Former President Barack Obama will join Abdul El-Sayed on the campaign trail in Detroit on Oct. 24, the Democratic Senate nominee announced on social media Monday.
“It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24,” El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, wrote. “Get. Ready.”
The Detroit appearance is one of several campaign stops Obama is expected to make as the midterm elections approach.
The Associated Press reported Monday that the former president is “getting significantly more involved in the midterm elections,” with “additional campaign stops and advertisements expected to come in the closing weeks.”
According to the AP, Obama “taped two dozen ads last week” for Democratic candidates running in gubernatorial and Senate races across the country.
Earlier this year, Obama “appeared earlier this year in a campaign ad with Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek and campaigned in Texas with Senate candidate James Talarico and the candidate for governor, Gina Hinojosa,” the AP reported. He is also set to headline a Democrat fundraiser in Washington, D.C.
El-Sayed clinched his party’s nomination in August after narrowly defeating Haley Stevens in the Michigan primary by less than one percentage point. He will now face Republican challenger Mike Rogers in this year’s midterms.
His primary victory was celebrated on the left as a win for progressive candidates. However, reports since then have indicated that candidates on the far left are not polling well in swing states.
El-Sayed’s first race was supported by two of the most prominent figures on the progressive left, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
But Ocasio-Cortez may not be a welcome presence for every Democrat on the ballot this cycle. In September, Axios reported that some candidates in swing states have asked the New York congresswoman to steer clear of their races.
“The polling is atrocious for her,” a Democratic strategist told the outlet. “She’s a lightning rod.”
El-Sayed has also received support from other high-profile Democrats. Former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned alongside him in September, when the pair spoke at a roundtable on Black maternal health care.
During the event, El-Sayed told attendees, “We are going to empower moms and babies not just to choose when, where with whom to have a child but also to enrobe them with love and the services that they need.”
Obama’s upcoming Detroit visit adds another big name to the list of national Democrats lining up behind El-Sayed as he heads into the final stretch of his matchup against Rogers.
The stop is part of a broader push by the former president, who, according to the AP, is ramping up his involvement in the midterms through campaign appearances, advertisements and fundraising in the closing weeks before voters head to the polls.
