Washington — Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed met with Senate Democrats on Wednesday as they look to rally around his candidacy in the final sprint to November’s election.
Leaving the meeting, which took place at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters near the Capitol, Senate Democrats expressed enthusiasm around El-Sayed and his message.
“He’s a great candidate. He’s going to win, and we are all united,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who chairs the DSCC.
El-Sayed won the Michigan Democratic primary last month against a more moderate candidate who was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. But since then, Democrats have sought to bridge ideological divides on display this cycle, as they fight to hold onto the seat following Sen. Gary Peters’ decision not to seek reelection.
Peters told reporters that the meeting was “a great opportunity” for senators to meet El-Sayed “and understand he’s really a great, strong candidate.”
“He certainly showed that to everybody, and we’re all excited about his campaign,” Peters said. “And I know they’re all looking forward to serving with him when he wins this fall.”
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a potential presidential candidate in 2028, said he plans to go to Michigan to campaign with El-Sayed.
El-Sayed spoke to reporters after the meeting and said his message to skeptical Democrats was focused on how the Michigan race could be key to winning a majority in the upper chamber, which would enable Democrats to “hold Donald Trump accountable” and to “start legislating.”
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“We are united in so much more than people like to point to that seems to divide Democrats,” El-Sayed said, citing issues like healthcare access, reproductive rights and labor issues. “These are the things that actually bring us together and we have an opportunity to actually get to work to address them.”
Asked whether he needs Schumer’s PAC to invest in the race, he said, “We’re having really productive conversations about what it takes to win.” El-Sayed was expected to meet with Schumer later Wednesday, and said he was looking forward to a “productive meeting.”
The former Michigan health official backs progressive policies like Medicare for All and getting money out of politics. In the primary, he had the support of prominent progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. But he’s also faced scrutiny for campaigning during the primary with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker — an association that Republicans have highlighted to argue El-Sayed is too extreme for Michigan.
Asked about Piker, El-Sayed pivoted, telling reporters that the issue is “so far removed from what people are talking about” and highlighting affordability issues.
Leaving the meeting, Warren praised El-Sayed, telling reporters that he “makes good connections, because it’s a lot of people in there who are talking about, what can we do next? What can we do to lower costs for families, what can we do to make this government work better for working people?”
“Here’s a man who talks every day about the high costs that American families are facing, and the corruption that is Washington and Donald Trump,” Warren said. “It’s the life he’s lived. It’s a man who’s a public service doctor, and he’s in this fight because he wants to see an America where prices are lower for working families.”
With his primary victory, El-Sayed became the latest in a string of Democratic insurgents to defeat centrists, fueling debates about the party’s vision going forward, and raising questions about the conventional wisdom around electability. Those questions will be put to the test in November, when El-Sayed takes on former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin in the 2024 race for Michigan’s other Senate seat.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, another prominent progressive, told reporters he’s “all in” on El-Sayed and thinks his colleagues are, too.
“I do think the Democratic Party needs to be a party that stands for the working class, that has big ideas for how you’re going to reform a fundamentally broken economy,” Murphy said. “I’m sick and tired of incremental solutions to huge problems, and Abdul is somebody who’s not afraid to talk about the ways that both our politics and our economy is corrupt, and I applaud him for that.”
