▶ Watch Video: Abdul El-Sayed talks unifying Democrats and views on spending for Israel
Former Michigan health official Abdul El-Sayed, who is now projected to win the state’s Democratic Senate primary, said Wednesday that “there’s a lot of healing to do after a hard-fought primary like this.”
“But I have said that this is a big open movement. We welcome anybody and everybody who understands that we need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” El-Sayed said on “CBS Mornings.”
El-Sayed, 41, has been locked in a heated primary against Rep. Haley Stevens in the Great Lakes State for the Democratic nomination in a key Senate contest. El-Sayed’s campaign declared victory earlier Wednesday morning.
El-Sayed said he and Stevens had not had a chance to speak yet, adding, “We’ve got to bring the party together, and I know both she and I are committed to doing that.”
“We’ve only got 13 weeks to beat a guy who has no business being in the U.S. Senate, and so I’m looking forward to that conversation,” El-Sayed said. “I’m grateful for the hard-fought race that we had, and the things that united us, and the things that unify us are so much bigger than any of the things that divided us.”
The winner of the primary will face off against former Rep. Mike Rogers in November, who ran unopposed in the primary after narrowly losing to Sen. Elissa Slotkin in the 2024 race for Michigan’s other Senate seat. Michigan, traditionally a Democratic state which hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1994, has voted for President Trump twice. The seat is among a handful that Democrats are defending this cycle, which are crucial to determining the party that controls the chamber.
El-Sayed said his campaign set out from its start to “build a movement — to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, pass Medicare for All.”
“Mike Rogers is a guy who wants to put more money in politics,” El-Sayed claimed. “So I think the things that bring us together are so much bigger. And the focus that we need to have to take on Mike Rogers and the Trumpism that he’s chosen to represent are the things that are going to bring us together.”
While El-Sayed, who ran on a leftist platform, secured the backing of prominent progressives in the Senate primary, his opponent was backed by many national Democrats, who pitched the more moderate candidate as more electable. Asked about his message to national Democrats who didn’t support him, El-Sayed said, “We have an opportunity right now to remember what it is that we’re up against,” citing the Trump administration.
“Whatever we may differ on, it is so much smaller than what we agree on,” he added. “So I’m looking forward to locking arms to defeat Mike Rogers and to beat Trumpism, to hold him accountable for the next several years, and to elect a president who believes in the value of democracy and wants to take on the responsibility of providing people healthcare and standing up for things like good schools and opportunity in our country.”
El-Sayed added, “I hope that today we can come together.”