Obama to campaign with El-Sayed, the Democrat who accuses Israel of "genocide" and wants to abolish ICE

Barack Obama will travel to Michigan to campaign alongside Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The former president is scheduled to participate in an event in Detroit on Oct. 24, where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson will also be present.

Obama's visit will coincide with the first day of early in-person voting in Michigan, where El-Sayed will seek to succeed Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who is leaving the Senate after two terms.

"It is my honor and privilege to announce that President Barack Obama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24. Get. Ready," wrote El-Sayed on his X account.

Obama has already campaigned in Texas with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and appeared in a campaign ad for Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek. The former president is expected to step up his campaign activities in the coming weeks as the Nov. 3 election approaches.

El-Sayed, a physician and former director of the health departments in Detroit and Wayne County, represents the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Born to Egyptian parents, he studied at the University of Michigan, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and earned his medical degree at Columbia. If elected, he would become the first Muslim senator in the nation's history.

Republicans and the Rogers campaign are attacking him for his positions, including abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as his political ties to Hasan Piker. Piker, who campaigned alongside El-Sayed during the primaries, was harshly criticized for saying in 2019 that the United States "deserved" 9/11, a statement she later retracted. El-Sayed, who initially avoided condemning it, called it "a silly statement" and that he does not believe 9/11 was justified.

Furthermore, in an interview with CNN, El-Sayed accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza and also of being a "apartheid" state.

The Democrat will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent, member of the House of Representatives, and Republican Senate candidate in 2024, when he was defeated by Elissa Slotkin by a margin of 0.34 percentage points.

According to data from AdImpact, the race between El-Sayed and Rogers is one of the ten most expensive races of the 2026 election cycle.