Abdul El-Sayed — UAW-endorsed candidate Abdul El-Sayed delivers speech at UAW 2026 Constitutional Convention

but I know we're all sick and tired of being told what we're asking that we're asking for too much, you know, that corporate America can't afford our demands. We go through that chart, we show all that, you know, the working class, they want to say doesn't deserve the dignity we're asking for. We hear it from employers, we hear it from the media, and we hear it from a hell of a lot of politicians. But we all know the truth, and the truth is in the richest country in the history of the world, working people can have a good life. But we're only going to win what we're willing to fight for. And when it came time for our union to make an endorsement for US Senate, there was one candidate who, like us, refused to back down. He refused to accept that a better life for the working class isn't possible. And he believes, as we do, that when we fight, we'll win. He believes in health care for all. He believes in a dignified retirement. He stands with the working class, and I'll tell you this, he was the only one of the three candidates that doesn't accept corporate PAC money, and wants to see uh stock dividends and buybacks outlawed. So, we're staying with him. >> [applause] >> So, UAW family, please welcome our UAW-endorsed candidate for US Senate here in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. >> [music] >> I want to be only way I've I've been practicing my whole life to live my life is to be responsible for what I do. I don't know how to be responsible >> [music

for what every black male did. I don't know. Yes, I am going to say that I'm a third. That's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here. >> I see no changes. All I see is racist faces. Misplaced hate makes this >> Good morning, UAW. >> [cheering] >> All right, who here believes we got to get money out of politics? >> [cheering] >> Who believes we got TO PUT MONEY BACK IN POCKETS? AND WHO HERE KNOWS IT IS TIME for Medicare for all? >> [cheering] >> My name is Abdul El-Sayed and I am clearly running for US Senate cuz I got a name that is tailor-made for US politics. But y'all, it just shouldn't be this hard. Shouldn't be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries. Shouldn't be this hard to work the same job tomorrow that you worked yesterday. Shouldn't be this hard to pay your rent or ever believe you could own a home if you're under 40. Stay in your home if you're over 65. Shouldn't be this hard to see a doctor in the richest, most powerful country in the world. Shouldn't be this hard to know that you have the solidarity of your union sisters and brothers right there with you because management isn't trying to bust your union. Should not be this hard to pay your taxes and know that that money's going to be spent on you and your kids instead of dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids. It shouldn't be this hard. >> [cheering] [applause] >> I got to tell you I am so proud, so honored, so grateful to have earned the support of the UAW cuz for me this is a bit of a full circle moment. See, I was raised by my father who immigrated to this country from Alexandria, Egypt and my stepmom Jackie was a daughter of the American Revolution from the middle of the state. My dad studied into existence the life that I've gotten to lead. He knew one thing growing up as the eldest son of a vegetable salesman and the smartest, wisest person I ever met in my whole life, my grandmother who never got to go to school. She was illiterate. Raised six of the eight kids to whom she gave birth. Two died before the age of one. My dad watched his two siblings pass before he turned five. But there was a moment for him when he saw a perfectly designed American car manufactured by UAW members. He said, "You know what? I want to make those when I grow up." And he studied and he worked. He studied on the roof of their apartment building by the light of the lamp across the street. I remember spending some of my summers there seeing that. And he got the opportunity to come here because he knew that a child growing up in the 1970s that Detroit and Michigan were the best single place to make cars in the whole world and he knew that because of you. >> [applause and cheering] >> But I'm never going to forget that day, 1996. He's an engineer working at the tech center. Well, about half of his engineering colleagues get laid off. And he came home and he said something I'm never going to forget. He said, "You know, a car company that stops investing in its workers and its engineers is not going to be a car company for very long." Fast forward, 2008 and GM is forced to take a bailout. You are forced to take concessions because of a series of financial decisions that were made both by politicians and corporate CEOs. And I reflect on that because my dad he became a union man. He worked and he taught at universities and he ended up leading a strike at Eastern Michigan University that delivered better wages, better benefits, and dignity for workers. And he taught me >> [applause] >> the power in a union. So, I'm proud to stand with you as a second-generation union member who will always claw and fight and work with our union sisters and brothers demanding better wages, better benefits, and the dignity of knowing that you will be respected by your management. