00:00We agree that you deserve the right to a union.
00:02We agree that we need more healthcare.
00:05We agree that Michigan is the best single place in the world to make cars and not to
00:12continue to be.
00:13We agree that the Great Lakes ought to stay clean and pure.
00:18We agree that democracy has consequences and we ought to follow it where it goes.
00:24We agree in the freedom to worship as you choose or not worship at all.
00:30We agree that we need to stand up to fascism.
00:35We agree that when they come for Michigan and our rights, we are going to stand up and
00:41fight back.
00:44Alright y'all, let's show them how we do.
00:47Money out of?
00:49Market.
00:49Money in Europe?
00:50Market.
00:51Medicare for?
00:52All.
00:53One more time for Oakland County.
00:54Money out of?
00:55Market.
00:56Money in Europe?
00:57Market.
00:58Medicare for?
00:59All.
00:59Hey, I love it.
01:00I love it.
01:00My name is Abdul El-Sayed and I am your candidate for U.S. Senate.
01:10And clearly, clearly I'm running because I got a name that's tailor made for U.S. politics.
01:17But y'all, it just shouldn't be this hard.
01:19Shouldn't be this hard to afford your gas.
01:22Shouldn't be this hard to afford your groceries.
01:24Should not be this hard to see a doctor in the richest, most powerful country in the history
01:28of the world.
01:30Shouldn't be this hard to pay your taxes and know that that money is going to be spent on
01:34you rather than sent abroad to drop bombs in an illegal war.
01:37Shouldn't be this hard.
01:45I never intended to run for office.
01:46My parents gave me an 11 letter for his name.
01:50He's got sounds that come out of parts of people's throats.
01:52They don't even know they have.
01:58Hey, you never.
02:05In case the press wondered, there are a lot of Arab Americans in Michigan.
02:09He's not one of them.
02:12I love you, man.
02:18So look, I wanted to be a doctor.
02:20And I wanted to be a doctor because I could go 15 hours to my family's native Egypt or
02:2315 minutes from where I grew up.
02:25And either way, I could cross a 10 year difference in life expectancy.
02:30Doesn't matter the color of your skin.
02:32Doesn't matter where you grow up.
02:34Doesn't matter what you or your parents do for work.
02:35You deserve to live a long, healthy life in the United States of America.
02:39I became a doctor because I wanted to work on that problem.
02:42I went off to medical school to learn how to heal only to realize that too much of our
02:47system is built to bill rather than to heal.
02:53So I went into public health.
02:55I got to rebuild Detroit's health department after it had been shut down when the city went
02:59through bankruptcy and emergency management.
03:02Got to lead Wayne County's Department of Health, Human and Veteran Services.
03:05We thought outside the box about what public health could be.
03:08Did things like guarantee glasses for kids.
03:10A program that's done 16,000 pairs of glasses direct.
03:1360,000 across the state of Michigan since we brought it to the state for the first time.
03:20Took on some of the biggest polluters in our state.
03:24Forced Marathon Petroleum to invest their own money to reduce emissions when they had wanted to increase them.
03:28After Flint, we had every school daycare and head start tested for lead in the water.
03:33In Wayne County, we put Narcan in vending machines for free in a hundred different locations.
03:43Built a program to provide free health insurance for new small businesses.
03:47And when we found out that our county ranked number eight for medical debt nationwide,
03:52we set aside $7 million to erase up to $700 million in medical debt for 300,000 families.
04:04Now, I'm never going to forget that day sitting in my office when this administration froze federal funds.
04:10Y'all remember that?
04:11Feels like 10 years ago.
04:12It was like two years ago.
04:13I'm trying to make sure one more round of WIC checks go out.
04:16Trying to make sure that our federally qualified health centers don't get shut down.
04:19Trying to make sure that vaccines can keep going into arms when I get a notification on my phone
04:25that after his long story two terms in the U.S. Senate,
04:28our current U.S. Senator Gary Peters is not seeking re-election.
04:32Now, to ask myself, where's the fight for the public's health now?
04:35See, if I were to be elected, I'd be the first Democratic doctor elected to the U.S. Senate in
04:39nearly 50 years.
04:46First ever public health official elected to the United States Senate.
04:55Now, I told you I spent some of my summers in Egypt when I was a kid.
04:58We used to have to dodge lettuce in Egypt.
05:00I never thought we'd be dodging lettuce in the United States of America.
05:07All right.
05:09A lot of excitement for Egyptian Americans.
05:13But I'll tell you this.
05:15That's what happens when you pick a guy who literally goes swimming in Schitt's Creek
05:21as HHS secretary and takes his grandkids.
05:26I mean, the man works out in jeans, which I just find personally offensive.
05:35Because there is no way that he doesn't skip leg day.
05:41You're not squatting in jeans.
05:47Either that, he's got like huge calluses on the inside of his legs.
05:52Anyway, I didn't mean to give you all the visual.
05:56But listen, we need a public health senator right about now.
06:01Now, look, this is not my first rodeo.
06:02Y'all remember I ran for governor back in 2018.
06:04All right.
06:05I was 32 years old, never run for office in my life.
06:08It was admittedly a crazy idea.
