Obama to Campaign With El-Sayed on Oct. 24 as Black Support Lags by 16 Points
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 11
Obama to Campaign With El-Sayed on Oct. 24 as Black Support Lags by 16 Points
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 11
Summary
Barack Obama will stump with Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan on Oct. 24, the first day of early voting and 10 days before Election Day, as Democrats try to shore up a late weakness with Black voters.
A Washington Post-Schar poll found 83% of likely Black voters want Democrats to control the Senate, but only 67% back El-Sayed, a gap his campaign partly blames on heavy negative advertising.
El-Sayed has largely campaigned on universal themes such as affordability and Medicare for All rather than direct appeals to Black communities, and supporters in Flint said many Black voters remain unfamiliar or unenthusiastic.
Kamala Harris already campaigned with him last month, but it is unclear how much help establishment surrogates can provide given El-Sayed's past criticism of both Harris and Obama.
The outreach push comes as El-Sayed also confronts anti-Muslim bias; he underperformed polling in his primary and is betting broad economic discontent can still carry him statewide.