Yves here. So many important developments, so little bandwidth. The intense campaign to defeat Abdul El-Sayed, who is charismatic and very very good on his feet, demonstrates that the idea of him begin bona fide socialist/working class defending Senator at a time of economic stress and political upheaval is particularly threatening to our putative betters.
By Sharmini Peries. Originally published at theAnalysis.news
Welcome to theAnalysis. I’m Sharmini Peries in Toronto.
On November 3rd, Americans will be going to their midterm polls, and Michigan is witnessing one of the country’s most expensive Senate races in history. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, backed by Bernie Sanders and the United Auto Workers, faces Republican Mike Rogers. According to Federal Election Commission records compiled through October 20th, Republican-aligned outside groups have spent more than $117 million supporting Rogers’ campaign to attack El-Sayed, more than twice the approximately $56 million spent by Democratic-aligned groups on El-Sayed’s campaign.
Now, Elon Musk’s America PAC alone has spent $7 million supporting Rogers. How did we arrive at a point where billionaires can spend such enormous amounts of money influencing elections?
The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, together with subsequent decisions, opened the door to unlimited independent political spending. But there’s a fundamental contradiction. The legal right to spend money politically is not the same as the economic capacity to exercise that right. Now, billionaires have their fortunes; workers have their collective power.
Can the UAW, on Detroit’s historic tradition of labor organizing, challenge that financial influence and build political power for this election and, of course, beyond the midterms?
Joining me now to explore these questions is Frank Hammer, former president and chairman of the United Auto Workers Local 909 at General Motors in Detroit. Frank worked for 32 years with GM and has spent more than five decades fighting for workers’ rights, economic justice, and environmental sustainability. Frank, so good to have you with us on theAnalysis.
Frank Hammer
It’s so good to be with you, Sharmini. Thank you.
Sharmini Peries
So, Frank, let’s start with Citizens United. In 2010, the Supreme Court gave corporations, rich individuals, and unions the same constitutional protection for political spending, but the financial resources available to billionaires and working people are quite different and enormously different. What does that mean for political equality in Michigan and the country at large?
Frank Hammer
It’s been 16 years, and I think a lot of autoworkers may not even recall what that represented. I read something that I thought kind of illustrated what occurred. It was like giving the same rights to a toy boat as to an aircraft carrier. This was actually the basis— the fighting for equality— but in reality, it was an instrument for the grossest inequality. That’s what the outcome was of Citizens United.
We need to know that at least three of the current Supreme Court judges were the ones who were part of that decision 16 years ago, including Clarence Thomas, Alito, and so on. So it’s the same reactionary core to the Supreme Court that has been responsible for the decisions that we’re seeing today that was responsible for the ones in 2010. Yeah, so it’s really tilted the scales; the size of an aircraft carrier to a toy boat.
Sharmini Peries
Now, this passed with such a slight margin, Frank, 4-to-5 in terms of the vote in the Supreme Court. Now, given that— and at the time Obama was in power— the labor movement really had an opportunity to seriously challenge this and also maybe organize in the last 16 years to contest it because it was such an unfair ruling. Now, have the labor unions done enough, in your opinion, to challenge this decision over the last 16 years?
Frank Hammer
So what’s of interest is that when the decision was first rendered in 2010, the AFL-CIO, which is the largest major labor federation in our country representing 13-14 million workers, acquiesced to the ruling. The only efforts it made in that regard were to amend it, and it filed a friendly brief to the court, and it got a sharp rebuke then from the National Nurses United, which denounced the AFL-CIO for not taking a more militant stand against this incredible threat to democracy in the name of being democratic.
I have to say that— I mean, you can go to the AFL-CIO website. They will denounce the ruling. They say we should advocate for publicly funded elections, but in the 16 years since that decision, a mass demonstration of any significance has never been held by the AFL-CIO. So it allowed the decision to go on unchallenged. The only challenges that really emerged were from the grassroots, like Occupy Wall Street, Citizens— I think there was— I forget the name of the other groups. But that’s where the resistance came from, and unfortunately not from the established labor federation like the AFL-CIO.
