The Guardian
· collected 2026-10-11 · by Charles M Blow in Flint Michigan
Abdul El-Sayed has an impressive résumé: Rhodes scholar, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, executive director of the Detroit health department.
asserted
Sayed → have → department
And, at 41, the Michigan Democratic senatorial candidate represents a new generation of politicians, a shift that he also embodies sartorially.
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he → represent → that
Whereas casual dress for many politicians is a tieless dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, El-Sayed has embraced a post-corporate, digital nomad-ish uniform: fitted black T-shirt, slim jeans and sneakers.
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Sayed → roll → uniform
His progressive politics are having a moment among liberals, and he remains unswervingly disciplined about his message: “Money Out of Politics, Money in Your Pocket, Medicare for All.”
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he → have → All
On paper he appears well-aligned to Democratic sensibilities in this moment, and he is competitive in the polls.
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he → appear → polls
But his support is softer than overall Democratic sentiment would dictate, especially among Black voters.
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sentiment → dictate → voters
A Washington Post-Schar School poll released last month found that among likely Black voters, 83% said they wanted Democrats to control the Senate yet only 67% backed El-Sayed.
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% → release → Sayed
His campaign reps attribute some of this gap to a heavily financed onslaught of negative ads run against him in the primaries, and they’re desperately trying to undo the harm.
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they → attribute → harm
But El-Sayed is attempting to do so in a novel, and risky, way: employing political universalism to focus on a common set of issues that he believes will be broadly resonant rather than focusing on the specific, sectarian and uniquely differentiated interests of the disparate groups huddled under the Democrats’ big tent.
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he → attempt → tent
In explaining his strategy, El-Sayed said, “Democratic politics too often tries to pander to folks on their differences rather than to bring us together across our similarities.”
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politics → explain → similarities
He continued: “I want to campaign on those things that all of us need and deserve in our lives.”
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all → continue → lives
It’s a lofty ideal in principle – especially for older Black voters who might be more accustomed to direct appeals.
uncertain
who → ’ → appeals
But in practice it means that group-specific concerns go unacknowledged: the “Priorities” section on his campaign website doesn’t mention the names of minority groups or the words “racial” and “racism”.
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section → mean → groups
Instead, his references are oblique, sidestepping direct invocations.
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references → sidestep → invocations
Women and LGBTQ+ Michiganders are only explicitly mentioned in a section about healthcare freedoms with his pledge to “fight to codify the rights once protected by Roe v Wade into federal law”, and a stance that he will “oppose any effort to criminalize certain medications and the use of lawfare or funding cuts to stop healthcare providers from providing full-spectrum healthcare that meet all the needs of their diverse communities”.
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that → mention → communities
The site focuses on immigration and his pledge to abolish ICE, without mentioning the words “Hispanics” or “Latinos”, even though the Detroit Metro Times reported in April that most of the people arrested by federal immigration agents in Michigan, as of that time, were from Latin America.
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most → focus → America
Under a subsection called “Civil Rights & Liberties”, El-Sayed simply promises to “protect the rights of all Americans, regardless of where they live, where their parents came from, how – or if – they pray, their sexual orientation, gender identity, how old they are or how much money they make”.
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they → call → money
And the site invokes the Flint water crisis without mentioning Black people or racism, instead saying that he will “fight for a federal water guarantee that every family has access to at least 50 gallons of clean water per person per day”.
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family → invoke → day
The closest the site gets to mentioning Black people directly is in the use of the acronym HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) among a list of education services and institutions he would seek to fund.
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he → get → services
This lack of acknowledgment may well be manifesting in a lack of enthusiasm.
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lack → manifest → enthusiasm
On 3 October, a brisk, clear Saturday, El-Sayed held a public rally in Flint, a city of roughly 80,000 people, the majority of whom are Black.
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majority → hold → whom
A line snaked around the St Michael Catholic church as people inched forward to get one of about 400 seats inside.
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people → snake → seats
But, when the event began, only about on in 10 of those seats appeared by the Guardian’s count to be filled by Black people.
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10 → begin → people
The stump speech, a little more than 20 minutes long, went much the same way that his campaign site does: sticking to the central platform message and not explicitly acknowledging the constituent demographic groups of the Democratic coalition.
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site → go → coalition
When the attenders were allowed to ask questions, Michele Kelly, a 67-year-old grandmother, lifelong Flint resident and supporter of El-Sayed, said that many people in low-income housing where she lives lack information and enthusiasm.
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she → allow → information
She asked him what he and his team could do to “get that demographic riled up and encouraged to come out” and support him.
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demographic → ask → him
Kelly said after the event that she was specifically referring to Black people in her question, and “if I hadn’t raised my hand, there wouldn’t have been no conversation about Blackness”.
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I → say → Blackness
But, in his answer, El-Sayed never directly addressed Black people, instead referring to “those folk” and “people like that” and bemoaning money in politics and a “profound lack of trust”.
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Sayed → address → trust
After El-Sayed won the primary in mid-September – without winning the Black vote – his campaign issued a press release “outlining the legislation he will introduce or support in the US Senate to directly address the priorities of Black communities across Michigan”, which included small business, home ownership, health and voting initiatives.
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which → win → initiatives
It is buried on his site’s “News” vertical under scores of other press releases issued since.
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It → bury → releases
The El-Sayed campaign said via email that “Abdul has made more than two dozen visits to Black churches and participated in upwards of 100 events and meetings with Black elected officials, community leaders and organizations across the state”.
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Abdul → say → state
About 100 people showed up, eight in 10 of whom were Black, by the organizers’ estimates.
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10 → show → estimates
Burtley says that the overwhelming feeling he detects toward El-Sayed from the Black community in Flint is “unfamiliarity”.
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he → say → Flint
Phyllis Sykes, founder and executive director of the International Center of Greater Flint, and Burtley’s cohost at the meeting, chimed in: “People were on the fence.”
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People → chime → fence
She added, “I don’t think he has really been plugged into the African American network or whatever here like I know he has with some of the international populations.”
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he → add → populations
None of that bodes well just a month out from election day.
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None → bode → day
The biggest names in Black Democratic politics are attempting to ameliorate this problem.
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names → attempt → problem
Not only did former vice-president Kamala Harris travel to Michigan to campaign with El-Sayed last month, but former president Barack Obama is also scheduled to do the same later this month.
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Obama → travel → same
Obama will stump with El-Sayed on 24 October, the first day of in-person early voting in the state, and just 10 days before election day.
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Obama → stump → day
It’s an 11th-hour appeal, although it is unclear whether the enormous goodwill Obama has accrued is transferrable.
uncertain
Obama → ’ → ?
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
