Michigan is emerging as one of the biggest tests of whether Democrats can rebuild their fractured coalition ahead of the November Senate election. Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg delivered a major message at a Michigan Democrats rally, warning that “people from around the country” and around the world are watching to see whether Democrats can unite after a bruising primary.
The race now pits Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers, with Republicans targeting parts of the Democratic coalition, including voters who backed Haley Stevens in the primary. With control of the Senate at stake and Michigan gaining even greater importance heading into 2028, the battle could have major consequences for both parties.
#PeteButtigieg #MichiganSenateRace #MichiganPolitics #MichiganElection #Democrats #Republicans #AbdulElSayed #MikeRogers #Buttigieg #MichiganDemocrats #SenateRace #USPolitics #Election2026 #DemocraticParty #MichiganBattleground #Trump #MichiganNews #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #SenateElections
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The race now pits Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers, with Republicans targeting parts of the Democratic coalition, including voters who backed Haley Stevens in the primary. With control of the Senate at stake and Michigan gaining even greater importance heading into 2028, the battle could have major consequences for both parties.
#PeteButtigieg #MichiganSenateRace #MichiganPolitics #MichiganElection #Democrats #Republicans #AbdulElSayed #MikeRogers #Buttigieg #MichiganDemocrats #SenateRace #USPolitics #Election2026 #DemocraticParty #MichiganBattleground #Trump #MichiganNews #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #SenateElections
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NewsTranscript
00:00Make no mistake, the world is watching.
00:03I'll invite your attention to the press risers over there.
00:05Not in a creepy Donald Trump kind of way because we respect a free and independent press.
00:12We are all paying more at the pump and service members are paying with their lives because
00:18Donald Trump launched a war on Iran with no plan for how to get us out of it.
00:24Thank you for the huge showing tonight.
00:26Thank you for taking some time on a Friday evening to get fired up together for the work
00:32that we're going to be doing over the next 88 days.
00:38I want to acknowledge all of the great leaders who are with us, people who have stepped up
00:42at every level, people who will never make the mistake of treating the presidency like
00:48it's the only office that matters because we got some work to do right here closer to home.
00:55I'm thankful to be in the city led by Mayor Mary Sheffield, to be in the tradition of Senator
01:05Slotkin and Senator Peters in the state of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, that woman from Michigan who
01:11got a whole lot of people to see our state differently.
01:18And most of all, I'm excited to be here with you.
01:21Ever since moving to be closer to our family in Grand Traverse County, or as I've learned
01:26as a Michigander to put at the end of my ring finger right there, I have seen for myself how
01:33this state captures so many different dimensions of American life, from the auto towns that remind
01:39me of where I grew up, to the rolling hills and cherry orchards where we live now, to one of
01:45the
01:46world's great cities where we are gathered right now, Detroit, Michigan.
01:54So before I was your neighbor, you may have gotten to know me from something else,
01:58like maybe when I did what any successful second term mayor of the fourth largest city in Indiana
02:05would do and sought the presidency in 2020.
02:11Or maybe you know me from my unexpected specialty of appearing from time to time on Fox News.
02:20Or maybe you know me from when I had the honor of serving as your United States Secretary of Transportation.
02:30Making sure we got dollars on the ground to do things like build safer streets around Detroit,
02:37or reconnect communities around I-375, or deliver the strongest expansion of airline passenger rights ever.
02:47But right now I am here in one simple capacity, and that is as your fellow proud Michigan Democrat,
02:54working to make sure we have a great result this November.
03:02Now we have just 88 days to make sure that things go right.
03:07The stakes are high, and people from around the country, people from around the world,
03:12are watching the state of Michigan right now to see if we have the capability to put together that coalition
03:19to win.
03:28We're going to win because we know what it means to focus on what's at stake,
03:33to lock arms as allies after a spirited primary,
03:38to pull together in common cause in an election that's going to decide in no small part
03:42whether the American dream comes back and the American project endures.
03:48Make no mistake, the world is watching.
03:50I'll invite your attention to the press risers over there.
03:53Not in a creepy Donald Trump kind of way, because we respect a free and independent press.
04:03But rather to affirm what is at stake in the choices that our fellow Michiganders are going to make
04:09at the ballot box in just 88 days.
04:14We're going to win because we aren't just obsessed with what it is we are against.