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Now, here's the thing. I became a doctor cuz I knew that I could go 15 hours to my family's native Egypt or 15 minutes from where I grew up and I'd cross a difference of 10 years in life expectancy. Got to rebuild Detroit's health department, lead Wayne County's Department of Health, Human, and Veteran Services. We did things like guarantee kids glasses, take on some of the biggest corporate polluters in our state, put Narcan in vending machines in 100 different locations, and eliminated $700 of medical debt. >> [applause and cheering] >> And I'm never going to forget that day sitting in my office in Wayne County the day that that orange man in that White House decided to freeze federal funds. Feels like 10 years ago. It was about a year ago. And I'm trying to float programs like WIC, federally qualified health centers, vaccines, and I get a notification on my phone that after his long and storied career, our US Senator Gary Peters is not seeking re-election. There was going to be an open US Senate seat. I had to ask myself, where is the fight for the public's health now? Cuz if you've ever looked at DC and wondered why the hell is RFK Jr. running public health, I think we all could agree we probably need a public health senator right about now. >> [applause] >> But y'all, [cheering] it's not my first rodeo. Not my first rodeo. I ran for governor back in 2018. I was 32, never run for office in my life. I had this crazy idea that you know what? Let's go big or go home. I went big, then I went home. But I said something at the time that I think folks weren't quite ready to hear. That Donald Trump is not himself the disease in our politics. Donald Trump is just the worst symptom of the disease of our politics. >> [cheering and applause] >> The disease is the system that allows big corporations and billionaires and special interests to buy and sell our politicians in ways that leave them rigging the system against us. We pay more for the stuff we got to buy, get paid less for the work we do, and watch as our tax dollars GET MISAPPROPRIATED TO BUY BOMBS AND TANKS FOR OTHER countries instead of schools and health care for our own. >> [cheering and applause] >> So, we're running a campaign to do three simple things. We want to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, and pass Medicare for all. Now, look. [cheering] >> [applause] >> I'm not playing. I'm the only candidate running for US Senate in Michigan who's never taken a dime from management, never taken a dime from corporation to run a campaign, and never will. And frankly, I think that should be illegal. >> [applause] >> I know the power of a union. My dad taught me that. I watched it myself as a union member. And it is damn past time for us to decide that we as a party are going to be firmly on the side of working people. We are going to stand with unions, and we are going to pass that PRO Act. >> [cheering] [applause] >> But y'all, you understand that's not enough. I told you about my dad's experience. The terrible decisions that CEOs make, keep making, to put their profits over our people. And I think we need to think long and hard about whether or not it should continue to be illegal or legal for corporations to buy back their stocks. And personally, I think it should be illegal. We need to ban stock buybacks. >> [cheering and applause] >> We need to put workers on corporate boards. And you know what? The era of free trade that told us that somehow getting to buy a TV for 700 bucks was going to be worth losing good union manufacturing jobs, that era has to end. I believe that in this country, we need a set of targeted tariffs that protect the industries that we work in. We need to make sure that when it's built in the USA, it's built with good union labor and that our country's going to have our workers' backs. >> [cheering] [applause] >> And then there's the fact that every CEO, they get paid in the form of stock. And their goal is to raise their stock price come what may. And instead of figuring out how to make sure workers are whole or that they got a healthy product line for the next 10 years, they make decisions around a quarterly bottom line. So, I want to lock up all their stock for 10 years after they leave the company to make sure that they have an incentive to make sure that their corporation is healthy for the next 10 years rather than trying to please some Wall Street analyst in the next quarter. And finally, in the richest, most powerful country in the world, I'm proud of the work we did on medical debt, but medical debt shouldn't exist. You shouldn't have to go into debt TO SEE A DOCTOR in this country. And I think we can finally guarantee health care to everybody in this COUNTRY THROUGH MEDICARE