{"id":6401,"date":"2026-09-11T07:49:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/09\/11\/abdul-el-sayed-kicks-off-town-hall-tour-in-detroit\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T07:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:49:08","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-kicks-off-town-hall-tour-in-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/09\/11\/abdul-el-sayed-kicks-off-town-hall-tour-in-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed kicks off town hall tour in Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow aligncenter\" data-effect=\"slide\" style=\"--aspect-ratio:calc(2400 \/ 1600)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_swiper-wrapper swiper-wrapper\">\n<li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\">\n<figure><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Abdul El-Sayed speaks to attendees at the Shouldn\u2019t Be This Hard Town Hall Tour at the Wayne County Community District North West Campus Thursday afternoon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-616903\" data-id=\"616903\" data-aspect-ratio=\"2400 \/ 1600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?w=2400&amp;ssl=1 2400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/isa.NEW_.AbdulRally.09.10.26.02-3.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Abdul El-Sayed answers questions by attendee at the Shouldn\u2019t Be This Hard Town Hall Tour at the Wayne County Community District North West Campus Thursday afternoon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-616901\" data-id=\"616901\" data-aspect-ratio=\"2400 \/ 1600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?w=2400&amp;ssl=1 2400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_1617-3.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Abdul El-Sayed speaks to attendees at the Shouldn\u2019t Be This Hard Town Hall Tour at the Wayne County Community District North West Campus Thursday afternoon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a aria-label=\"Pause Slideshow\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause\" role=\"button\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hundreds of Detroit residents gathered at the Health Science Center in Detroit Wednesday evening for the first stop of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PollTracker2024\/status\/2095302968744501502\/photo\/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2095302968744501502%7Ctwgr%5E978efe5db22471bbc6547531cd7c6dd10e9868c8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdemocraticunderground.com%2F105814459\">\u201cShouldn\u2019t Be This Hard\u201d<\/a> town hall tour. The tour is part of El-Sayed\u2019s push to court voters ahead of the Nov. 3 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/government\/abdul-el-sayed-wins-u-s-senate-primary-in-michigan-will-face-mike-rogers-in-november\/\">general election<\/a> against former U.S. Representative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/government\/mike-rogers-secures-republican-primary-in-michigan-will-face-abdul-el-sayed-in-november\/\">Mike Rogers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event comes roughly eight weeks before Election Day and just a day after President Donald J. Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=__7RT7sYpGc&amp;source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uspresidentialelectionnews.com%2F&amp;themeRefresh=1\">speech<\/a> in Dallas mentioned El-Sayed. Unlike the primary-season rallies that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/government\/el-sayed-and-stevens-trade-jabs-over-campaign-finance-dte-in-primary-debate\/\">pitted<\/a> El-Sayed against fellow Democrats U.S. Representative Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, Wednesday\u2019s town hall focused on drawing a direct contrast between El-Sayed and Rogers on healthcare, food safety, artificial intelligence and the cost of living.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El-Sayed acknowledged Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2026\/09\/10\/trump-convention-speech-abdul-el-sayed\/91685111007\/\">attacks<\/a> against him during his Dallas speech, arguing the country\u2019s political dysfunction runs deeper than any one man in the Oval Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDonald Trump is not himself the disease of our politics,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s just the worst symptom of the disease of our politics. The disease is the system that allows big corporations and millionaires and special interests to buy and sell politicians in ways that leave them rigging the system against us.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After his introduction speech, El-Sayed invited attendees to ask questions about his campaign and policy issues. Attendee Caron Houston, a Detroit resident, told El-Sayed she identifies as an independent after growing disillusioned with what she described as the Democratic Party\u2019s unwillingness to act boldly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI consider myself a recovering Democrat, primarily because of \u2014 I\u2019m going to say it \u2014 the cowardice of some other Democrats,\u201d Houston said. \u201cIf the Dems win back the House and the Senate, will the progressives and (Democratic Socialists of America) be able to create a critical mass to push through the policies you have been running on?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El-Sayed responded, asserting legislative follow-through is as much a matter of political courage as it is strategy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think sometimes we\u2019re afraid of our own shadow,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cWe assume that all people aren\u2019t going to like it. \u2018We shouldn\u2019t be talking about immigration.\u2019 Yes, we should. What are you afraid of? What are we afraid of? And people will see that on you. They\u2019ll see when you have the courage of your convictions to stand in and say, \u2018I believe in certain things, I think you should, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview with The Michigan Daily, attendee Michelle George, a Detroit resident and advanced nurse practitioner who previously worked at the <a href=\"https:\/\/detroitmi.gov\/departments\/detroit-health-department\">Detroit Health Department<\/a>, said she wants to see El-Sayed continue to prioritize rebuilding the country\u2019s food safety infrastructure if elected.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFood safety is very critical because every minute something is popping up, and the pathogen doesn\u2019t know if you\u2019re a Democrat or Republican,\u201d George said. \u201cWe got the highest cases of cyclospora in the country, and we had two deaths. So I would like to see him, in terms of focusing on as a senator, just bringing transparency back with the (Centers for Disease Control).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When she stood and shared her sentiment, El-Sayed agreed federal cuts amount to more than government waste. He said cuts to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/\">Food and Drug Administration<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/index.html\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> likely exacerbated the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/mdhhs\/keep-mi-healthy\/infectious-diseases\/infectious-disease-outbreaks\">cyclospora outbreak<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe CDC, who\u2019s supposed to be able to keep an eye on all of this, didn\u2019t have the capacity to do it,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cWhen I get to the U.S. Senate, I\u2019m going to be the first U.S. senator who\u2019s ever been a public health official. So we\u2019ve got to be able to architect all of the services back from where they cut them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview with The Daily, El-Sayed said his campaign\u2019s traction with young voters has only grown since the primary against Stevens, and reaching them requires giving voters a direct stake in the race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe took on Goliath in the primary,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking on Goliath again in the general, and this is the kind of campaign that young people have told us that they believe in and want to be a part of. Our job is to give them the tools to have those conversations among each other and to turn this into a kind of opportunity to make sure that their voices are heard in our politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El-Sayed closed the town hall by urging attendees to treat the final weeks of the race as a shared act of civic participation, rather than a contest to be won or lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe believe in an America that has yet to be greater, and we believe that the work of that is not about telling some people that they don\u2019t belong here,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about picking and choosing winners. It\u2019s not about letting corporations run buff wild on our economy; it\u2019s about empowering everybody. Democracy is about two questions: Who are we, and who do we want to be?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Daily Staff Reporter Zahra Kagal can be reached at<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/government\/abdul-el-sayed-kicks-off-shouldnt-be-this-hard-town-hall-tour-in-detroit\/mailto:zkagal@umich.edu\"><em>zkagal@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abdul El-Sayed speaks to attendees at the Shouldn\u2019t Be This Hard Town Hall Tour at the Wayne County Community District North West Campus Thursday afternoon. Abdul El-Sayed answers questions by attendee at the Shouldn\u2019t Be This Hard Town Hall Tour at the Wayne County Community District North West Campus Thursday afternoon. Abdul El-Sayed speaks to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[3055,208,3056,1133,5472,1087,2784],"class_list":["post-6401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-abdul","tag-detroit","tag-elsayed","tag-hall","tag-kicks","tag-tour","tag-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6403,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401\/revisions\/6403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}