00:00Michigan, right now, our groceries are through the roof, our housing is
00:06unaffordable, our health care is barely something that any of us
00:12can cover. If we want to change this country, we have to make different
00:20choices. And when Abdul El-Sayed walks into the United States Senate, the drug
00:26companies and the corporate lobbyists won't have a claim on him. He will be one
00:36of very few who doesn't take their money. And the people of Michigan are the people
00:43who will have his direct attention. You know, there's a lot of people that said
00:50there's no way we can get over a thousand people rallying out in northern Michigan
00:55for Abdul El-Sayed. And here you are at capacity. This place is packed to the gills. I
01:25want to say that. But Marquette, we know for too many families, something isn't right right now.
01:33Grocery bills keep climbing. Rent and mortgages keep rising. And people are
01:40working harder than ever only to fall further and further behind. You don't
01:47need a medical degree to recognize the symptoms of a broken economy.
02:00Michigan, corruption is making this country sick.
02:08And when you're sick, who do you call? A doctor, not a drug company, and certainly not a politician paid
02:22by them.
02:24And Michigan, we have had enough of the wrong medicine. And that is why it is time to elect
02:34Dr. Abdul El-Sayed to the United States Senate.
02:44You all know better than anyone that Abdul is a son of Michigan. He grew up here. He's a second
02:55generation
02:55union member, and he spent his career fighting for the people of this state. As a public health leader in
03:04Wayne County, Abdul saw firsthand what was making Michigan families fall behind. Sometimes it was an
03:12unexpected injury or an illness. But far too often, it was actually the bill that came afterward.
03:28There are too many families that are doing everything right. When they can, they go to the doctor, we get
03:35a checkup,
03:35treatment, trying to get well, only to find ourselves buried under medical debt that destroys our credit and
03:44drains our savings. And instead of taking his prestigious education and going somewhere else, Abdul decided to
03:54come back home and do something about it. In fact, Abdul has helped wipe out approximately 27 million dollars in
04:04the medical debt for 46,000 Michiganders because that's who Abdul is. Public service isn't something that he
04:20discovered when he decided to run for office. It's what he's devoted his life to our values to our community
04:28and to one another. But Mike Rogers, he has spent his life making healthcare more expensive for everyday
04:38Americans. And now he's trying to say a bunch of flashy things on television to get you to forget what
04:47he has
04:48actually done. Mike Rogers, we must remember, has already spent 14 years in Congress. That's 14 years with a vote,
05:0214
05:03years with the power to do something. And what his record actually shows is 14 years of saying one thing
05:13to
05:13the Michiganders and turning around and doing another thing in Washington.
05:22So let's make it plain. When working families needed relief from from soaring prescription drug prices, Mike
05:31Rogers voted no to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. Mike Rogers opposed the Affordable Care Act.
05:42And then after he opposed it, he voted five times to repeal it.
05:50But perhaps the most astonishing part of his record is what he did when it came to children. Mike Rogers
06:00voted 19 times against measures to fund or expand health insurance for low income kids. 19 times.
06:12Now, I can understand disagreeing about policy. I can understand having differences about how we pay for things. But 19
06:22votes against health insurance for poor kids. At some point, Michigan, you've got to wonder what it would take to
06:30get this man to vote. Yes. Many of you know, as many of you know, I'm a New Yorker. We
06:37had to fight. Oh, we got some New Yorkers here.
06:41We had to fight tooth and nail for the 9-11 victims compensation fund for first responders.
06:48This is the kind of thing that when you show up to Washington feels like it should be the easiest
06:56vote in the world. And for some reason, it was so hard to get Congress to agree that our heroes
07:06and first responders on 9-11 should have their health insurance due and their health care to toxic exposure covered.
07:14But Mike Rogers voted against that too. Our seniors, our kids, our first responders, people who had every reason to
07:26expect their government to work for them. And Mike Rogers kept finding reasons to say no.
07:33But there was one group that never seemed to have much trouble getting his attention. And that was the pharmaceutical
07:44industry.
07:44You see, over the course of his career, Mike Rogers received a steady stream of campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies
07:55and interests.
07:56And while those checks were coming into his campaign coffers, he used his power in Congress. Instead of voting to
08:05expand health insurance to kids, he voted to loosen access to opioids, even as those drugs were devastating community communities
08:14across Michigan.
08:15And then, after 14 years in Washington, once he left, what did he decide to do? He decided to take
08:25his work and advise the very types of corporations that were in this revolving door in Washington.
08:33Now, I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to see a pattern here.
08:39And when seniors needed cheaper prescriptions, Roger said no. When families needed health coverage, Mike Rogers said no. When children
08:49needed insurance in Michigan, Mike Rogers said no.
08:55But when the drug companies came a-calling, somehow the door was wide open.
09:02And now this same man is looking straight into a television camera, wondering aloud why Americans are paying so much
09:12for prescription drugs.
09:14Mike, you know the answer. Because you voted for it.
09:25And that's what makes this election so important.
09:29Michigan has a choice between two very different records, two very different people.
09:39Because in life, it's not about what you say, it's about what you do.
09:45And it's especially about what you do when no one's watching.
09:55When no one was watching, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed was getting glasses for kids.
10:03When no one was watching, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed was working for the people of Michigan.
