Obama rallies for Acton and El-Sayed, criticizes Trump and Ramaswamy

Michigan has high-stakes Senate and governor contests this midterm

Former President Barack Obama, 65, campaigned for Abdul El-Sayed at a packed Detroit high school gym on Saturday. El-Sayed, a former public health official, was running for the Senate against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. Nearly a decade after leaving the White House, Obama told the crowd, “We have seen this movie before. I starred in it,” and added, “I’ve got a long-form birth certificate to prove it.” He also said, “Abdul is as Michigan as it gets.”

The former president pushed back against those who called El-Sayed a radical, declaring, “Abdul shares my values.” Obama also condemned critics of the Senate candidate, suggesting they were using El-Sayed’s name or his faith to tear him down.

Michigan is a critical state this midterm season, with high-stakes contests for the Senate and governor. The appearances came in the final days before the Nov. 3 midterms, which will determine the balance of power in American politics, and included Acton’s Ohio gubernatorial race and El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign.

Obama also acknowledged that El-Sayed had criticized him after Obama’s 2012 reelection for not following through on all of his progressive campaign promises. El-Sayed wrote that Obama “was not the right choice — he just wasn’t the wrong one.” Speaking in a blue shirt with no tie and his sleeves rolled up, Obama said, “Some of these folks say, well, you know, Abdul didn’t like some of the things you did as president,” before adding, “You know who else doesn’t agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama, about five times a day.”

Ohio advertisement dispute

In Ohio, the central dispute involved Ramaswamy’s advertising. His campaign had doubled down on a video featuring Acton’s estranged birth mother, Donna Arthur, who called her daughter “a liar” and insinuated that she had mental health issues. Acton, Ohio’s COVID-19-era health director, has made no secret about facing homelessness and abuse as a child.

Donna Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, Acton’s stepfather Cledith Arthur, was indicted on a charge of rape involving Acton. The abuse allegedly occurred from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur failed to appear for a court appearance and became a fugitive. Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004.

Obama used his Ohio appearance to condemn Ramaswamy. “In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to,” Obama said, noting that Acton had “spoken movingly about her painful childhood and all she’s experienced: abuse, neglect and homelessness.” Obama and Acton characterized the advertisement as Ramaswamy’s exploitation of Acton’s childhood history. Appearing before Obama, Acton spoke as if addressing Ramaswamy directly. “My opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood to save his stumbling campaign, but it’s not going to work,” she said. “Decency still matters.” She added: “Mr. Ramaswamy, you are not just out of touch, you are out for yourself and you are a danger to my state. Apparently there is no low to which you won’t stoop.”

President Donald Trump, who cast his ballot Saturday in Florida, defended the Ramaswamy advertisement. “The mother said that Amy Acton is a liar, and she’s no good,” Trump said. “And you know what? I don’t think you can get a better reference on that.” Vice President JD Vance had also defended the advertisement, even as Republican leaders across Ohio, including Gov. Mike DeWine, called for its removal.

The advertisement drew national attention a little more than a week before Election Day. Ohio, which has become more reliably Republican, remained a hotly contested battleground this year. Trump and Vance had both visited the state in recent weeks to drum up support for Sen. Jon Husted’s Senate campaign and Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign. The controversy over Ramaswamy’s ad had ratcheted up amid the advertisement dispute and the candidates’ visits.

Detroit voter reaction

Detroit is three-quarters Black, and Democrats hoped Obama’s appearance could bolster support for El-Sayed among Black voters. In the primary, El-Sayed’s opponent Haley Stevens won Wayne County, which includes Detroit, by about 6 percentage points. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian vice president, campaigned for El-Sayed in September.

Cheryl McWilliams, 67, said Obama’s speech “pumps you up to vote” and said she was hoping for high turnout. “If Detroit doesn’t vote, whoever’s running is going to lose, period,” McWilliams said. “I’m just hoping we can reach voters that don’t vote. They think it doesn’t matter, and it does.”

Chunnika Hodges, a Detroit resident who canvassed for El-Sayed on Saturday, said some Black voters supported Rogers because they did not think anything had changed after years of voting for Democrats. Others were wary of El-Sayed’s progressive policies. “We don’t lean to the conservative, but we have seen that within our community,” Hodges said, adding, “there are conservative Blacks, conservative Democrats.”

Trump campaign and Georgia response

Obama also used his appearances to attack Trump, describing what came from the president and his Republican allies as cruelty and indecency. He accused Trump and his family of rampant corruption and criticized the president’s inability to lower costs, noting that Trump had focused on building a new White House ballroom and helipad on the South Lawn. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovation,” Obama said. “He should be on HGTV.” He continued: “There’s gold everywhere. He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Obama argued that voters did not have to accept Trump’s allies for another two years, until Trump’s term ends. “We’re not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are handling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty and indifference for working people,” he said. “After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence … you get a chance to say enough is enough.”

Obama will headline a Georgia rally next week with Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms. Trump, campaigning in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday evening with their Republican rivals, made several references to Obama’s Michigan event and insisted, “the place was empty.”