Michigan Democrats have begun their effort to pull together for the November elections, starting with an all-nominee rally and a phone conversation between Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Barack Obama. The party gathered its full ticket in a Detroit gym on Friday, casting the November election as a choice between "the people or power" and betting big on a progressive message led by El-Sayed. The event at Renaissance High School unveiled a "One Team Michigan" coordinated campaign aimed at door-knocking, phone banking, and turning out voters, the Detroit Free Press reports. On the same day, Obama called El-Sayed and the candidate who lost the Senate primary, Rep. Haley Stevens, to talk about a united campaign.
El-Sayed told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that his chat with the former president was a "really, really warm conversation," per the New York Times. Among the speakers at the Detroit kickoff was former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. "We're going to win because we know what it means to focus on what's at stake, to lock arms as allies after a spirited primary, to pull together in common cause," he told the crowd. Gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson said the campaign is "our opportunity to grow our coalition to include citizens in every corner of the state," per the Detroit News. "We can take the victory we saw on Tuesday and deliver another one this fall for all of us."
El-Sayed drew the loudest response as he pushed themes including "money out of politics, money in your pocket, medical for all." He called for keeping tax dollars at home rather than funding overseas wars and answered what party Chair Curtis Hertel described as GOP "whisper" attacks on his American identity. Supporters in the crowd, including longtime backers and younger voters energized by calls for "Medicare for All" and taxing billionaires—described feeling newly hopeful and welcomed back by the Democratic Party, per the Free Press.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
