Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will join former President Barack Obama at a joint campaign rally later this month, drawing renewed scrutiny to a 2012 op-ed in which El-Sayed criticized Obama’s presidency. The resurfaced comments, originally published days after Obama’s 2012 re-election, have reignited debate over El-Sayed’s progressive credentials and his alignment with the Democratic Party’s trajectory.
El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the 2026 Michigan Senate race, once argued that Obama’s presidency fell short of delivering on key progressive promises. In a 2012 HuffPost op-ed, he wrote that Obama’s re-election represented a compromise for progressives rather than a fulfillment of their goals. “I realize that I have little hope because there has been less change,” El-Sayed stated. “But I have to say now what I’ve been holding in throughout his campaign and what I think all of us have to admit: Obama was not the right choice — he just wasn’t the wrong one.”
Obama, who has endorsed candidates in competitive midterm races, has not publicly addressed El-Sayed’s past criticism ahead of their joint appearance. The event is scheduled for later this month in Detroit, where Obama is expected to campaign for El-Sayed. The Michigan Senate race has become a focal point for debates within the Democratic Party about its ideological direction, with El-Sayed’s progressive policies drawing both support and scrutiny.
El-Sayed’s 2012 op-ed also criticized Obama’s international record, including strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, as well as what El-Sayed described as an underperforming economy and persistent challenges for Muslim Americans. “I feel no more dignified, no more accepted as cops throughout the country have usurped my right to walk the streets freely without fearing unjustified interference,” he wrote. “Inequality has accelerated and the divide between the haves and have-nots in our country has never been starker.”
The resurfacing of El-Sayed’s comments comes as he seeks to balance his progressive platform with appeals to broader Democratic voters. His campaign has framed him as a capitalist while emphasizing policies such as Medicare for All and progressive taxation. The joint rally with Obama is expected to highlight El-Sayed’s alignment with the Democratic Party’s priorities, even as his past criticism of Obama remains a point of discussion among political observers.