Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday described a “really warm” conversation with former President Barack Obama as the party seeks to find a path forward following last week’s bruising primary.
“I like to keep private conversations private, but it was a really, really warm conversation,” El-Sayed told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The State of the Union.” “I was really grateful for his advice, and we’ve got a long road to go here, but we’re perfectly unified in the need to win Michigan, take back the Senate, and hold Donald Trump accountable.”
During the conversation — which took place just days after El-Sayed, a progressive, narrowly defeated moderate Rep. Haley Stevens, the Democratic establishment’s preferred candidate — they discussed how to bring Democrats together to retain Michigan’s critical Senate seat in November, according to representatives for El-Sayed and Obama.
It’s the major question facing El-Sayed: Whether he can build a coalition, as Obama did in his 2008 and 2012 presidential runs, to win the battleground state. While prominent Democrats have moved quickly to back El-Sayed, he may still face an uphill battle in courting Stevens voters unhappy with his primary campaign, during which he sharply criticized his rival over her support from the pro-Israel group AIPAC.
