‘After Tomorrow, He’ll Call Me Senator’: Abdul’s Blunt Final Message to Trump Ahead of Midterm Day

Thank you all so much. How we doing, UAW? I am so grateful. Can we just have another round of applause for our brother Maurice? Oh, incredible introduction. And I just want to say how grateful I am to the incredible leadership who has been leading for you and with you for a world where everybody has access to a union and the wages and the benefits that that represents. You all know how I do. Money out of? Money in your? Medicare for? Let's do it one more time. Money out of. Money in your. Medicare for. I am so honored and grateful to be here in the house that labor built. Thank you all so much. And my name is Abdul El-Sayed and I am honored to be your UAW endorsed Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate here in Michigan. I'm also honored to stand before you as a second generation union man. I know exactly what a union meant for our household. I know what unions have meant for households across the state of Michigan. I don't have to tell you all this, but unions built the middle class. Unions built the 40-hour work week. Unions built Michigan. Unions built the best cars. Unions built the fact that our kids go to school instead of going to work. And unions can do it again if we are willing to stand for and rebuild our unions in this country. That's the thing about it. It shouldn't be this hard. Shouldn't be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries or a tank of gas. Shouldn't be this hard to see a doctor in the richest, most powerful country in the world. Shouldn't be this hard to pay your rent or pay your mortgage. Shouldn't be this hard to pay your taxes and know that that money is going to be spent for you and your kids instead of dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids. Shouldn't be this hard. But right now we find ourselves in a moment where we have capitulated as a country to a politics of the corporations by the special interests and for the billionaires. But I believe in an America. Well, we've got a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And maybe it's because my dad came to this country believing in that set of ideals. He was a kid who grew up the first of six of eight to whom his family gave birth. Two of his siblings died before their first birthday. My dad, he really wanted to make cars. And he understood that the best single place to do that was in Detroit, Michigan. And so he studied. On the rooftop of his building, by the light of the lamp across the street, I used to see that same place where he studied my life into existence. And he got the opportunity to come to Detroit, Michigan, to go to Wayne State University. He helped design some of the most iconic GM cars in the 90s. Hummer, my dad had a piece of it. The 96 Camaro, dad had a piece of that. LT1 engine. That also was the engine that they put in the 96 Impala, which I still think is the best sleeper car ever made. But he came here, and one of the proudest moments I've had in my life was watching my dad lead his AAUP local at Eastern Michigan University in a strike where they won better wages and better benefits for their local. He understood the power of a union. We understand the power of a union. We've got an opportunity in this race to remind America what it means here in Michigan to stand with and for our union. That is the opportunity in this race. And I, look, you all have watched the race. You've watched the campaign against me. You might think that in a moment where gas is too expensive, people can't afford their groceries, that if you wanted to win an election, you might want to talk about gas and groceries. They don't want to talk about gas and groceries. They want to talk about me and my name and my face. At times, I wonder whether or not Donald Trump even remembers what my name actually is, Abdul. Or he's taking now to call me Muhammad. Sounds like somebody just started a lawnmower. Muhammad. At some point, I don't even care if he knows what my name is, because after tomorrow, we're going to make sure he calls me Senator. But honestly, my name and my faith are not the reason you can't afford your gas. Not the reason you can't afford your groceries. Not the reason you can't see a doctor. I mean, if you're seeing a doctor, they might actually have my name in my face. Not the reason we can't breathe clean air or drink clean water. Not the reason they're trying to bust our unions. Not the reason that GM just had a historic stock buyback. It is their policies that are doing that. It is their war in Iran that is raising the price of our gas and groceries. It is their tariff war with Canada that is raising the price of everything else and destroying our jobs in the process. It is their permissiveness with Wall Street that is allowing corporations like GM to play the stock market rather than invest in the future of the work that you all show up to do every single day. It is their policies that are doing that. But this race is not about me. It's not about my name. It's not about them. It's about us. It's about what we want, what we need, and what we deserve in our politics. And there is a lesson that you all have been teaching us for a very long time. It is the lesson of solidarity. See, I've been up and down our state. 120 different cities now, 700 plus public buildings. I've been in union hall after union hall, VFW halls, backyards, basements, living rooms, churches, synagogues, you name it, I've been there. And it doesn't matter where you go. I've been on strike lines too. And it doesn't matter where you go. People are less interested in how you pray. They want to know what you pray for. You know, we pray here in Michigan for the same thing. We pray for our kids. We pray for their prosperity and their opportunity. We pray for peace. We pray for justice. We pray for the lions. Hey, our prayer, whoever it was was praying last Sunday. Hey, they prayed pretty hard. It worked out for us. But this is the thing about it. I've come to know Michiganders. And, you know, I've always... I've been Abdul in Michigan almost my whole life. When you have a name like mine, you see the broad sweep of everybody. There's always a few small people who are small-minded who speak very loudly because they think they can make other people small-minded like them. But then you see everybody else, and everybody else, they're open-hearted. They've got an open mind. They want to understand what you are about and what it is that you want for one another. We here in Michigan, he's got a hat that says grit on it. We are gritty in Michigan. We work hard in Michigan, but we're also earnest in Michigan. We're good people. We bring the best, we give the best, we expect the best. We just don't want to be exploited by a billionaire from New York or a millionaire from Florida. We want to know that our hard work is going to pay off for us and our kids to not get paid into the corporate coffers of some corporation who doesn't want to deliver anything back. As I've traveled the state, I've come to realize that we all understand something. Whether you're in a union or you should be in a union, you understand something about solidarity. You think about most of us here. Your family either came up from down south because of the Great Migration or came from somewhere else because of immigration. So many of the people who came to this state came because of the promise of a good living And so the lesson of Michigan is the lesson of our democracy, which is the lesson of solidarity. That we can have nice things, we just can't do it alone. That if we're willing to reach across the divides, they tell us we can't breach. Divides of race, of faith, of geography, sexual orientation, gender identity. We can build together what we can't have alone. The lesson of solidarity is the idea. That alone we might be weak, but collectively we are strong. And if we're willing to reach across those divides, we can build together what we need and what we deserve. Build together the kind of America that delivers on its promise. That's what I've seen in room after room after room after room in Michigan. We know we deserve a union in our workplace. We know we deserve great health care regardless of who we are. We know we deserve clean air and clean water. We deserve good public schools. We deserve the opportunity to raise our children and know that the democracy we hand off to them is going to be better than where we found it. We understand those things. This is the moment where we reach collectively to build it together, where we leverage our solidarity to build together the kind of democracy we deserve. So, UAW, you all, we all know something about solidarity. And we know that when management or billionaires come at us, we don't back down. So when they come for our union rights, we won't back down. When they come for our healthcare, we won't back down. When they come for our public schools, we won't back down. When they come for our neighbors, we won't back down. When they come for our voting rights, we won't back down. When they come for our collective, we won't back down. And we won't back down tomorrow. And we won't back down for the next six years. And we won't back down any time after that. Because UAW, we understand solidarity, and this is our democracy, and we intend to use it. Again, my name is Abdul El-Sayed, and I look forward to serving you as your next United States senator. Thank you so much. Thank you all so much. Subscribe to One India and never miss an update. Download the OneIndia app now.