Barack Obama calls Abdul El-Sayed after Michigan senate primary win
TheGrio...
“Sometimes, you really should meet your heroes,” El-Sayed said after speaking with the former president about uniting Democrats.
Former President Barack Obama spoke with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed days after El-Sayed narrowly won Michigan’s Democratic primary for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. The conversation signals early support from Obama as El-Sayed prepares for a general election that could put Michigan’s Democratic coalition to the test.
El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health official, defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens to become the Democratic nominee for the open Senate seat. According to El-Sayed’s campaign, the two spoke Friday and had an encouraging conversation about working together to unite Democrats ahead of the November election. “Sometimes, you really should meet your heroes,” El-Sayed said of the call.
El-Sayed has said that seeing Obama become the first Black president helped him see himself reflected in American politics. As reported by The Detroit News, his campaign now faces the challenge of building a coalition across a state where his support varied significantly during the primary. Statewide, El-Sayed won 48.5% of the Democratic vote compared with Stevens’ 47.5%. In Detroit, however, Stevens performed considerably better, receiving 62.2% of the city’s vote while El-Sayed received 34.2%.
Obama has a long political history in Michigan. He carried the state in both his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and has continued campaigning for Democratic candidates there since leaving the White House. He supported former Sen. Gary Peters in a 2020 campaign ad and appeared in Detroit in 2022 to campaign for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. El-Sayed will face Republican nominee Mike Rogers in November. Rogers has already sought to appeal to Democratic voters, telling those who were disappointed with the result that there is “still hope.”
The Senate contest is taking place after Peters, a Democrat, decided not to seek another term, leaving Michigan with an open Senate seat for the first time in years. For El-Sayed, Obama’s outreach gives the new nominee an influential Democratic ally as he begins the much larger task of uniting the party.