Kamala Harris jumps into the midterms aiming to boost Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan

(CNN) — Kamala Harris campaigned Tuesday with Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, predicting that the progressive will become a “national voice” during a joint appearance between two Democrats in a state crucial to the party’s fortunes in this fall’s midterms — and the presidential primary to follow.

Harris and El-Sayed held a roundtable focused on Black maternal healthcare — an issue Harris focused on as vice president — as they sought to rally a fractured Democratic electorate six weeks from Election Day.

“I’m here to support Dr. El-Sayed because on this subject, I know he will be a champion. And I have a right to say that,” Harris said.

At a separate event in Detroit, Harris was pointed in her critique of President Donald Trump as she urged voters to turn out for El-Sayed in November.

“We are witnessing the most callous, corrupt, and incompetent presidential administration we have ever experienced in the history of America,” she said at a fireside chat with faith leaders.

The former vice president’s return to the campaign trail comes amid a swirl of speculation about her future whose political plans, which are a subject of intense debate within the Democratic Party. Michigan, which Harris narrowly lost in 2024, isn’t just a swing state in general elections — it’s also poised to become one of the first six states to vote in the Democratic nominating process under a new calendar approved by the Democratic National Committee this year.

Harris could help strengthen El-Sayed’s appeal to Black voters, who largely opposed him in a combative Democratic primary this summer.

At one point during the roundtable, the former vice president said that they had reached “the point of our new relationship where I’m going to call you Abdul.”

“Perfect, please,” El-Sayed said. “For me, it’s going to be Madam Vice President.” Harris responded that the title was “appropriate.”

Harris criticized Trump’s administration for slashing funding for research and health care, and said that the administration’s “attack on DEI is an attack on maternal care.”

“An attack on DEI — to recognize diversity, equity and inclusion — is an attack, by definition, on maternal care, including the need to protect Black women in connection with their pregnancy, child birth and postpartum care,” she said.

Harris said El-Sayed would be a check on Trump during the final two years of his presidency.

“The United States Senate should be a stopgap on the abuses of this administration, and I would suggest to you that the fellow sitting to my right would be one of them when elected,” she said.

Harris’ robust schedule

Harris attended a private reception with Michigan leaders hosted by the Oakland County Democratic Party and its chair, former US Rep. Brenda Lawrence, where the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jocelyn Benson, is expected to speak, a source familiar with the matter said.

In the evening, Harris met with Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP’s Detroit branch; Rev. Genetta Hatcher of The Room Church; and other faith leaders in an event focused on voter turnout.

“They’re cheating,” Harris said of Republicans. “They are throwing obstacles in our way. We have power and so in this environment with 42 days to go to the midterms, what I would say is that we have got to turn out the vote in large numbers so large that we will be too big to rig.”

It’s a notably robust schedule for Harris, who also plans to campaign with Democrats in Georgia and Nevada in the coming weeks, as she weighs a third run for president in 2028.

“People like her,” Anthony told CNN on Monday. “People like the fact that this African American woman who was vice president, for the first time in the nation’s history, is coming back to the ‘D’ to talk to us about the importance of voting.”

Anthony said that “nobody has a lock on anything” when it comes to the 2028 primary — echoing the sentiments of several other Michiganders who spoke to CNN.

Stephanie Stamps, a Democratic voter from Farmington, said she “possibly” would want to see Harris run for president in 2028, but noted “there might be better candidates at this point.”

“I don’t feel like she had the best shake” in 2024, said Stamps, arguing then-President Joe Biden should have dropped out earlier to allow for a full nominating contest to play out. “I think she would have done a good job, but I think she’s gone a little bit underground since that point, or at least I haven’t seen a lot of her.”

Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to win control of the chamber in November. Crucial to that math is holding onto the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan — a battleground state, to be sure, but one that is generally more favorable to Democrats than other states with competitive Senate races this fall including Alaska, Texas and Ohio.

Harris and El-Sayed, a former public health official in Wayne County, are seeking to unify a Democratic Party fractured by his hard-fought primary against Rep. Haley Stevens for the Senate nomination.

El-Sayed won the primary on the strength of his support among progressives. But Black voters, including Anthony, largely backed Stevens. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee, has openly appealed to Black Democrats as well as Jewish voters amid El-Sayed’s sharp criticism of Israel and an initial statement about an antisemitic attack in March on a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, near Detroit.