04:18We know what it is we're actually for, and we're ready to invite people to join us
04:23in a powerful majority to make that real.
04:29We're going to win because we understand that the project at the moment is not to return
04:33to some previous status quo. It's to make sure that things are better,
04:37not just than they are today, but than they ever were before.
04:45I believe we have the values and the vision to do that.
04:48I believe we have the discipline to do that, and I believe we have the candidates to do that.
05:00To pull together Democrats, Independents, and a whole lot of what I always like to call
05:05future former Republicans into the fold with us.
05:13Now look, it's no secret that we all may not have voted the same way on Tuesday.
05:19That's okay. That's how it works. But however you voted in Tuesday's primaries,
05:26there is a reason you went out and voted in the first place.
05:29I know that what brought us all out to vote, what brings us all out here tonight,
05:34and what will propel us to victory in November is the fundamental values we care about,
05:40the principles that we share, and the need to elect leaders who will represent us,
05:45the chance to make everyday life better in this state and in this country.
05:55I want to be very clear about this. Wherever you sit in this big tent of ours, and it is
06:00a big tent,
06:01but whatever corner of that tent you think of as home, there is a set of things, and I mean
06:06big,
06:07big things, where we agree with each other, we agree with most Michiganders, and Washington
06:14and Lansing Republicans disagree with us. That's what's at stake right now. And it's not all about
06:20left, right, and center, Democrat, and Republican. For example, you don't have to be a lifelong
06:26Democrat to believe that one job ought to be enough in the American economy.
06:36You don't have to be a bleeding heart liberal to see that costs need to go down and wages need
06:42to go
06:42up, not the other way around. You don't have to belong to this political party or that political
06:52party to recognize that God does not belong to any political party in the United States of America.
07:02Or to insist that people of every faith and any faith, if any, all deserve equal treatment,
07:09respect, dignity, and safety in this country.
07:18There's some things that we can just see, we can see for ourselves, Democrats and Independents,
07:22and a lot of people who are used to voting Republic. And so many of those things are on the
07:27ballot
07:27this fall. War is on the ballot this fall. We are all paying more at the pump,
07:36and service members are paying with their lives because Donald Trump launched a war on Iran with
07:42no plan for how to get us out of it. And Congressman John James voted to send your money into
07:50that
07:50conflict, which tells you a lot about the kind of governor that he would be if he got elected.
07:58But Jocelyn Benson showed integrity under enormous pressure as Secretary of State,
08:03which shows you the kind of governor she'll be when we send her to that office in just a few
08:09weeks.
08:09We need to get Jocelyn Benson elected.
08:15Corruption and integrity are on the ballot this fall. A first family making crypto billions,
08:23which is not a sentence I ever thought I'd have to say.
08:27Members of Congress trading stocks, politicians enriching themselves on the job. It does not have
08:33to be this way. Which is why we need to make sure we follow our great Attorney General, Dana Nessel,
08:40with a proven fighter like Elie Savitt who understands how to take on corruption.
08:49And with our political system under the pressure that it's under, we need a proven
08:54statewide leader of integrity to be our next Secretary of State following Jocelyn Benson.
09:00And that is somebody who doesn't just stand tall, he thinks big. And that is Garland Gilchrist.
09:12Common sense is on the ballot this fall. We need to keep investing in infrastructure.
09:19We need to support schools. We need to protect clean air and clean water. And we have a clear choice
09:24difference between those priorities in Lansing and the endless culture wars that seem to consume
09:30the consciousness of state legislative Republicans. Only one set of candidates is in line with the
09:36priorities of Michiganders, which is why we must preserve the state Senate majority and bring that
09:42House into Democratic hands so that Governor Benson can work with that trifecta.
09:52And when it comes to the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, the choice could not be clearer.
09:58When it comes to the U.S. Senate, we have Abdul El-Sayed who insists that money and politics has
10:04gone too far.
10:11And we have him running against Mike Rogers who insists on being part of the problem.
10:19We have one candidate in Abdul El-Sayed who wants to expand affordable health care and keep more money in
10:25your pocket.
10:28And we have another candidate, Mike Rogers, who literally voted against the Affordable Care Act,
10:34and you better believe he will cut health care one more time if you give him a chance in the
10:38United
10:39Senate. So we will not let that happen. Mike Rogers has disqualified himself from going back to Washington.