10:11When no one was watching, Abdul El-Sayed was doing the right thing and sacrificing himself for the good of
10:20the many.
10:24But when no one was looking, Mike Rogers was taking checks from pharmaceutical interests.
10:31When no one was watching, he went to go work for them in the revolving door after he left Congress.
10:41Michigan, right now our groceries are through the roof.
10:45Our housing is unaffordable.
10:47Our healthcare is barely able, is barely something that any of us can cover.
10:53If we want to change this country, we have to make different choices.
11:07And when Abdul El-Sayed walks into the United States Senate, the drug companies and the corporate lobbyists won't have
11:15a claim on him.
11:20He will be one of very few who doesn't take their money.
11:25And the people of Michigan are the people who will have his direct attention.
11:33And that's exactly how it ought to be.
11:36Because Michigan has always understood something about power.
11:40That working people have to come together across race, religion, and difference in order for us to claim our fair
11:50share.
11:53That is how Michigan helped build the American middle class.
11:59And that's the same spirit we need today.
12:02When families are fighting to afford a home, raise their children, see a doctor, and retire with dignity.
12:09At the heart of every one of these fights is a simple question.
12:15Who does our government work for?
12:20And it should be us.
12:25That's the reason.
12:27And rather, that's the question Abdul El-Sayed is ready to answer in Washington.
12:32And it's a fight that Michigan knows how to win.
12:36Because every great victory for working people began with somebody deciding things, deciding that things didn't have to stay the
12:44way that they were.
12:46I was having dinner last night in Marquette.
12:53And this group of women walked up to me.
12:57And they were telling me about something that they had done out here in Marquette.
13:01They saw what happened after the Dobbs decision came down.
13:06And women across the country started losing access to reproductive health care.
13:12We've got women across the country.
13:13We've got people and Americans across the country that are in severe distress.
13:18People, women, mothers almost brought to the brink of death because of an abortion or a pregnancy or a miscarriage
13:27gone wrong.
13:28And what they decided was that they weren't going to wait for anyone to save them.
13:35They wanted to start an urgent care clinic here in Marquette.
13:48And they wanted to provide reproductive care for pregnant women here as part of the urgent care clinic.
13:56They wanted to not just say that reproductive care is health care.
14:02They wanted to make reproductive health care regular health care like anybody else.
14:09And so they opened up this clinic.
14:12They said, how are we going to do this?
14:13And one woman raised her hand and she said, well, I'm not a doctor, but I can help raise some
14:18funds for it.
14:19And another woman raised her hand and she said, well, I am a doctor and I can try to see
14:25how we can put this together.
14:27And I sat down at this table with this group of eight women who had opened one of the first
14:33urgent care clinics in America, right here in Marquette, providing care for women.
14:45And then these women out here in Marquette, they decided to go to a conference.
14:51And now two colleges and universities in different cities across the country and UC San Francisco and Brown said, we're
15:00going to pick up this model to Michigan.
15:06Michigan, this, that work is the actual revolutionary work that we are talking about.
15:17And the power of this country, the power of this country and what it means for us as a democracy
15:31is that the power will always be with the people.
15:42And my job in the house, hopefully soon Abdul's job in the Senate is to help you do your thing.
15:55To help you lead your communities, to help you build your health care clinics and centers, to help you provide
16:02for your families, to help you cover and create jobs and small businesses across the country.
16:09Our job is to help working people have a fair shake.
16:14And our job is to work for you.
16:22But Michigan, in order to do that, you got to hire us.
16:32And so what we have to do in the next 19 or so days is that we have to talk
16:40to every friend, every family member, every coworker that we know and say, I'm cool with Abdul.
16:55They want to make this man, they want to make this man look very big and scary on television because
17:04what they think and what they're betting on is that if you, if they can make you scared of him,
17:11then that means you won't listen to him.
17:13Because if people actually listen to him, they would hear someone that says we need to get big money out
17:22of politics.
17:26If they listen to him, they'll hear a man saying the minimum wage should be a living wage in America.
17:36They know if people listen to him, they'll hear a man that that will forcefully say health care should be
17:46a human right afforded to every American and guaranteed for all.
17:55And they know that if working people of all backgrounds here in Michigan, hear a man who understands that our
18:04problems are not of left and right, but of top and bottom.
18:12They know that if people start listening to him, that they might like what they hear and they don't want
18:21that to happen.
18:22And the only person that can break through fear is a person that somebody knows their friends, their mom, their
18:33coworker, their cousin, their neighbor.
18:36And so what we have to do and what I am asking all of us here today is to talk
18:42to your friends and your family, even the ones that you think you agree with.
18:47Make sure they cast their ballot.
18:50Life is busy.
18:51People forget things.
18:53Make sure that they have a ride to the poll site if they want to cast their ballot in person.
18:58Make sure that they remember to send in their ballot if they're able to mail it in.
19:03But that is what our task is for the next 19 days is to is to reach out to people
19:11that you know and turn out this vote.
19:13Because if Michigan elects a doctor in response to the largest Republican cut in health care to the country, we
19:22will change the future of America.
19:26So that's what we have to do between now and November 3rd.
19:31Knock those doors.
19:33Make those calls.
19:35Talk to your coworkers because this is your state.
19:37This is your government.
19:39And this is your chance to decide who gets to speak for you in the United States Senate.
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