Obama jokes about El-Sayed's 'big guns' as he rallies Detroit

Less than 60 seconds after walking onto the rally stage at a Detroit high school, the Democratic Senate candidate abandoned his suit jacket.

Even former President Barack Obama, who joined the 41-year-old onstage, seemed in awe.

El-Sayed leads in recent polls, but only within the margin of error, and in Detroit, where he won just 31 per cent of Black primary voters.

Abdul El-Sayed's biceps can't seem to be contained.

Less than 60 seconds after walking onto the rally stage at a Detroit high school, the Democratic Senate candidate abandoned his suit jacket with its screaming buttons to an eruption of applause.

Donald Trump may be obsessed with a Republican senator's body in neighbouring Ohio, but the rest of the internet has been distracted by El-Sayed's.

Even 'serious' news outlets, like Axios and The Guardian, have reported that El-Sayed is part of the Democrats' midterm strategy of "bringing sexy back".

The right is not immune either; Fox's Ainsley Earhardt did a segment under the banner "Democrats Enter Their Thirst Trap Era".

Even former President Barack Obama, who joined the 41-year-old onstage in Detroit, seemed to be in awe.

"I mean he's just jacked! See those big guns? That's why he wears those T-shirts. I never campaigned in a T-shirt. I didn't have those big guns," he joked.

But the former president has plenty in common with the buff young doctor.

Both have built campaigns on the promise of change and breaking boundaries — the first black president and the man who could become the first Muslim senator.

Both men have also faced racism, dog whistles about their loyalty to America and questions about their names — Donald Trump calling El-Sayed by his middle name "Mohamed" in the same way he can't talk about Obama without mentioning his middle name "Hussein".

In 2008, just a month before the presidential election, Republican candidate John McCain defended Barack Obama after a constituent said she couldn't trust the man, who she called "an Arab".

"No ma'am, he's a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that's what this campaign is all about," McCain said to applause.

Eighteen years later, including two Trump presidencies, the politics of civility have all but disappeared.

Trump has repeatedly called El-Sayed a jihadist. El-Sayed's Republican opponent Mike Rogers has repeatedly tried to link him to terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood — claims he rejects.

A week ago, his response to a question about the issue from a heckler who turned out to be a former Republican staffer called "Tommy" went viral.

After asking whether El-Sayed would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, the Senate candidate answered "sure, yeah, absolutely" before asking whether the man assumed he wouldn't and comparing it to the doubts once raised about John F Kennedy's Catholicism.

Supporters cheered. Detractors called it a "word salad". Either way, it was another week talking about his faith, not his policies.

El-Sayed has run on three main areas he has recited so often that the rally crowd in Detroit effortlessly performed a call and response.

"Money out of …" called Abdul. "POLITICS!" the crowd responded.

In other words, expanding universal healthcare, banning corporate PAC donations and economic populist policies like raising wages and taxing billionaires and corporations.

He is part of the party's progressive wing, meaning his race in Michigan might be pivotal not only in Democrats' efforts to take control of the Senate but also in determining the future of the party.

It will test whether the insurgent left can win in a purple state.

It also means he has not always been a fan of Mr Obama, who many on the party's left saw as too moderate, too tough on border control, not tough enough on banks over their role in the Global Financial Crisis.

In 2012, El-Sayed put those thoughts to paper, in an op-ed criticising the man now stumping for him in Detroit.

"This leader has perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on," he wrote.

El-Sayed has since walked those comments back and on the rally stage was effusive about the inspiration Obama had been in his own political career.

"He showed us all what elegance and grace and determination look like in a politician, and he showed me something in myself that apparently I never forgot," he said.

When it was his turn to speak, Obama addressed El-Sayed's previous criticisms head-on.

"So Abdul didn't agree with some things our administration was doing while I was president. You know who else doesn't agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama," he joked.

Luckily for the 41-year-old doctor, time has healed old wounds because the support of the former president could be pivotal in this high-stakes race.

In Detroit, Black residents make up more than three-quarters of the population, and Obama is still highly popular.

In the heated primary earlier this year, those voters overwhelmingly backed El-Sayed's opponent, and the New York Times reports he is also facing "age-old animosities between the state's Black and Arab communities".

Voter Ryan Harrison expects the former president to boost El-Sayed's prospects here.

"Those eight years were extremely important for us, and it was like a time of, like, somewhat of harmony for the country. So I think what it'll do for Abdul is put him on the same path and the same trajectory that things might go that same way."

He also sees similarities between the two men.

"He's honest, he is a great speaker, he is a professional, he is very experienced, and also he's progressive. At the moment we need to hope and change and I think that's what Obama is going to do for us right now."

On the rally stage in Detroit, Abdul El-Sayed abandoned his usual political uniform of a tight black V-neck tee, matching Barack Obama's campaign attire — a shirt with sleeves rolled up.

Dressed and ready to work, not just work out.

El-Sayed leads in recent polls, but only within the margin of error, and in Detroit, where he won just 31 per cent of Black primary voters, he has ground to make up.

Obama has previously cautioned Democrats against veering too far to the left, saying the average American doesn't want to "completely tear down the system".

On stage in Detroit, the icon of the Democratic establishment dismissed suggestions the insurgent beside him was "radical".

"Wanting everybody to have health care. How is that radical?" he posed.

"Wanting everybody to have a place to live that they can afford? How is that radical?"

He also had some wisdom for the younger Democrat.

"They may use your name or your faith to somehow suggest that you are dangerous and less than trustworthy and less patriotic and less American than they are.

"We have seen this movie before. I starred in it.

"This stuff didn't work on me, not in Michigan. And it's not going to work on Abdul."

In 2008, John McCain told a voter that Obama was a decent man he simply disagreed with.

In 2026, the question for El-Sayed is whether the campaign can be about the policies he believes in rather than his faith.