10:47You got Mike Rogers and John James and congressional Republicans on the ballot right now in all of these
10:53key House districts who think it's perfectly fine to cut schools and close hospitals and shut down road
11:02projects. All in order to be able to make sure that the richest individuals and the largest corporations
11:08in the land pay a lower tax rate than the teachers who teach in those schools, the workers who pave
11:14those
11:14roads, and the nurses who serve in those hospitals. We know that we can do better than that.
11:25We know that investing in health care and funding not slashing SNAP and supporting not gutting Head Start
11:32and making sure that the best and wealthiest economy in the United States actually has the best funded public
11:39schools in the United States. We know the leaders who will do that.
11:49The American people are with us. The people of Michigan are with us. And we are with each other on
11:53issue
11:54after issue after issue. You are either for or against a woman's right to choose. And we know what side
12:02we are on in the state of Michigan and in this party.
12:08You are either for or against the right to be who you are and love who you love without somebody
12:14telling you
12:14what you're supposed to do. And most people are with us on that.
12:22And I would just add that we are a practical people in this part of the country. We pay attention
12:27above all to results.
12:29So today we woke up to news that the US economy is losing jobs. Remember when they promised that those
12:35tax cuts
12:35for the wealthy were worth it because they would speed up the economy? The opposite happened.
12:40Remember when they told us we had to pay those tariffs that cost us a thousand bucks a household
12:46because it would bring back manufacturing? The opposite is happening. Just like when they told
12:51us they would drain the swamp only for the swamp to be the swampiest it has ever been. And the
12:57only thing
12:57they drained was the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We can do better than that,
13:03Michigan Democrats.
13:08And there's a lot of folks asking questions, people who did not vote the way we would have
13:13liked them to vote the last few times. People who actually believed it when they heard no new wars,
13:18who believed it when they were told that costs were going to come down. And the time has come to
13:22reach
13:23out to them. And we are not there to say, we told you so. We are there to say, those
13:27guys don't
13:28deserve you. Join us and together, let's do something better.
13:37No two people in a party or a country or a county or a family agree on absolutely everything, but
13:45on
13:45every one of those big issues. Democrats agree on what we ought to do. Most Michiganders agree on what we
13:50ought to do and we got a chance to do something about it so we know what we've got to
13:54do these
13:55next 88 days and that's get the word out to everybody who will listen.
14:02And based on the energy in this room, I think we're going to do just fine in November.
14:07But we got to keep doing the work. Now as soon as we're done here, I'm going to head right
14:11back
14:11up north so that I can be there for the birthday party we're throwing for our twins tomorrow morning
14:16back home. Thank you.
14:27They're about to be five.
14:31Which means if you've ever had kids that age, they're starting to ask a lot of questions.
14:35Some are easier than others. Is a pineapple bigger than a grapefruit?
14:42What happened to our old dog?
14:45Is Taylor Swift real?
14:50Do the good guys always win?
14:53Even at this age, I'm starting to find it challenging to answer some of the questions
14:59that come my way. They're starting to ask Chaston and me about the American flag.
15:04Why we don't have kings and queens where we live.
15:07You're asking some pretty pointed questions about why I keep going to the airport every few days.
15:11But this right here is why. I'm on the road for the same reason that you're working so hard for
15:17this election because one day those questions are going to get even more intense.
15:21They're going to be saying, hey, Papa, back in the 2020s,
15:26what were you doing? When things were so crazy in this country, what did you do about it?
15:33And I want to be able to tell them that back then, back in the 2020s, back when politicians
15:39drew maps where they could pick their own voters instead of the other way around.
15:43Back when one job was not enough for so many hardworking Americans.
15:48Back when some people barbarically had to choose between health care and a mortgage payment.
15:54Back in the 2020s, when the American dream was slipping away,
15:58we decided to turn things around before it was too late.
16:06When we stopped pretending things that could go on like that would go on forever,
16:10and we made sure something better took their place. And I'm going to tell them about the work
16:15we did right here in Michigan in the general election of 2026.
16:21So my only question is, are you ready to make sure that that's the story we get to tell our
16:26kids one day?
16:28Are you ready to call people into our coalition while there's still a chance?
16:32Are you ready to do the work? Knock on doors, pick up the phone and call for something better?
16:40Then we will be proud of this moment because of what we were about to do next.
16:44Thank you so much for showing up, Michigan. Let's get to work and let's get this done.
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