Obama to rally for El-Sayed in Michigan

Former President Obama is set to rally later this month in Michigan for Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, who’s in a must-win battleground race against Republican Mike Rogers.

“It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24,” El-Sayed announced on the social platform X .

Obama’s visit will kick off the first day of in-person early voting in the Great Lakes State, as the former president gets more involved in the midterms. He will also campaign alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson.

BestReviews is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission.

The former president campaigned in Texas with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico earlier this year, and he appeared in a campaign ad with Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek this summer. The Associated Press reported that more Obama campaign stops are to be announced.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris was also in Michigan last month to boost El-Sayed, stressing the stakes of the seat for Democrats on key issues.

El-Sayed, a doctor and former head of health departments in Detroit and Wayne County, faces President Trump-endorsed Rogers, a former congressman, in a race that Cook Political Report considers a toss-up and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) puts under the “lean” Democratic label.

Rogers narrowly lost the 2024 Senate election to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), as Trump flipped the state and defeated Harris, and he is now vying for retiring Sen. Gary Peters’s (D-Mich.) seat.

Winning the seat could be pivotal to Democrats’ hopes of flipping the Senate, where they need to net four seats to take control. DDHQ now forecasts that Democrats have a narrow, 56 percent probability of winning the upper chamber, compared with a 76 percent chance of winning the House.