A rally timed to the start of early voting

Barack Obama will head to Detroit this month to rally with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a show of establishment support for a progressive insurgent in a top Senate contest. Michigan's Democratic party announced on Monday that the former president will appear with El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson, the state's Democratic gubernatorial nominee, on 24 October.

The timing is pointed: the Obama Michigan rally falls on the first day of the state's in-person early voting period, 10 days before election day. El-Sayed confirmed the appearance on social media:

Why Obama's presence matters in Detroit

Obama's pull is strongest in Detroit, a city that is more than three-quarters Black and where the former president remains highly popular. That pull did not carry to El-Sayed in the primary: Haley Stevens won Wayne county, which includes Detroit, with about 51% of the Democratic vote to his 45%.

• •Some spots promoting Stevens recycled old footage of Obama praising her - critics called that misleading, since he had endorsed no one in the race.
• •El-Sayed, meanwhile, campaigned last month alongside Kamala Harris, the first Black and south Asian vice-president.
• •Obama also phoned El-Sayed after the primary.

A primary fought with record money

The appearance follows an August primary in which El-Sayed, a doctor and former Wayne county health director, survived tens of millions spent in an out-of-state ad blitz to defeat congresswoman Haley Stevens by less than a percentage point, a result that made the race a national proxy battle over the party's direction. Stevens and her allies outspent El-Sayed's side nearly nine to one on advertising, according to AdImpact.

• •Medicare for All anchored his platform, paired with a refusal of corporate PAC money; Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were among his backers.
• •He campaigned against US military aid to Israel and criticized its conduct in Gaza, placing both at the center of his run.
• •Aipac and its allies spent a record-breaking $30m trying to stop him.
• •Stevens, a moderate, was backed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, incumbent senator Gary Peters and the party establishment.

The contest that follows and Obama's next steps

El-Sayed now faces Republican former congressman Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Gary Peters, a race among the handful that will determine Senate control next year. Michigan's contest is described as one of the most consequential Senate races in the country. Rogers was the Republican nominee in 2024 and lost that race to Elissa Slotkin despite Trump winning the state. A Marist poll of registered voters from late September had El-Sayed ahead 51% to 44%.

According to the New York Times, El-Sayed, who has sworn off corporate donations and made opposing big money in politics a theme, traveled to New York for a fundraiser. Donors in the top "all star" tier were asked for $57,800, divided between his campaign, the Michigan Democratic party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Ocasio-Cortez and the city's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, were expected to attend.

The Detroit stop sits inside a wider calendar. Obama has shared Texas stages this year with Senate nominee James Talarico and gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa, and Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek put him in an ad. This week he tops the bill at a Washington fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, working with the group for the first time this cycle. About two dozen recorded ads for Democratic governor and Senate candidates follow in coming weeks, with more stops expected.