Sharmini Peries
All right, Frank, now let’s shift to Michigan. There’s approximately $100 million allocated to supporting Mike Rogers, but Abdul El-Sayed is only spending, or is able to spend, something like $65 million. Now, in your opinion, this financial imbalance for the candidates running, particularly the one from a working-class economic platform supported by the UAW— so organized labor— can they begin to challenge the multimillion dollars, over $100 million, that Rogers has for this campaign?
Frank Hammer
So we can look at the primary race in which Abdul El-Sayed campaigned against an establishment Democrat, and the person of Haley Stevens. He was outspent. The corporate class came in behind Haley Stevens with approximately $70 million donated to her campaign. I think it was like 10-to-1, and in spite of that, Abdul, his appeal to the grassroots overcame that incredible disparity in the funding. And it was, in fact, the most expensive primary in U.S. history. I did not know that. Now we’re going into what is going to be the most expensive general election in the state of Michigan.
So the way that this is developing is that Abdul has garnered a tremendous amount of union support. I think it’s boots on the ground. We have the UAW, we have the Michigan AFL-CIO, federal government employees, machinists, building trades, the IBEW, the service workers, etc. This is the appeal that is going to ordinary people in Michigan that is making this overture that will overcome, hopefully, this disparity and the vast amounts of money that are being donated.
Now, what I learned is that Abdul raised the most money of any candidate in Michigan history in the last quarter. He raised $30 million, which was three times as much as Mike Rogers raised. I’m talking about money not from outside, not from the corporations, but from within the state of Michigan. What I also learned was that people who gave to El-Sayed in amounts of less than $200 made up more than a third of his fundraising total, about $11 million.
What it’s showing us is that the money that is being raised is being raised from the electorate, is being raised from the voters. On the other hand, Mike Rogers has raised very little, actually, in the state of Michigan. It’s mostly coming from outside of Michigan. So on Election Day, that’s going to make a big difference in terms of who’s going to turn out and who’s going to be voting.
Sharmini Peries
Right. Bernie Sanders has made fighting oligarchy a central part of his theme when he went across the country with AOC. The UAW has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed. The union has more than 350,000 active and retired members in Michigan, and it has described its current electoral organizing effort as one of the most ambitious in decades. Frank, how significant is this endorsement, and is it going to translate into votes on the ground?
Frank Hammer
I think its significance can’t be overstated. I think that the UAW came out very early in advance of the primary campaign. It really broke with the Democratic Party political establishment in doing so, because the Democratic political establishment favored Hayley Stevens. The fact that the UAW took this courageous path in support of Abdul is, I think, like I said earlier, can’t be overstated. Never mind that the UAW did this in the midst of its own election, internally, for its leadership of the UAW. It was in tandem; it was at the same time.
I think that it showed courage that the UAW would stay united behind the leadership of Shawn Fain and the leadership of the UAW in supporting Abdul. Never mind that this was done in the face of open hostility from Donald Trump. Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his hostility to the UAW in the person of Shawn Fain, back at the Republican convention in 2024, when he said that Shaw Fain should be fired. Most recently, in July here in Michigan, Trump again attacked Fain and said, “He’s no good and ought to be fired.”
So in the face of all this, both within the Democratic political establishment and the Trump wing of the ruling class, this was a very courageous endeavor. I think that the fact that Abdul puts forward such a pro-working-class agenda is what’s making this gamble successful so far. I think that it was underestimated, and I think it’s great that once the primary election was over, the Democratic Party establishment in this state coalesced around Abdul’s campaign, including immediately Kamala Harris, over which there was some controversy in 2024 about support for her election. So the UAW has shown leadership, and when you show leadership, others follow, and you see that in the Democratic Party now coalescing around the UAW’s choice.
Sharmini Peries
Right, and if you zoom out a little bit, Frank, you remember when Bernie Sanders and AOC went across the country with a campaign on fighting the oligarchy, making it the central theme of this campaign prior to the midterms. Now, Abdul El-Sayed has picked up on a lot of those threads. His concerns about corporate concentration, his concerns about healthcare and economic inequality, his affordability campaign, and so on. Do you think this is going to translate, in terms of mobilizing the working-class political movement, into votes on the ground?