FOR ALL. >> [applause] >> NOW, I have some experience with this matter. Every time, you know, you're a doctor and you want to give kids glasses or pass health care, you get some very serious people. Y'all know the type. They all got a side part. They look at you like this. Doctor, how you going to pay for that? You know what they never ask a general trying to draw up war plans to drop bombs on other people's countries? General, how you going to pay for that? I think it is time for us to have a senator who's going to ask the general that question and then go talk to the doctor and say, "Hey, we got your money because THE PEOPLE DESERVE HEALTH CARE, NOT BOMBS." >> [cheering] >> And while we're at it, maybe instead of fighting dumbass wars that we shouldn't be fighting, maybe also we shouldn't be weaponizing ICE on our streets to shoot people in the face or the back of the head. >> [cheering and applause] >> Maybe instead of giving them 250 BILLION OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS to terrorize our communities, maybe instead we ought to be investing in our people. SO, YOU KNOW WHAT? ICE CAN'T BE REFORMED. It can't be retrained. It has to be abolished. >> [cheering] [applause] >> We can have safe and secure southern border. We We can have enforced immigration policy, but we don't got to have IT AT THE BACK END OF AN AR-15 FROM SOMEBODY WHO BARELY got any training. Now, look. I know I'm not supposed to run for office. I got an 11-letter first name. It's got sounds that come out of parts of people's throats they don't know they got. I know. But, I'm not going to stand here and tell you what you cannot have and should not fight for. I'm not going to tell you that the next election is the one that we we have to focus on health care cuz right now it's just too dangerous. Because the reason we lose elections is because too often Democrats will tell you that they're fighting for you, but they're taking MONEY FROM THE SAME EXACT CORPORATIONS who are causing the problem in the first place. >> [cheering] [applause] >> I'm a proud Democrat who BELIEVES MY PARTY'S GOT TO BE BETTER. And better means STANDING UP AND FIGHTING FOR THE KIND OF WORLD WE WANT TO BUILD. Fighting for the kind OF AMERICA WHERE EVERYBODY GETS the health CARE THAT THEY NEED. FIGHTING FOR THE KIND OF AMERICA WHERE YOU KNOW YOU'VE GOT A UNION THAT'S GOT YOUR BACK. FIGHTING for the kind of America that puts Main Street ahead of Wall STREET BY BANNING STOCK BUYBACKS. We've got to fight for that America. And that America starts in this election. So, no, I know. I get it. A lot of worries. How's he going to win? I'm going to tell you how we're going to win. We're going to win because we believe that the power of the many is greater than the power of their money. We're going to win because we are willing to put ourselves into our democracy. We are going to win because we're finally willing to take the fight out to them. We're not going to back down, not at all, because our fight is a righteous one. It's a fight that starts in the hearts of people who understand that this country is a gift. I got a front row seat to what my life should have been. Every time I went off to Egypt in the summers. I got to understand that my life accident of history for so many of us who believe in this place on the eve of our 250th anniversary, the question we got to ask ourselves is, what is America for if not her people? You should not be able to drive 15 miles in 10 years of life expectancy. You You should not be able to go without the health care you need in this country because this is the richest, most powerful country in the world. This fight is a righteous fight about the future. I'll finish here. I got two little girls at home, eight and three. Ethnically half Egyptian like me, ethnically half Indian like their mom where they get their looks, thank god. 100% American. Growing up in an America where they have fewer rights than their immigrant grandparents had when they took a bet on this place and moved here. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men, should say people, are created equal. Government of the people and by the people and for the people. And I know we've never quite gotten there. But we've also never moved backwards as fast. Unions teach us two things. That in solidarity when we come together around the things we have in common, we can not be beaten. And that we will not get what we will not fight for. I saw that our sisters and brothers in local 2093 fighting for the dignity that they had taken away in 2008 that that corporation tried to continue to take away. They stood up, they fought back, and they won. And if we are willing to stand up, fight back, we also can win. We can win the kind of America that beats in the hearts of all of us who believe that this place ought to be the place driven by ideals to the kind of greatness we can yet have. My friends, my name is Abdul El-Sayed. I am running for US Senate. I am so deeply honored for your support. I'm looking forward to fighting back and winning in the future. Thank you again. >> [music]