Former President Barack Obama rallied for Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit on Saturday as the bitterly fought contest could come down to the city’s substantial Black vote.
“We’re clear about the choice in this election,” Obama said. “Abdul is fighting for change, real change, change that will bring an end to this war. Change that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket. Change that will finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guarantee quality, affordable healthcare to every single American.”
“You hear people say this is somehow radical,” Obama continued. “What is radical about that?”
The former president, who rallied earlier Saturday in Cleveland, was joined by El-Sayed, gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson and downballot Democrats less than two weeks before Election Day.
Like his speech earlier in the day, Obama lambasted President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for “broken promises” made during their 2024 campaigns and criticized Trump’s handling of the Iran War and tariffs, both of which he said have had an outsize effect on Michigan.
“Does anybody really think this guy is spending that much time thinking deeply on these issues? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he is very focused on home renovation. He should be on HGTV,” Obama said of Trump’s extensive changes to the White House.
“You remember — roll back the tape, ‘We’re gonna drain the swamp,’” Obama added. “The only thing they drained is the reflecting pool on the National Mall because some no-bid contract got it all messed up.”
The Black vote has become a focus in the race as both El-Sayed and his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., have sought to improve their standing with the critical electorate. Detroit, a city where 75% of the population is Black, is crucial to statewide victories for Michigan Democrats. In the Democratic primary, El-Sayed underperformed there compared to his opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.
Speaking ahead of the former president, El-Sayed excoriated Rogers for appearing this Sunday with Trump while contrasting his presidency with Obama’s.
“Trump got us into a war we’ve got no business fighting,” El-Sayed said. “President Obama, he contained the nuclear threat without war. Trump’s tariffs costing autoworkers their livelihoods. President Obama, he made sure that they didn’t lose their jobs in the worst financial crisis in a century.”
An epidemiologist, El-Sayed has leaned on his experience as health director in both Detroit and Wayne County while touting support from prominent Black Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris; Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.; Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist to help him make his case.
“Abdul is as Michigan as it gets,” Obama said. “Abdul was born here. He was raised here. Parents in the auto industry … Captain of his high school football and lacrosse and wrestling teams. I mean, he’s just a jock. You see those big guns. That’s why he wears those T-shirts.”
Polls have consistently forecast a tight race between El-Sayed and Rogers, showing El-Sayed with a substantial edge over Rogers with Black voters.
But the margin matters. A recent YouGov survey of likely general election voters found El-Sayed winning 84% of the Black vote, with Rogers taking 11% — roughly the same spread that Michigan exit polls showed in 2024, when Harris narrowly lost the state to Trump in the presidential election. A Fox News poll of likely voters in late September measured Rogers’ support among Black voters at 22%.
NBC News visited an early voting location in Detroit on Saturday, ahead of Obama’s rally. Voters who spoke with NBC News said they were casting ballots for El-Sayed.
“I’ll admit that I’ve skipped it before,” Tony Gooden, a Detroit voter, said in an interview of having not voted in prior midterm elections.
Gooden added that he felt it was important to vote this fall because of “the state of the economy, the state of our country.”
“I feel like somebody needs to put a rein on what’s going on in Washington,” said Gooden. “So I can either sit back on my couch and complain, or I can get on and do something about it.”
Mary Waters, a member of the Detroit City Council who backed Stevens in the Democratic primary, said she is not yet committed to either candidate but expressed warmth toward Rogers. She said that skepticism of El-Sayed may stem less from a personal dislike of him and more from tense relationships between the Arab American and Black communities in Detroit.
“I don’t think that President Obama himself even understands the racial divides, the class divides, in the city. He does not live here,” Waters said when asked about the impact Obama’s appearance could have, acknowledging that some of her constituents may be swayed by Obama’s pitch.
In a recent interview with The Root, an online publication that covers Black news and culture, El-Sayed acknowledged the tensions Waters highlighted.
“Most of that spending was spending intended to break my relationship with the Black community,” El-Sayed said of money spent opposing him during the Democratic primary. “And unfortunately, you know, it was not that hard to break, because for too many Black Detroiters, in particular, their experience with somebody who looks like me is not a good one.”
“You go into a gas station, you go to a party store, you’re being talked at from behind bulletproof glass,” he continued. “If you’re a woman, you’re being catcalled. … I’ve always tried to be on the right side of that. But I also understand that, like, if that’s your experience with somebody whose name is like mine, that leaves a terrible taste in your mouth.”
Gilchrist, meanwhile, told NBC News he thinks little of Rogers’ attempts to woo Black voters and believes Obama’s rally would help unify the party.
“He occupies a singular place in our consciousness as Black Americans, and so his voice matters, and his perspective matters,” Gilchrist said. “I do think that that will be incredibly helpful in terms of letting folks know that this is an opportunity for them to mobilize and to make something happen to have the right senator from Michigan.”
El-Sayed, though, has previously expressed criticism of Obama, saying he fell short of delivering change. He has explained his thinking in the run-up to Saturday’s rally.
“Do you love your dad? Do you agree with everything your dad has ever done?” El-Sayed said after his Grand Rapids debate with Rogers on Oct. 8. “It’s a normal thing to love somebody, to really appreciate all that they’ve done, and to say, ‘Hey, here’s some things I would have done differently.’ But they still did some important things to create opportunity for you. There is no world in which I get to run for office without somebody like President Obama.”
Obama addressed the past criticism on Saturday.
“Abdul shares my values of wanting everybody to get healthcare,” he said. “He shares my values that if you work hard every day, you should have a living wage, and you should be able, if you’re a young person starting a family, to be able to buy a house that you can afford, and that you shouldn’t have to pay six bucks every time you fill up the tank of gas to get to work. We share those values of making sure everybody gets a fair shot in this society, and that the system’s not just run for those at the top.”
Republicans blasted the rally Saturday, painting El-Sayed as an extremist.
“The idea that Barack Obama and Jocelyn Benson would share the stage with” El-Sayed “shows that the Democrat Party is not interested in fixing the issues facing Michigan families, and will always put politics over people,” Republican Governors Association communications director Kollin Crompton said in a statement.
Speaking ahead of Obama, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., sought to explain how the battleground state could potentially send both her, a center-left Democrat, and the progressive El-Sayed to the Senate.
“The difference these days under this president is not between progressive versus moderate,” she said. “It is between team fight and team flight.”