Frank Hammer
Yes, and I think, to reference some history, Michigan is a state that can’t be taken for granted. And by that, I mean that there is a basis for this anti-oligarchy working-class movement going back to the days when Jesse Jackson in 1988 ran for president and won in the state of Michigan. He won. It was a primary caucus, and he won. If we fast-forward, Bernie Sanders in 2016 similarly won the primary race in Michigan, even though this is a state that voted twice for Trump, in 2016 and in 2024.
So you can see that the political electorate, the people that turn out to vote, have looked for alternatives outside the two-party system. That’s what this indicates, and that’s what this represents. I believe that this represents the makings of a working-class movement post-election. I think we can talk about that, but that can be mobilized to challenge the ruling elites. I think that the money that’s being invested in Mike Rogers’ campaign, and I think you said earlier it was $116 million, shows you the degree to which the oligarchs and the ruling corporate class here in Michigan are afraid of his campaign.
They’ve used mainly scaremongering as a means by which to defeat Abdul, and I think that a lot of the workers in this state are seeing through that and saying, “We don’t scare that easily, and in fact, we adopt and support the agenda that’s being put out by Abdul in terms of getting money politics, getting money in your pocket, Medicare for All.” That resonates, and between his charisma, his ability to communicate, his willingness to take on voters one-on-one, and his vision, I think he’s really winning those voters that you reference in your question.
Sharmini Peries
Frank, what are some of the strategies that the UAW is employing? And this is something you’ve been a part of over the years— decades, I should say— that you’ve been a part of the UAW in Detroit. What does the scene on the ground actually look like?
Frank Hammer
So it’s multifaceted, and I think that one of the things that the UAW has really developed, for example, is an incredible ability to appeal through social media. This is something that was developed under the UAW’s new leadership going back to 2022, when we had the standup strikes that had developed social media as an art form to reach out to working-class voters. But it’s not a substitute for the ground game, and the UAW members have coalesced on the streets of Detroit and in their surrounding neighborhoods and suburbs. And throughout the state, actually, wherever the UAW has a work site, it has done its work on the factory floor.
I think it’s built up a political machinery. It certainly contributed its own funds to the campaign and, in tandem with— and also, incidentally, by the way, holding meetings in union halls, making sure that UAW members turn out and get to meet Abdul in person. All of these facets, never mind TV ads, but I think the TV ads are largely non-union. I think they come from other sources. I think those are all the things that are making for a really successful run for Abdul going into the November 3rd elections.
Sharmini Peries
Abdul El-Sayed has been seriously challenged by MAGA members and the Republicans in terms of his loyalty to the U.S. and the Constitution versus his loyalty to Islam. This is obviously done strategically in order to fight him on his race and his religion. What is your reaction to that?
Frank Hammer
So I’ve loved the way that Abdul recently responded to that and cited the example of John F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy, back in 1960, was the first candidate for the office who was a Catholic, and he makes an example of John F. Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy saying, “He didn’t want to be the first Catholic president; he wanted to be president, and incidentally, he was a Catholic.”
I think that it is true that, for example, we have Trump-organized autoworkers, autoworkers for Trump, and they completely ignore the content of the two campaigns. I can give you an example. Mike Rogers was all about right-to-work in Michigan, and we had a moment in history in this state, this union state, where, under a Republican regime, they instituted right-to-work, which meant that union members could continue to enjoy the benefits of being union members without having to pay their dues and thereby weaken the union organizing and the union political arm of the union. Well, Abdul has very clearly articulated his position in support of stronger unions and in support of opposing the right-to-work-for-less that Mike Rogers favors. I think that’s overcome some of the racialized aspects of the opposition.
