Kamala Harris to campaign with Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, in first joint appearance

Former US vice president Kamala Harris plans to campaign with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan next week in the party’s latest push to unify voters in a key battleground state that will help determine control of the Senate.

Harris and El-Sayed have spoken multiple times since she endorsed the anti-Israel Democrat after his primary victory, but this is the first time they’ll appear publicly together.

Harris and El-Sayed will attend a roundtable focused on Black maternal health on Tuesday, according to his campaign spokesperson. El-Sayed is a doctor and the former head of health departments in Detroit and Wayne County.

“Vice President Harris looks forward to returning to Michigan to help turn out the vote in this critical state,” Eduardo Negrón, Harris’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “It is critical we flip the Senate so we can bring down prices and stand up to Donald Trump’s corruption.”

El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former US representative, in November. Republicans have repeatedly attacked El-Sayed, portraying him as the kind of “radical” liberal they say has taken over the Democratic Party.

The Democrat has frequently accused Israel of genocide over its war against Hamas in Gaza, and has been reticent to back a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that would include one self-defined Jewish state.

El-Sayed apologized earlier this year for his response to an attack in which an armed man rammed his truck into a synagogue and preschool. Responding to the fact that members of the attacker’s family – including his brother, a Hezbollah commander – had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, the Democratic candidate said: “Hurt people hurt people.”

He’s also distanced himself from leftist streamer Hasan Piker, after repeatedly campaigning with him. Piker has said Hamas is “1,000 times better” than Israel, and described the United States as “the absolute worst country on the face of the planet.” El-Sayed has, when prompted, condemned some of the streamer’s extreme statements.

The seat in Washington, currently held by Democrat Gary Peters, is among the must-wins for Democrats as they try to achieve control of the Senate. The party needs to flip four GOP-held seats to take a majority, if Democrats keep the Michigan seat. If Rogers were to flip Michigan to Republicans, the Democrats’ challenge would be even greater.

Some other top-ranking Democrats have thrown their weight behind El-Sayed after a bitter primary against Rep. Haley Stevens that highlighted divisions within their party, notably on US support for Israel. In August, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg urged a crowd of hundreds in Detroit to unify behind Democratic candidates in the midterms.

Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential race to Trump, is seen as a possible 2028 candidate. In the last election, Trump carried the state by some 2%. During the campaign he courted its Muslim and Arab communities, among whom there was widespread anger at Harris over her perceived support for Israel.

While in Michigan, Harris will also meet with local elected officials and the Rev. Wendell Anthony, the president of the NAACP’s Detroit branch, according to her spokesperson.

Democrat from NY to block 2,000-lb. bombs sale to Israel

Meanwhile, US Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said Thursday he would obstruct a Trump administration proposal for a $2.8 billion bomb sale to Israel.

Meeks, a longtime supporter of Israel from New York, said he would not clear the transaction due to concerns that these 2,000-pound munitions would not be used in accordance with US and international law.

Despite his concerns, Meeks said in a statement that he remains “firmly committed to Israel’s security and its ability to defend itself against serious regional threats.”

The 15-term congressman, known for his pragmatic and moderate stances, voiced concern about the potential sale of 40,000 of these bombs, which he described as “some of the most destructive munitions in our arsenal.”

The proposal, he added, raised questions “about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon.”

Israel has said its use of American munitions is always in compliance with US and other relevant laws.

If Democrats are able to retake the House majority in November, Meeks would then become the chairman of the committee in January.

More than two years ago, in April 2024, Meeks announced that he would block the sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel, if he did not receive “assurances” as to the intended purposes of these jets.

At the time, he told CNN that he had “enough of the indiscriminate bombing” and wanted to prevent Israel from utilizing weapons to create more deaths.

Meeks has longstanding ties to the pro-Israel community. In 2020, when he was one of three Democrats on the committee seeking its chairmanship, he met with pro-Israel groups to get what was then their critical endorsement.

But the US-Israel relationship has soured in recent years, especially over Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, and more recently Meeks has criticized the country’s leadership.

In February, Meeks slammed the decisions of Netanyahu and his security cabinet to expand Israel’s control over the West Bank.

“These actions deliberately and potentially irreversibly erode the possibility of a negotiated two-state solution” he said in a statement, referring to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

While individual congressional committee members do not have unilateral power to prevent an arms sale, they are able to place a “hold” on a transaction in order to acquire more information.

“The Trump administration has not provided sufficient assurances that these weapons will be used by the Netanyahu government in accordance with US law and with appropriate protections for civilians,” Meeks said on Wednesday.

This decision, he explained, does not weaken Congressional backing “for Israel’s legitimate defense needs.”

“It reflects Congress’s responsibility to ensure that US-funded weapons are used lawfully, responsibly, and with meaningful safeguards for human life,” Meeks added.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.