Former President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed had a conversation on the phone in recent days about Michigan's U.S. Senate race. El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health official from Ann Arbor, became the Democratic nominee for Michigan's open Senate seat in Tuesday's primary. He won a close and heated election against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham. Obama and ...

Mallory McMorrow after a press conference at the Spirit of Detroit, Aug. 5, 2026, in Detroit.

Andy Morrison/The Detroit News/TNS

Former President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed had a conversation on the phone in recent days about Michigan's U.S. Senate race.

El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health official from Ann Arbor, became the Democratic nominee for Michigan's open Senate seat in Tuesday's primary. He won a close and heated election against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham.

Obama and El-Sayed had an encouraging discussion Friday and look forward to working together to unite Democrats to win the state in November, El-Sayed's campaign said. The call was a signal of early support after the primary from the former president.

“Sometimes, you really should meet your heroes," El-Sayed said of the conversation.

On the campaign trail, El-Sayed has referenced Obama's political rise in discussing doubts some people have that someone with a name like his can succeed in politics.

"I've got to be honest with you: It was the first time I ever saw myself reflected in politics at all," El-Sayed previously said of Obama's White House victory in 2008.

Obama won Michigan in his presidential races in 2008 and 2012. He was the first African American elected to the White House. He could potentially be a big help to El-Sayed in the fall campaign after El-Sayed struggled in the primary in some Michigan cities with large populations of Black voters.

In Detroit, for example, Stevens got 62.2% of the city's Democratic primary vote. El-Sayed got 34.2%. Statewide, El-Sayed got 48.5%, and Stevens got 47.5%.

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers of White Lake Township has attempted to reach out to Democratic voters after the divisive Democratic primary, in which independent groups spent millions of dollars backing Stevens and criticizing El-Sayed.

"If you are among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless because the person who won does not represent your values," Rogers said. "Just know: There is still hope.

"Michigan deserves a senator who is ready to sit with you, hear from you and represent you."

El-Sayed and Rogers are competing for a U.S. Senate seat that's open after Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, decided against seeking another six-year term.

Since leaving the White House, Obama has regularly campaigned in Michigan in efforts to benefit Democrats in the state.

Obama appeared in an ad for Peters during his 2020 campaign for the Senate. He visited Detroit Renaissance High School in 2022 to stump for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was seeking her second term as the state's leader.

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