Now, the reality is that there are elements, certainly among UAW members who voted for Trump previously, who are being snared by that narrative, and there are also elements of that within the Black community. When we had the primary race, Abdul did not win in Detroit. He lost in Detroit, and this goes back to this conflict over what the Democratic Party needed to do in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by the Israeli Zionist government, supported by the U.S. Of course, the Arabic community in our region was against this continuing support for Israel and could not bring themselves to support Kamala Harris.
So there is a certain retribution among some quarters for that taking place then, even though Abdul actually supported Kamala Harris. So there are those schisms, but I believe that a lot of people are coming around, especially in Detroit. We now have the Detroit City Council, the majority— which is nearly all Black representatives— now the majority is supporting Abdul. The mayor of the city is supporting Abdul, and there are many other folks who are steering the Black community away from the hostility and actually in support of Abdul as being the best representative for the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit.
Sharmini Peries
Right, and Frank, the current conditions on the ground, where Detroit has experienced decades of plant closures, joblessness, and economic restructuring, these experiences have profoundly shaped the politics of Michigan’s working class. So how do unions rebuild solidarity among workers that have become politically divided, particularly between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party? Can the UAW help bring together industrial workers, service workers, young people, communities that are suffering from this deindustrialization?
Frank Hammer
Oh, so that’s a $64,000 question. I think that, in regard to deindustrialization, I think first to tackle that— the state of Michigan is sort of facing an existential crisis. And that is what the current ruling elites are offering Michigan, and I think likewise in other parts of the country, is, “We’re going to build a militarized industrial complex country, and you’re going to accept that if we give you a job in one of these military establishments.” This is a very difficult challenge because, obviously, workers want to work, but what they’re being offered is jobs in factories that make military death machines.
This is a very difficult question, and this is something that the UAW and the working class as a whole are going to have to take on. Do we want to build the instruments that will help the U.S. elites dominate the world, as we’re seeing, for example, in Iran, etc? So that’s a question that has to be taken on.
But there are many things that unite us, and I think that one of the things that will help to unite workers in our state is the campaign for Medicare for All. We’re recognizing now that 16 million Americans are losing healthcare as a result of the big, ugly bill that was passed early on by Trump. I think everybody is recognizing that there are some sectors in the UAW that feel like they want to hang on to their private healthcare and so on.
I think the vast majority see that this is a movement that can bring together workers from different industries, union and non-union, in a campaign. Because you can bet that Abdul, were he to be elected— which we hope he will— is going to be a lone voice in the Senate. Even if there were five Abduls, it’s going to take a mass movement, and there’s no way of getting around the union movement. The unions have to be in the lead, and the UAW is ready to take that on. It is in support of Medicare for All. So I think that that’s one of the ways that we can overcome the divisions that have resulted from the deindustrialization and the joblessness and so on that have visited the state.
Sharmini Peries
Right, and one thing we have to do, Frank, whether Abdul El-Sayed wins or loses, the concentration of economic power in America will remain for a very long time, and particularly in light of Citizens United. What should labor movements do in order to build and survive not only this election but beyond November?
Frank Hammer
So it has to be willing to exercise its independent voice as a labor movement, not beholden to the political establishment. Certainly, obviously not among Republicans, but also among Democrats as well. There’s clearly a growing division within the Democratic Party. We just heard Carville saying, “Oh, we want the Republicans to stay in control of the House of Representatives,” which is an astounding statement. It represents a deepening chasm in the Democratic Party, and it’s clear that the progressive wing, including the Democratic Socialists of America candidates, is delineating a different new path and is willing to take on the Democratic political establishment.
I think that’s the only road that we can take, and that means possibly establishing our own independent working-class party, or better yet, a working-class takeover of the Democratic Party. Much in the same vein as the MAGA movement took over the Republican Party, the progressives can take over the Democratic Party. And if that proves to be impossible, then obviously we have to exercise our own independent political direction.
Sharmini Peries
Frank, I know you’re going to be working on this campaign till the last minute, and I wish you a lot of luck with that. Also, let’s reconvene after the elections and see how things go.
Frank Hammer
That would be wonderful. I thank you so very much.
Sharmini Peries
All right, Frank, thanks for joining me today.
Frank Hammer
Thank you.