Kamala Harris campaigns with Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit as he seeks Democratic unity ahead of the Michigan Senate election.
El-Sayed is targeting Black voters in Wayne County after losing the county in the August Democratic primary.
The November Michigan Senate race will pit El-Sayed against Trump-backed Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
Former US Vice President Kamala Harris joined Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on the campaign trail in Detroit on Tuesday, as the Michigan race enters its final stretch and Democrats seek to bring together voters divided by internal party disputes.
The appearance comes as El-Sayed seeks to build a coalition capable of winning in November’s midterm elections in the key swing state. According to Al Jazeera, El-Sayed hopes Harris’s presence in Detroit will help strengthen Democratic unity, particularly among voters who have been divided over the party’s approach to Israel and domestic economic concerns.
El-Sayed defeated four-term Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens in a closely contested Democratic primary last month. Stevens had received overwhelming support from the Democratic Party establishment and pro-Israel political action committees, highlighting divisions within the party before the general election.
Speaking about the economy hours before his planned appearance with Harris, El-Sayed said, “We’re building an electoral coalition here”. He added that Harris’s presence in Michigan, “speaking to communities that were really empowered by her voice throughout her political career”, would help further unite and strengthen the Democratic Party.
The campaign stop also comes as El-Sayed seeks to strengthen his support among Black voters. Wayne County, the state’s largest Democratic stronghold and home to Detroit’s predominantly Black electorate, is a particular focus, after El-Sayed failed to carry the county during the August Democratic primary.
El-Sayed is also facing pressure among white Jewish voters who typically back Democrats. His campaign is seeking to bring together different sections of the Democratic electorate ahead of the November contest.
Harris’s visit comes after her defeat to US President Donald Trump in Michigan in the 2024 presidential election. The state has a significant Arab-American voting bloc, whose support became a major factor in the Democratic Party’s electoral difficulties there.
Many Arab Americans in Michigan, who had voted reliably for Democrats for years, moved away from the party during the 2024 presidential election over Harris’s position on Israel. Her support for continuing to arm Israel and her refusal to distance herself from former President Joe Biden’s unconditional support for the US ally drew opposition from Arab and Muslim voters.
According to Al Jazeera, advocates had argued at the time that maintaining that position would make it difficult for Harris to regain support among Arab and Muslim voters. The issue remains part of the political context surrounding El-Sayed’s campaign as he seeks to assemble a coalition in Michigan.
El-Sayed has also called for solidarity among Democrats, linking the need for unity to voters’ economic concerns. He said the 2024 presidential election “ended where it did because we could not find the places of agreement to be able to bring people together or move in the direction that we need to move”, while emphasising that he and Harris both want to focus on helping voters who are struggling economically.
In November, El-Sayed will face former Representative Mike Rogers, the Trump-backed Republican Senate nominee. Rogers ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
Rogers’s campaign framed Harris’s appearance as a sign of weakness for both Democrats.
El-Sayed rejected that criticism at the Detroit event, arguing that building an electoral coalition requires confronting past disagreements rather than avoiding them.
“We don’t have to agree on everything to understand what is at stake,” El-Sayed said, urging voters to rally around shared economic priorities. “The only way forward is by doing the hard work of bringing people into the same room and moving together.”