Anthony, who endorsed Stevens in the primary, said an El-Sayed endorsement is “still a work in progress.”

“I think he’s a good man. I really believe that. I think that he’s saying some of the right things,” he said.

Two years ago, Harris and El-Sayed were on opposite sides of a key political debate in Michigan. El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel, initially supported the “Uncommitted” movement, a push to vote against Biden in the state’s Democratic primary over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Michigan Democrat eventually supported Harris as the nominee as she campaigned against Trump. But Harris still had to navigate the angst within her own party over the administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, and frustration from Arab American voters and supporters of the “Uncommitted” movement played into her loss in the state.

At the fireside chat on Tuesday, Anthony said, “Many of us were angry, and some still are because of the uncommitted vote, and people that we felt should’ve stood up and did not.”

Harris noted El-Sayed endorsed her soon after she became the Democratic nominee, and she decided to visit the state “to support his candidacy and to urge everyone to not only vote for him but to get out the vote.”

“It is OK if people are still carrying some pain about the outcome of that election. I understand that. I do too,” she said. “But when we look at the stakes at this present moment, we cannot take ourselves out the game.”

Harris added, “It’s OK to not be in love with a candidate. It’s OK to vote and ask everybody else to vote because this choice is better than that one.”

Ahead of El-Sayed’s appearance with Harris, another intraparty critic lined up behind his campaign.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish and who had spoken about the tension some Jewish Democrats feel in the race, said in a joint appearance with El-Sayed on the podcast “For the Sake of the Argument with Lori Goldman” that she is supporting him over Rogers because in her view “there is no choice.”

“We have one candidate that I know is going to fight against the Trump administration; is going to fight to protect both our physical security, our safety, our health and our futures,” Nessel said of El-Sayed.

“And then we have another candidate, Mike Rogers, who’s not going to do any of that, and who only cares about self-enrichment and, you know, how many pats on the back he can get from Donald Trump,” she said. “I don’t want to say the choice is easy, but I am going to say there is no choice.”

El-Sayed said he was grateful for Nessel’s support because “we haven’t always agreed,” and the two shook hands.

El-Sayed urges Democrats to embrace ‘a mature politics’

Ahead of their joint appearance on Tuesday, El-Sayed acknowledged to reporters that he had differences with Harris, particularly over the conflict in Gaza. But he said he hopes Democrats “don’t reinforce the mistakes of the past that break us apart and start thinking about where do we go in the future.”

“I’ll tell you this: my disagreements with the then vice president’s positions on Gaza are clear, and I still disagree with the position on which she ran in 2024,” El-Sayed told reporters on Tuesday. “There are going to be issues on which there are disagreements in the party, and there’s a lot of issues on which there are agreements. So what does it look like to bring people together around the issues on which we agree? That’s what a mature politics looks like.”

Despite her loss in Michigan in 2024, El-Sayed told CNN he believes Harris still has sway with a substantial group of voters and her visit will help bridge the divides of the party heading into the general election.

“I think her presence here, speaking to communities that were really empowered by her voice throughout her political career … will help us to continue to bring our coalition together and build the broadest possible coalition to defeat Mike Rogers in November,” El- Sayed said.

When asked if Harris should run for president in 2028, El-Sayed said, “I’m focused on 2026.”

Publicly, Harris has repeatedly said when asked about a 2028 run that she is “thinking about it” — and has offered no timeline for a decision. “I have not decided if I’m going to run again,” Harris said at her final event of the day. “I do sincerely believe 28 won’t matter if we don’t get through 26.

In addition to the Michigan trip, Harris is planning to campaign with Democrats in Nevada and Georgia in the coming weeks.

“I think it’s important that we bring different groups of people together. The thing about democracy is — it’s not about dividing. It’s about bringing people together,” El-Sayed said in an interview with CNN on Labor Day. “I’m grateful for the folks that she’s willing to talk to on our behalf.”

Stamps, who is supporting El-Sayed in the Senate race, said she hopes Harris can convince those voters who didn’t cast ballots in 2024 because they “thought maybe it would be closer to a slam dunk” to turn out in this election.

“Hopefully, we’ll get out and vote this time, since it’s kind of proven that if you don’t, who knows what we’re going to end up with,” Stamps said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Meridith Edwards contributed to this report.

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