Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed at a "One Michigan" rally in Detroit on Saturday, embracing the Egyptian American physician on stage and warning that opponents would use "your name or your faith" to question his patriotism.
The rally, which also featured gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, came on the first day of in-person early voting in Michigan, 10 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. El-Sayed faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
'His name was Barack, though'
El-Sayed closed his speech by introducing Obama. "So when they tell me, 'But his name's Abdul, though,' I remind them, 'His name was Barack, though,'" he said, before welcoming "the 44th President of the United States." The two embraced as Obama took the stage.
El-Sayed: 'I love America'
In his speech, El-Sayed addressed the attacks over his background head-on. "Over these last three months, you've probably seen a lot of folks talking about my name and my faith. They're trying to get you to question my love of this country," he said. "So don't get it twisted. I love America. I just love America enough to call on her to be America for all of her kids."
He recalled that Bill Clinton, the speaker at his University of Michigan commencement in 2007, told him he might run for office one day, and that he laughed: "Mr. President, did you see my name?" A year later, he said, he watched "a guy named Barack Hussein Obama" run for president, "the first time I ever saw anybody who looked at all like me" in politics.
El-Sayed, a physician and former director of Detroit's health department, is running on "money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All" and said he would be the first Democratic doctor elected to the Senate since 1969. He also criticized what he called "this stupid war in Iran."
Obama: 'Chaos and cruelty'
Obama told the crowd that "change is in the air" and that Michigan voters could say "enough is enough" after "10 years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence." He reminded them that early voting had begun that day.
He blamed President Donald Trump for starting "an unnecessary war, nobody had asked for and nobody voted for," saying Iran now has "veto power" over the Strait of Hormuz and that gasoline and diesel prices had soared as a result.
'We have seen this movie before'
Obama then turned to the attacks on El-Sayed. "They will use lies, and they will use fear, and they will use division. And they may even use your name or your faith to somehow suggest that you are dangerous and less than trustworthy and less patriotic and less American than they are," he said. "We have seen this movie before."
Recalling the "birther" attacks against him, Obama joked that he has "a long form birth certificate to prove it." "This stuff didn't work on me, not in Michigan. It's not going to work on Abdul," he said, adding that El-Sayed is as Michigan "as it gets."
Obama also contrasted El-Sayed with Rogers, saying the Democrat had not "spent months cheerleading the Iran war" or called Trump's tariffs "masterful." Trump is scheduled to campaign in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday.
