Black voters in Detroit say ads featuring President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama are part of the reason they’re voting for U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens over public health official Abdul El-Sayed in the race for Michigan’s opening U.S. Senate seat.
Stevens’ supporters have blasted the airwaves with ads featuring the former president ahead of the primary. El-Sayed supporters, who point out the fact that Obama hasn’t endorsed Stevens in the primary election, say the ads are dishonest.
The United Democracy Project, a super PAC founded by the pro-Israel lobbying group the AIPAC, has spent $2.33 million on advertising to support Stevens ahead of the Democratic primary election Aug. 4. The ads are airing through June 15 across Detroit, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Flint and Lansing media markets on CNN and MSNOW, according to ad-tracking organization AdImpact.
DW and Donna Mills of Troy told Michigan Chronicle at the African World Festival at Hart Plaza on Saturday, July 11, that they’re voting for Stevens because of her work with Obama. DW said him and his wife has seen her ads on TV, and understand “there’s a lot of money being put behind her.”
“We don’t know much about him,” Donna said of El-Sayed.
When asked about the pro-Israel organization reportedly behind the spending, the Mills’ said they aren’t anti-Israel, but do believe the ongoing war in Gaza constitutes genocide. That’s a position usually held by supporters of El-Sayed, who has been critical of the Israeli military’s handling of the response to the October 7 attacks.
“I don’t care for how this war was handled,” Donna said. “When is enough, enough?”
The Mills’ said they had also seen a television ad painting El-Sayed as a misogynist, which highlighted his comments about Michelle Obama’s childhood obesity program.
In 2010, El-Sayed wrote in the Guardian that the first-lady’s, “Let’s Move” campaign was “commendable, if ineffectual.” El-Sayed said the efforts should be more focused on addressing structural, societal factors in dealing with obesity, rather than individual habits. The opinion piece went without mention of Obama’s gender.
Another woman who spoke to Michigan Chronicle named Evelyn said, “I believe in everything she’s saying and everything she’s represented so far.”
Evelyn said she’s seen the ads, and isn’t interested in the national debate surrounding the direction of the Democratic Party. Politicos in D.C. say voters in Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary could decide whether the national party is forced to embrace progressive candidates or turn their back on them altogether ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
One of the ads show Obama speaking about Stevens at in a rally from 2017, pointing to her work with him during the auto industry bailout. Another television ad shows Stevens standing beside Obama mentioning her work as his chief of staff of the auto rescue.
“She was a critical part of my team that helped the auto industry come roaring back,” Obama says in the ads.
Though Obama has not weighed into the race between Stevens and El-Sayed, several voters told the Chronicle over the weekend they thought that he did.
“Obama arrived at the beginning of this century in a critical time for this country, but specifically for Michigan — he saved jobs and secured healthcare progress,” Stevens told Michigan Chronicle in an interview Saturday at the annual Light Up Livernois small business festival.
It was on the Avenue of Fashion over the weekend that a man from Southfield who referred to himself simply as, Hollywood, told the Chronicle he’s voting for Stevens, “because Obama said so.”
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters endorsed Stevens, his potential successor, on Monday. He joined Sen. Debbie Stabenow, his former Senate colleague in endorsing Stevens, who left the Senate in 2024. While Stevens’ big name endorsements are stacked tall, President Obama’s office confirmed to Semafor reporter Dave Weigel on Monday, July 13 that the 44th president has not picked a candidate in Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary race.
The ads have drawn criticism from supporters of El-Sayed, who say the commercials suggesting Obama endorsed Stevens are misleading.
In posts viewed more than 200,000 times on social media, Detroit City Council member Denzel McCampbell suggested the ads with Obama were “deceptive campaign tactics,” and an example of “the Black community being used as pawns in races in (Michigan).”
Dennis Boatwright, the director of the Center for Pan-African Studies in Detroit, told Michigan Chronicle he believes younger voters are turning to candidates like Zohran Mamdani or Abdul El-Sayed because they’ve been let down by the status quo.
“There is no pushback on that widely circulated campaign that she’s using him, but it also says that some of these politicians don’t have their own ideas so they have to use Obama… to give themselves credibility.”
Stevens supporters say the ads were never meant to mislead people or imply that the president endorsed her in her current race.
“It’s a fact she worked for Obama on the auto bailout,” said Jonathan Kinloch, the chair of the 13th Congressional District and a Wayne County Commissioner. Kinloch recently appeared in a television ad promoting Stevens’ relationship with Obama.
“The ad is about Haley being apart of the auto industry bailout. That’s all the ad is saying. Whether Obama weighed into this election, I was told that if you’re going to come to the party you need to be dressed for the dance. The ad isn’t about this race, it’s about what she did leading up to the race,” Kinloch said.
El-Sayed launched his own TV ad targeting Black voters last week, running a 30-second commercial with Wayne County Commissioner Martha G. Scott, highlighting his endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
The former Wayne County and Detroit health director has come under fire from opponents for supporting the February 2024 “Uncommitted” effort, which was a protest against former President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. He endorsed Harris’ campaign, but that hasn’t been enough for some within the party that viewed any effort against Democrats as one that helped the Republican Party.
“All I’d say is those activities that happened a couple years ago, who did that help?” Stevens said. “When you sat out ‘24, that vote is an important thing. People are entitled to use it as that they see fit, but we also need courageous leaders right now.”