06:10But to be fair, I had bad advice.
06:12A former president told me I should run at my college graduation.
06:14Took him a little too seriously.
06:17I said, you know what?
06:18I'm gonna go big or go home.
06:19I went big.
06:21Then I went home.
06:24But I said something in that race folks weren't quite ready to hear,
06:27which is that Donald Trump is not himself the disease of our politics.
06:30He's the worst symptom of the disease of our politics.
06:32The disease is the system that allows big corporations,
06:38billionaires, special interests,
06:40to buy and sell politicians in ways that leave them rigging the system against us.
06:44It's why we pay more for all we have to buy, get paid less for the work we do,
06:48watch as our tax dollars get misappropriated,
06:50to do war abroad rather than to provide schools and healthcare and childcare here at home.
06:58So we got three goals.
07:01And y'all already know what they are.
07:02We want money out of?
07:04Money in your?
07:06Money in your?
07:07Medicare for?
07:07All.
07:08Now look, I got 31 days.
07:1231.
07:13You know why I know it's 31 days?
07:14It's the third of October.
07:16And I know that October has 31 days because I was born on the 31st of October.
07:25I am in fact a Scorpio, but if that much wasn't obvious, then I don't know what campaign you're watching.
07:32But look, 31 days.
07:33And we're up against a guy who is as corrupt, as craven, as cowardly as it gets.
07:44And guess what?
07:49He knows he's going back to Florida.
07:50You know why?
07:54He has a house in Florida.
07:56He had had on the market for like $200,000 more than it's worth.
08:00And he finally just admitted to himself that he's moving back in November because he took it off the market.
08:05But here's the thing about it.
08:10He should have just taken it off the market back when Alyssa whooped his ass back in 24.
08:25I don't have to tell you all this.
08:26This one's for all the marbles.
08:28There's a reason that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance won't keep my name out their mouth.
08:42And at some point, I'd like to teach them how to say it properly.
08:47But either way, in November, we're going to force them to learn how to say it properly with the word
08:52Senator in front of it.
09:01They're going to keep pointing to my name.
09:03They're going to keep pointing to my faith.
09:04And there is a reason why.
09:05Because they don't actually want to talk about the challenges we all face.
09:08They don't want to talk about the fact that we can't afford our gas.
09:11They don't want to talk about the fact that we can't afford our groceries.
09:13They don't want to talk about the fact that you cannot see a doctor for too many people in this
09:18country.
09:19And if you do, you're going to fall into debt.
09:21$225 billion.
09:22They got nothing to say about the actual problems that we face.
09:25Instead, their whole goal is to demagogue.
09:29To try to distract us.
09:31But here in Macomb County, we understand.
09:34We know what the stakes of this race are.
09:37We understand what it means when we allow corporate politicians to rubber stamp the most corrupt administration in American history.
09:48We understand that we got to pay when you've got this ridiculous tariff war that makes no sense with Canada.
09:55Listen, I'm fine with a tariff war with Ohio, just not Canada.
10:04We understand that we pay the price of this illegal, unjustifiable war with Iran.
10:10We pay for it in our taxes.
10:12We pay for it at the grocery store.
10:14We pay for it at the gas pump.
10:16And we understand that here in Michigan, we are a lot bigger than small people with small ideas.
10:23That's right, the servicemen and women being sent abroad to a war we have no business fighting.
10:32So we've got an opportunity in this race to remind this state yet again who we are.
10:39Macomb County is going to be absolutely critical.
10:42They want to tell us that Macomb County is red.
10:45I don't see any red folk here.
10:48Frankly, I don't see any blue folk either.
10:49I see folks who are sick and tired of watching the president make light of our plights.
10:57I see folks who are sick and tired of having to worry about how they're going to afford next month's
11:01rent.
11:01I see folks who are tired of wondering when their union will be dignified.
11:06I see folks who need access to a doctor.
11:10I see folks who are ready to build the future that Michigan deserves.
11:15And I see folks who are ready to get out the vote every day for the next 30 days.
11:21And then to lead together every day for the next six.
11:24Macomb County, I see you.
11:28And with that, I'm going to hand it off to somebody who's already done it.
11:38I don't have to tell you all that Mike Rogers already got his butt whooped up and down the state
11:45in 2024.
11:47And he got his butt whooped by somebody who does not back down, who does not hesitate to show up
11:53when people are in need.
11:55Somebody who understands that our politicians should not be bought by corporations.
12:01Somebody who understands what it means to throw down when Michiganders need you to throw down.
12:07Somebody who I'm looking forward to working with.
12:10And I'll tell you, Senator Slotkin will be the first to say it, she and I don't agree on everything.
12:15But we agree on the important things.
12:17We agree that you deserve the right to a union.
12:19We agree that we need more health care.
12:22We agree that Michigan is the best single place in the world to make cars and not to continue to
12:30be.
12:30We agree that the Great Lakes ought to stay clean and pure.
12:35We agree that democracy has consequences and we ought to follow it where it goes.
12:41We agree in the freedom to worship as you choose or not worship at all.
12:47We agree that we need to stand up to fascism.
12:52We agree that when they come from Michigan and our rights, we are going to stand up and fight back.
