Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a rally on October 24, a notable show of support given El-Sayed’s past public criticism of the former president.
After the 2012 election, El-Sayed wrote that he had voted for Obama with “the silly emotions of a naïve young man who didn’t understand that hope and change required more than flowery prose and a winning smile,” adding that he found “little hope because there has been less change.”
“Obama’s reelection last night was no victory. It was the rock we chose over the hard place…This leader has perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on.”
That was not an isolated comment. In 2020, El-Sayed argued in a televised exchange with former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp that the country was worse off after Obama’s presidency, a position Heitkamp disputed at the time.
Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Kristen Welker on Sunday whether he still viewed Obama’s presidency as a failure, El-Sayed did not repeat his earlier criticism. “I know President Obama was handed a pretty difficult set of circumstances and he did his best,” he said, comparing Obama to his own father and noting there were “a lot of things about my dad I’d do differently.”
Despite the history between them, Obama recorded a campaign ad for El-Sayed. In a social media post about the endorsement, El-Sayed wrote: “President Barack Obama showed me something in myself I might never have seen without him. I’m humbled to have his support in this fight. The Affordable Care Act will have laid the groundwork for guaranteed healthcare, and I’m honored to pick up his baton and finally pass Medicare for All.”
In the ad, Obama said that the idea the country belongs to all of us, not just the “wealthy” or the “well-connected,” was “under attack” in Michigan, and cited that as a reason to support El-Sayed. Obama also referred to El-Sayed as a “doctor” in the ad, using an image of him in a white coat. El-Sayed holds an M.D. but has reportedly never been licensed or practiced as a physician after medical school.
The rally is scheduled for October 24 as the Michigan Senate race continues to draw national attention ahead of the midterms.
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