Abdul El-Sayed made a stop in Wyandotte to fire up volunteers ahead of Election Day, holding a canvass launch where supporters readied themselves to go door-to-door and talk directly with voters in the working-class Downriver suburb. The event drew hecklers, even as El-Sayed's team used the stop to push its ground game into the campaign's final stretch.
El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat, as reported by CBS News, which captured the Wyandotte canvass launch in a video roughly two minutes and 46 seconds long. He is running against Republican Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, according to Michigan Public, which describes the contest as an open election to fill Peters's seat.
A Campaign Built on Doors, Not Just Rallies
The Wyandotte stop fits a pattern El-Sayed has leaned on throughout the fall: big crowds paired with grassroots canvassing. Earlier in October, more than 500 people turned out for a campaign event in Escanaba, and a Marquette rally that same evening drew 1,200 people, per Michigan Public. Days before Wyandotte, El-Sayed hosted a “Knock Out the Vote” canvass rally in Lansing, as WLNS reported, where he laid out three priorities for his campaign: taking money out of politics, putting more money in working families' pockets and establishing Medicare for All.
Rogers has been running his own aggressive door-knocking operation. His campaign said it had already reached more than 7 million doors statewide and hoped to hit 7.5 million before Election Day, according to WWMT. Rogers held a canvassing launch of his own in Lansing just three days after his final debate with El-Sayed in Detroit, the same report noted.
Polls Show a Race Still Up for Grabs
Surveys released in the campaign's closing days have shown El-Sayed widening his lead, though not by a commanding margin. The RealClearPolitics polling average had him ahead of Rogers, 48.8% to 46.0%. A separate WDIV/Detroit News poll, a 600-sample, live-operator telephone survey conducted from Oct. 19 through Oct. 22 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, also found El-Sayed leading, per ClickOnDetroit.
Even so, POLITICO reports that El-Sayed has tempered his public predictions in recent days after repeatedly forecasting a seven-point victory earlier in the campaign. With less than a week until Election Day, the outlet notes he has leaned heavily on traditional Democratic support, including Barack Obama and Sen. Elissa Slotkin. El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee.
Election Day is November 3. The Wyandotte canvass launch signals that El-Sayed's campaign is banking on shoe-leather organizing to close out a race both sides still see as winnable.
