DETROIT, Mich. — In his first day of in-person campaigning this cycle, former President Barack Obama skewered President Donald Trump and his administration while calling voters to arms in the Democrats’ arguably highest profile push to boost their candidates for governor and Senate to victory in Michigan.

“When you find somebody like Abdul El-Sayed, when you find somebody like Jocelyn Benson, when you find people who genuinely care about people, and who have a strong track record, and are offering real solutions, people who are not in this to enrich themselves but to serve, you’ve got to realize how precious that is and you have to deliver for them. We have got to make sure we elect them,” urged Obama.He continued: “Abdul and Jocelyn understand that this election is not about them – it’s about you. It’s about us.”

Obama took the stage alongside secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, who maintains a slight polling edge in her race for governor against Republican challenger Rep. John James, who has previously ran for Senate.

“I am tired of politicians like my opponent who just do everything Donald Trump tells them to do. I’m tired of Donald Trump embarrassing us on the global stage with corruption and cruelty and chaos. So, Michigan, tonight I’m asking you to join me in saying enough. Enough. Tonight, I’m asking you to roll up your sleeves and work as hard as you can for the next 10 days,” encouraged Benson.

Obama’s boost can prove mission critical for the Democrats’ Senate candidate progressive firebrand Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in garnering support among Black voters, as some worry about lingering resentment from the Uncommitted Movement turning some voters against former Vice President Kamala Harris in her truncated bid for president in 2024. Harris campaigned alongside El-Sayed in late September.

El-Sayed, who also took the main stage at the Saturday night event, criticized Obama after his 2012 reelection in a HuffPost op-ed, writing Obama “was not the right choice — he just wasn’t the wrong one.” But on Saturday night, both Obama and El-Sayed acknowledged their difference of belief, stressing their morals and ideals bond, not divide, them.

“Disagreeing on means is different from disagreeing on ends, on our goals,” said Obama. “And Abdul shares my values of wanting everybody to get healthcare. He shares my values that if you work hard every day, you should have a living wage.”

The former president “showed us all what elegance, and grace, and determination look like in a politician and he showed me something in myself that apparently I never forgot,” El-Sayed said earlier.

El-Sayed is looking to best Republican candidate Mike Rogers, former congressman and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, for the state’s seat left open by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters. The pair are effectively deadlocked in several major polls, and prominent election forecasters Cook Political Report rates the race as a toss up. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim Senator.

El-Sayed pitched Obama as a split-screen foil with Trump, who has been crisscrossing the country for near-daily rallies as Republicans attempt to aggressively rebuff attrition in their Congressional and gubernatorial ranks, and who will be rallying in Michigan less than 24 hours after Obama’s headlining event.

“Please make sure to vote like Donald Trump is on the ballot. We don’t need that president to come here and tell us, because y’all, we’ve already got our president, and he’s here tonight to remind us of what exactly is on the ballot” said El-Sayed.

“Trump got us into a war we’ve got no business fighting. President Obama, he contained the nuclear threat without war. Trump’s tariffs costing auto workers their livelihoods. President Obama, he made sure that they didn’t lose their jobs in the worst financial crisis in a century.”

Obama also took time to sear Trump on the skyrocketing price of gas, housing, and healthcare. He chided the administration’s handling of ongoing, and in his estimation, needless tariff battles with “that historical adversary of ours” Canada, and teased Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his focus on the masculinity and power of the troops.

“How much time do you think this man spends in front of the mirror everyday?” Obama chided about Hegseth. “These are not serious people. And we are paying for the price of their lack of seriousness.”

During a gaggle with reporters after the event, both Benson and El-Sayed felt Obama is an effective closer and seemed grateful for his efforts. And other top Democrats in the state welcomed his eleventh-hour boost.

“When Barack Obama comes to Detroit, Democrats win,” Michigan’s junior senator, Elissa Slotkin, told the crowd Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, Obama campaigned in Ohio alongside the former senator Sherrod Brown, who is trying for his old job, and gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton. He has plans to rally in Georgia with Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms. Dozens of other high-profile party surrogates, like former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Senators Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock and Bernie Sanders; Rep. Ro Khanna, to name a few, will crisscross the country to boost candidates, and, likely, road-test potential presidential runs.

The rally also coincided with the first day of early in-person voting in the state. According to a Michigan Democratic official, 4,350 Michiganders were in attendance, between the main venue and the overflow space of Saturday night’s rally.

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