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Kamala Harris campaigns with Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit to unify Michigan Democrats
Former vice president Kamala Harris joined Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit on Tuesday, seeking to reunite Democrats behind his bid after a bruising primary — with the party's hopes in the swing state riding on winning over Black voters in Wayne County.
Former vice president Kamala Harris joined Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on the campaign trail in Detroit on Tuesday, aiming to unify Democrats ahead of the final sprint to November’s midterm elections, Al Jazeera reports.
The joint appearance follows a hotly contested Democratic primary last month between El-Sayed and four-term congresswoman Haley Stevens, who had establishment backing and pro-Israel political action committee support. The day centred on a Detroit-area roundtable on Black maternal health, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“We’re building an electoral coalition here,” El-Sayed said of the economy hours before the planned appearance. He said Harris’s presence, “speaking to communities that were really empowered by her voice throughout her political career”, would further unite and strengthen the party.
The stakes are highest in Wayne County, Michigan’s largest Democratic stronghold and home to Detroit’s predominantly Black electorate, which El-Sayed failed to carry in the August primary. Black voters are seen as key to his chances, while he faces pressure among white Jewish voters who typically back Democrats. The visit comes in the shadow of Harris’s 2024 defeat to Donald Trump in Michigan, when Arab Americans who had voted reliably blue ditched the party over her pro-Israel policies.
El-Sayed urged voters to rally around shared economic priorities: “We don’t have to agree on everything to understand what is at stake.” He faces Trump-backed Republican nominee Mike Rogers, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary, in November; Rogers’s campaign called Harris’s visit a sign of weakness for both Democrats.
Sources
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