DETROIT — After the most intense primary infighting in memory, Michigan Democratic leaders — including the party’s new nominee for Senate — say it’s time to “lock arms,” “reach across the divides” and unite to win in November.
Everything from progressivism to pragmatism was on display at a unity rally here Friday night. The message from everyone, from newly minted Senate Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, focused on taking a “big tent” approach to win on issues like “Medicare for all” and getting corporate money out of politics.
Many attendees said they came to get re-energized after a bruising Democratic Senate primary; and with each speaker, the crowd became more electric. By the time El-Sayed closed the event, they were laughing at his jokes, seeming to appreciate his jabs at Republicans.
Speaking about his opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers and the GOP, El-Sayed said, “They all think that we won’t step up and fight. They think they’re the biggest, baddest bully on the playground. That they’re going to show up, and we’re going to run away. But they don’t know who we fight for.”
“We fight for the folks who are afraid about what happens if they get sick,” he continued. “We fight for each other.”
Buttigieg, who lives in Michigan, helped put that fight — and the sprint to Election Day— in context: “Now we have just 88 days to make sure that things go right.”
“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 in an election that’s going to decide, in no small part, whether the American dream comes back and the American project endures,” he said.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, the current Michigan secretary of state, and others running for other statewide offices, were also there rallying the party faithful. Notably absent, however, was the runner-up in the Senate primary race, Rep. Haley Stevens.
But El-Sayed made sure to acknowledge her. “In the spirit of coming together, I want to thank both of my colleagues who ran, Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow, for an incredible race. Their incredible public service to the state of Michigan, and I cannot wait to see what both of them will do next,” he said.
Stevens told MS NOW on Saturday that she has already begun working to help her party up and down the ballot — including Benson and El-Sayed. “It’s such a cool ticket,” she said during an appearance on “The Weekend.”
“We’re in the trenches right now in Michigan. I mean, we got to come and win a dang election,” she said, adding that she was “bobbing all over Detroit yesterday” knocking on doors.
Several Stevens voters whom the Senate Democratic nominee needs to win over attended Friday night’s event, hoping to transfer their support.
“I have to be convinced that Abdul is the person that I’m going to vote for because the person I voted for didn’t win,” Danny Katzenstein said.
“Being an old Jewish gay man … this is really hard because there are so many things that he says that are important. You know, ‘don’t send money to Israel’ or ‘keep everything here in Michigan’ and ‘let’s have [Medicare] for all,’” he said.
But El-Sayed’s position on Israel is something he will need to clarify with voters like Katzenstein.
“I believe that Israel has the right to exist. I don’t know if he believes that Israel has the right to exist. I just don’t know, so that’s why I’m here. I want to hear that,” Katzenstein said. “I want him to say Israel has the right to exist.” Still, he said he’ll be voting Democratic down the ballot no matter what.
“I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about the election in general,” Democrat Barbara Ilkka from Saginaw, Michigan, said outside the rally.
“I’m not even sure what camp I fall into, you know, I think I have a lot of issues to get to know better, myself. So I think I am more progressive than traditional, but especially since we haven’t had much success with the traditional route, so I’m ready for some things to happen,” she said.
Asked by MS NOW before he he took the stage Friday how he plans to woo Stevens’ voters to his coalition in a must-win Senate race for Democrats, El-Sayed said, “The question now is, are we willing to reach across the divides they tell us we can’t breach? The other side is going to hit us with cynicism. They’re going to hit us with division, and our job is to come back with unity and hope to build the future that we want for ourselves and our kids.”
Katybeth Davis, a Monroe County resident who has been door knocking and calling voters on behalf of El-Sayed, expressed optimism that the Democratic Party will move forward.
“No matter our differences and the way we live our lives, we have a common goal, and that’s for everybody to be equal at the end of the day,” she said.
“Hope is still alive. It didn’t go away. We still have it. We’ve been fighting here in Michigan every day for it,” Davis said.
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