Bernie Sanders

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A joyous, excited energy filled DeVos Performance Hall Sunday night in downtown Grand Rapids.

More than 2,000 people filled the space to rally for Abdul El-Sayed, who is running in Michigan Democratic primary for U.S. Senate against Congresswoman Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham.

El-Sayed was joined on stage by progressive Democrats, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Senator Bernie, an independent from Vermont.

It was their third stop this weekend. The trio visited Lansing earlier on Sunday, July 19 and Detroit on Saturday.

El-Sayed, a medical doctor and former Wayne County and Detroit health director, drew cheers from West Michigan supporters when he spoke about the rally venue being owned by the DeVos family. The billionaire West Michigan family and philanthropists built the direct selling empire Amway.

Much of El-Sayed’s campaign, like those of his progressive counterparts, promotes further taxing the wealthy.

“I relish the irony that we’re doing this in the DeVos center,” El-Sayed said, the crowd erupting in cheers. “It’s a lovely center, but y’all better pay your taxes. It’s about time the billionaires get taxed on their wealth.”

The progressives advocated for rejecting corporate Political Action Committees (PAC) money, instituting Medicare for All, protecting union rights, combating wealth inequality and redirecting foreign military aid — specifically criticizing the war in Gaza — into domestic investments like public health and education.

During her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez referenced President Donald Trump’s speech on Thursday where he rehashed allegations that there was fraud in the 2020 election, specifically citing Muskegon among places.

“We know what he’s doing,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “He will stop at nothing to stay in power. He will tell whatever lies he needs to tell. He will break whatever laws he needs to break. And if we do not take back the House and the Senate this fall, we are going to make it a whole lot easier for them and for him and his cronies to do that.

“Michigan, we have no time to waste.”

Not taking corporate money for campaign funds was reiterated, with Sanders stating that El-Sayed’s opponents have spent $50 million on ads attacking him.

“They have unlimited amounts of money,” Sanders said, of billionaire PACs. “For them, writing out a check for $10 million is like you going out for a cup of coffee. So, they have the money, but we have something they don’t have. We have the people.

“And when we stand united and we don’t let Trump and his friends divide us up by the color of our skin or where we were born or what our religion is. When we stand together, there is nothing that is going to stop us.”

The United Democracy Project, a Washington D.C.-based group aligned with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPACA), supporting Stevens, has a commercial accusing El-Sayed disrespecting women.

In response, El-Sayed told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press that the last time he saw Stevens, she spoke to his 8-year-old daughter and said, “You must really be proud of your dad.”

El-Sayed questioned her motives.

“The reason these ads are running is that they are brought to you by an organization that wants to send our money abroad to kill women and children,” El-Sayed said, referencing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “My work has been about protecting women and children here.”

He added that politics don’t have to be so “cynical” and he doesn’t want to engage in making fun of people.

“We don’t have to do it like this.”

Ocasio-Cortez said that the electoral system, both Democrat and Republican, has been “consumed by big money.”

“It means real wages falling behind and the prices of everything skyrocketing,” she said. “It means our water, food and air are getting poisoned and making us sick because it is padding the profits of major corporations.

It means developments like unchecked data centers over public groundwater supplies and delicate aquifers with little transparency, compromising the drinking water and jacking up electricity bills while communities pay the price. We’re living with mass ICE, paramilitary agents shooting Americans in the streets and an administration so corrupt they don’t even pretend to hide their self-dealing anymore.”

Grand Rapids City Commissioners Lisa Knight and Marshall Kilgore also spoke at Sunday night’s event.

The winner of El-Sayed or Stevens will face at the face Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, of White Lake, in the November general election.