won Wayne county, which includes the city, with about 51% of the Democratic primary vote to El-Sayed’s 45%. Some ads backing her used old footage of Obama praising her, which critics called misleading because he had not endorsed in the race.
Kamala Harris, the first Black and south Asian vice-president, campaigned with El-Sayed last month, and Obama phoned him after the primary. El-Sayed is running for the seat being vacated by the retiring Democrat Peters, against the Republican former congressman Mike Rogers, and the contest is one of a handful that will determine Senate control next year. Rogers was the Republican nominee in 2024, and lost that race against Elissa Slotkin, despite Trump winning the state.
A Marist poll of registered voters from late September had El-Sayed ahead 51% to 44%. Still, El-Sayed, who has sworn off corporate donations and made his opposition to big money in politics a theme of his campaign, traveled to New York for a fundraiser where top “all star” donors were asked to give $57,800, split among his campaign, the Michigan Democratic party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, with Ocasio-Cortez and the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, expected to attend, the New York Times reported. Obama has kept a relatively low profile this cycle, but is preparing a broader push.
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