'I'm coming to change our politics': Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on his run for the U.S. Senate

[0:00] A hugely consequential Senate race is unfolding in the state of Michigan. [0:04] The two-term incumbent, the Democratic Senator Gary Peters, is retiring. [0:08] Now, for Democrats to win back control of the Senate, they are likely going to have to hold on to Michigan, which we at the moment have as a toss-up. [0:16] In 2024, Michigan elected the Democrat, Alyssa Slotkin, by a margin of only 0.3 percent. [0:21] That was fewer than 20,000 votes, while the state also voted for Donald Trump. [0:25] On the Democratic side, there is a highly competitive three-way primary race to succeed Gary Peters, among them former Wayne County Health Director Abdul Al-Sayed and Straight Senator Mallory McMorrow and Congresswoman Haley Stevens. [0:41] I want to tell you a little bit about all three here. [0:43] Abdul Al-Sayed has a medical degree and a background in public health. [0:47] In 2015, he became the city of Detroit's health director. [0:50] He ran for governor of Michigan in 2018, losing in the primary to Gretchen Wittner, the current governor of the state. [0:57] He then served as the health director of Wayne County. [1:00] He's widely described as progressive. [1:02] He centered his campaign on calls for Medicare for All and has an endorsement from Bernie Sanders. [1:08] Mallory McMorrow left a career in industrial design to run for the Michigan State Senate, where she was elected in 2018, knocking out a Republican incumbent. [1:16] In 2022, she went viral for a speech standing up against Republican attacks on LGBTQ kids. [1:24] A self-described pragmatic Democrat, she's running a campaign highlighting accomplishments like raising the state's minimum wage and has the endorsement of Elizabeth Warren. [1:33] Haley Stevens worked for President Obama's auto industry rescue and created an online job training program for manufacturing workers before running for Congress in 2018, where she won, flipping a Republican-held seat. [1:46] According to reporting from The New York Times and Politico, she's aligned privately with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. [1:54] The minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said that he supports her. [1:57] Stevens has the endorsement of something called the Mod Squad, a group of moderate Senate Democrats. [2:02] She's also positioned herself as a strongly pro-Israel candidate, and AIPAC has promoted her candidacy, while both El-Sayed and McMorrow have described Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide. [2:13] Each of these three candidates makes a case for a different path forward for Democrats, so we have invited all three to appear on the show. [2:21] Two of them, Abdul El-Sayed and Mallory McMorrow, have agreed, and you will hear from both of them in a few moments. [2:28] Joining me now is Abdul El-Sayed. [2:30] Welcome to the show. [2:31] Thank you for being with us. [2:32] Thanks so much for having me, Ali. [2:33] All right, so, you know, I'm looking at the numbers. [2:35] We've got the state as a toss-up. [2:37] It's tight. [2:37] Michigan is a tight race. [2:39] Every time there's an election there, why do you believe that you're the best chance to keep this in Democratic hands? [2:45] So, Michigan hasn't had a Republican senator since 1994, and right now we're running against a guy named Mike Rogers. [2:53] So, when I'm the nominee, I'm going to tell you his biggest weakness is the fact that he took 60 votes to raise prescription drug prices, then helped to architect the opioid epidemic, then took a $14 million payout from the pharma industry to become a lobbyist and moved to Florida. [3:07] This is a guy who could not get the endorsement of Donald Trump until he begged for it at Mar-a-Lago. [3:13] So, he's not well-liked by his own party, and he's certainly not liked by the state because he hasn't lived here for a very long time. [3:19] I'm a guy who rebuilt the health department, led the rebuilding to do things like put glasses on kids, eliminate medical debt, put Narcan in 100 different locations. [3:29] Who better to prosecute the case against him than me? [3:32] The other thing I'll tell you is that I've just been clear about what I'm running on. [3:35] I want to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, and pass Medicare for all. [3:39] These are things that are broadly popular across my state because they're the right thing to do. [3:44] So, there are people who argue that these are broadly popular, particularly in a primary. [3:47] General election voters are a little bit different. [3:50] There are some who've argued you're too far over to the left, and there are some who argue that you're calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide put you outside of the mainstream of the Democratic Party. [4:01] Well, I'll tell you this. [4:02] Everywhere I go, I've been to over 100 different cities, more than 400 public events. [4:07] I've never met somebody who's like, listen, I just want more money in politics, less money in my pocket, and Medicare for none. [4:12] The truth of this is that they're actually really quite popular. [4:14] The problem with it is this, is that too often, both Democrats and Republicans, we have these bipartisan consensus around issues that are critical to people's lives because both parties tend to take money from the same corporations that want to rig the system against us. [4:27] There is nobody that I've met. [4:28] I've talked to folks who voted for Donald Trump three times who come up to me and say, I'm supporting you. [4:32] And the reason why is they say, you're actually America first. [4:35] You actually want to make sure that I have health care. [4:37] You don't take money from the corporations that buy off either side of the aisle. [4:41] So, I actually think these are broadly popular. [4:43] The