Obama rallies rapturous Michigan crowd for El-Sayed: ‘He’ll finish the job we started’

Former president speaks to crowd of thousands in support of Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate and Democratic ticket

Barack Obama told a Detroit crowd on Saturday that Abdul El-Sayed was “fighting for change, real change, that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket”, as he threw his weight behind the Democratic Senate candidate and the rest of the ticket on the first day of early voting in Michigan.

Obama said in front of thousands of onlookers at Cass technical high school in Detroit that El-Sayed would “finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guarantee quality, affordable healthcare to every single American”.

The former president headlined the rally for El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate, and secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, the party’s candidate for governor, at an evening event to “get out the vote”.

He accused Donald Trump of “enriching himself and his family”, and said the administration had set a “culture … at the top” of taking favors. “Never seen a president so intent on selling favors like this,” he said.

The rally came on the first day of Michigan’s early voting period, with the general election on 3 November. It was also Obama’s first weekend of in-person campaigning during the midterms, which started in Cleveland, Ohio, earlier in the day to stump for the former Ohio senator Sherrod Brown and Democratic nominee for governor Amy Acton earlier in the weekend. He issued similarly scathing remarks aimed at the White House and the GOP.

The Detroit stop is Obama’s first public show of support for El-Sayed, who emerged from a bitter August primary in which the former president stayed on the sidelines. El-Sayed, a doctor and former Wayne county health official, beat the moderate congresswoman Haley Stevens who was riding on the backing of the Democratic establishment and pro-Israel organizations.

Obama was on the offensive against the administration, mocking the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, as “laser-focused” on the “jawline and testosterone levels of our troops”, asking: “How much time do you think this man spends in front of the mirror every day?”

On tariffs, Obama said Trump was toughest on “that well-known evil empire”, referring to Canada, a few minutes’ drive from Detroit across the bridge. “These are the people who gave us Martin Short and maple syrup,” he said.

He even took a jab at Trump’s attempts to renovate the White House. “He should be on HGTV,” Obama said of the many renovations in Washington, including the White House ballroom and the Rose Garden. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Questions had hung over whether Obama would back El-Sayed at all. El-Sayed, a champion of Medicare for All, had at one point called the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature domestic achievement, an incremental fix. The two men spoke by phone after the primary, and El-Sayed has since called Obama a mentor figure.