US midterms: Michigan candidate El-Sayed pledges to tackle the affordability crisis

For more on that crucial race in Michigan, then we'll cross to our correspondent, Jessica LeMessurier, who's standing by at a polling station in the state. Hi there, Jessica. So voting started a few hours ago. What do you think are the main issues driving people to the polls in Michigan this morning? Well, when a carton of milk can cost as much as $7, and when you go to the gas pump and it's $5 a gallon, that leads to a crisis. And it's the issue of affordability that everyone here is talking to me about across the political spectrum. Everyone is worried about the cost of living. The question is how to deal with it. If you speak to the more left-wing progressive Democrats, they are rooting for El Saeed, who has promised to tackle the cost of living, make things more affordable. One of his slogans is that he's going to take the money out of politics and put it in your pocket. And this is really resonating. It's really energised his base. He's promising free healthcare, affordable free childcare, and all sorts of progressive policy ideas. that really have... We've got a lot of Democrats coming out to vote for him here, especially in the city in Detroit. Now, if you go a little out of the city and into the suburbs, however, you'll find Republicans who will say that they are afraid of socialism. They think that El Saeed is far too extreme and his progressive politics are dangerous. They want to keep him out. So many people are motivated to go to the polls to keep him out. They do recognize that Trump's tariffs have damaged the economy, especially here. in Michigan, where the auto industry is so central. And indeed, the Republican candidate has criticized those tariffs. But Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee, has also been endorsed by Trump. So he's kind of walking this fine line of criticizing some of Trump's policies that are unpopular with voters, but also trying not to alienate the MAGA base in order to keep those votes. He has been a bit critical of the war in Iran. And it's interesting, when you talk to Republican voters here, The war in Iran has led to high gas prices, but many of them don't actually blame Trump. They think that the rest of the world should be supporting the United States in this war. So we see these two sides and this kind of struggle between a push for more socialist policies on the Democratic side with El Saeed and then Mike Rogers, who, yeah, supported by Trump, but in a tricky situation there because Trump is not very popular here right now in the United States. And this is, of course, these midterm elections, sort of a referendum. On the president as well, in many senses. Now, Jessica, you spoke there about the two obvious divisions between Republicans and Democrats and how that plays out from a policy perspective. But how has the infighting played into voting there, infighting between Democrats, I should say, of course, between Haley Stevens and Abdul El Saeed? How is that affecting the vote? And what does it say about divisions amongst Americans at large in these midterms? Well, in a tangible sense, it won't impact the actual vote here all that much, because I believe that during early voting, a third of those eligible to cast their ballots had already done so. So it won't have an enormous impact. That said, we did hear from El-Sayed's campaign that after she announced that she was going to be supporting Mike Rogers, that actually they had a record funding drive and they got more or the second biggest day of donations that they had had. the entire campaign in the four hours after she'd announced that. So it could have some impact. But what is most interesting about it is what it reveals about the divisions within the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has been struggling to find its new direction. And this Senate race in Michigan is so closely watched because we've got such a progressive candidate who is running and a charismatic one who's even been compared by a lot of the voters I've been speaking to, to Barack Obama for his charisma. But he's pushing the party towards a much more progressive direction Thank you very much. He is forging a new path, in a sense, in his clear criticism of U.S. foreign policy, his criticism of the U.S. relationship with Israel and calling for an end to the U.S. support for Israel. And that's really resonated with a lot of voters here in Michigan. We have a big Arab-American population here. And so it's very interesting to see how this race, what this race will show about the future direction of the Democratic Party. Thank you very much. Voters here have been somewhat cautious about getting behind an Arab-American candidate because in the past they have seen the Arab-American community here vote for Trump. They are still angry about that. And also they are still annoyed about this uncommitted vote. Those Democrats within, in particular, the Arab-American community who did not vote for Kamala Harris, and they blame them in a sense for her losing the presidential election. We'll see whose vision then manages to convince residents of the U.S. state of Michigan. Jessica LeMessurier, thank you very much.