problem is that we don't test this hypothesis because you get too many people who want to maintain that consensus, who tell you that if you actually run against that consensus, then you can't possibly win. [4:52] Well, we're going to test that hypothesis in the fall, and I think we're going to show that you can win by big numbers, especially against a guy like Mike Rogers. [4:58] So, you know I love Michigan. [5:00] I'm there as much as I can be. [5:01] Well, you're from Canada. [5:01] I'm from Canada, right. [5:02] You're basically from Michigan. [5:03] We're basically from Michigan. [5:04] And one of the things I love about Michigan is that everybody in Michigan understands every issue we're dealing with today, whether it's trade or manufacturing, whatever. [5:11] It all roads go through Michigan, which means these people are convincible voters by your Republican opponent if you get the nomination or you. [5:20] What's the argument? [5:21] Is it mostly economics? [5:23] I think it's mostly economics, but it's also the narrative we tell about why the economics have become so frustrating for people. [5:28] I think you just look at the history of Michigan, went for Bernie, then it went for Trump, that's 2016, then it went for Biden, and then it went for Trump. [5:36] It's either the Michiganders are schizophrenic, but you've been to Michigan, you know Michiganders are pretty steady-eddy type of folks, or it's that they go to the buffet and they don't find what they want. [5:46] And so my point is this, stop trying to pretend like there's something in the middle. [5:50] Stop trying to apply this frame that always proves wrong. [5:53] What people want are politicians who are going to work for them, that remind them that actually things can be better, and explain to them why they're not. [6:01] When both sides of the aisle are bought off by the same corporations or special interests, so that there's a bipartisan consensus on every issue from Israel to trade to healthcare, what are you actually getting? [6:12] And so it's important, I think, to be challenging that consensus. [6:14] I'm a Democrat. [6:15] I love my party. [6:16] I just want my party to be better. [6:17] Are you okay with it being a big tent? [6:18] In other words, can you manage the fact that not everybody will share, whether your view is on Israel or on Medicare for All? [6:26] Can the Democratic Party be that party for people like you and people in the party who you don't agree with? [6:31] I think it has to be, but here's the bigger question. [6:33] The question is, do you align the tent by putting everybody on the outside of it and going to pander to every side, or do you bring everybody in the tent to the middle about the things that unite us all? [6:43] I don't care who you are, how you pray, if you pray, who you love, how you identify. [6:47] You need housing. [6:48] You need healthcare. [6:49] You need a job that's going to be there for you tomorrow. [6:52] You need to know that AI isn't coming for everything in your existence. [6:55] These are things we all can agree on. [6:56] But here's the problem. [6:57] When the corporations who are taking away your healthcare, who are making housing unattainable, who are bringing you AI, buy off both sides of the party, then the question becomes, what are you even campaigning on? [7:06] So I don't take that money. [7:07] It is critical to me. [7:09] Money out of politics is the first place. [7:10] How do you do that? [7:11] How do you do that? [7:11] Because there's so much money in politics. [7:13] How do you decide you're going to be the one who's not taking it? [7:16] You run a campaign by reaching out to every day. [7:18] But you've got to pay for stuff. [7:19] You do. [7:19] You've got to take ads. [7:20] And it turns out that when you tell folks you're not bought off by the corporations, 100,000-plus people decide that they want to give you $5, $10 at a time. [7:28] Our average contribution is under $50. [7:31] We've got people from all walks of life, all 50 states, all over the state, who've given to this campaign. [7:36] Now, look, I'm getting vastly outspent by AIPAC, who's already dropped $18 million for one of my opponents. [7:42] But at the end of the day, I'd take a message over their money any day. [7:46] Because if you've got to be corrupted to be the mouthpiece for an organization that tells us that the most important aspect of our foreign policy is to backstop a foreign government or go fight wars that we have no business fighting, [7:56] I think at some point Michiganders are going to look at you and be like, nope, not that one. [7:59] Your primary is in August. [8:00] It's a little late. [8:01] It gets a bit hot at times. [8:03] What happens if you don't win? [8:05] Will you support your ticket? [8:06] We've got to beat Mike Rogers. [8:07] Mike Rogers is going to be nothing but an errand boy for Donald Trump. [8:11] This is a guy who hasn't thought an original thought since probably 1989 or so. [8:14] And I think we have an opportunity to beat him. [8:18] Any of us could beat him. [8:19] But I make the better case in every poll, poll after poll, that I could beat him. [8:23] Now, it's interesting to me because the establishment of my party seems to oppose me because they say I'm unelectable. [8:28] Here's the funny thing the polls suggest otherwise. [8:30] I think their issue is not that they're afraid I would lose. [8:32] I think their issue is that they're afraid I would win. [8:34] And look, I'm coming to change our politics, nothing less. [8:38] We cannot continue to tell working people that we're on their side if we're taking money from the corporations who are making their lives that much more difficult. [8:45] Abdul, thanks for taking time to be with us tonight. [8:46] Thanks for having me. [8:47] Abdul Al-Sayed is a Democratic candidate for Michigan Senate. [8:49] He's a former local public health official.