Harris joins El-Sayed in Detroit as Democrats seek unity ahead of midterms
El-Sayed says the appearance is intended to bring Democrats together around economic priorities after divisions in the August primary and 2024 election.
Former US vice-president Kamala Harris appeared with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit, where he framed the visit as an effort to build Democratic unity ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Speaking before the planned appearance, El-Sayed said the party needed to bridge divisions exposed in last month’s primary and the 2024 presidential election. He said he and Harris shared a focus on voters facing economic hardship.
The event targeted Wayne County, the state’s largest Democratic stronghold. El-Sayed did not carry the county in the August primary, which he contested against four-term Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
The Al Jazeera report linked Michigan’s 2024 result to discontent among Arab-American voters over Harris’s Israel policy, saying many in the state withheld support or left the Democratic Party. It provided no figures for the number of voters involved.
El-Sayed faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in November. Rogers’s campaign criticised Harris’s visit as a sign of Democratic weakness; El-Sayed argued that building a winning coalition required confronting past differences. The appearance’s effect on party unity or the Senate race is not established.
