El-Sayed hears concerns over affordability, healthcare at Alpena campaign stop

Many people in Alpena said some of their biggest concerns going into the next election season is affordability, school funding, healthcare at a political rally for Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

“I personally have issues getting, finding reasonable priced healthcare, and so I think everybody deserves health care and a reasonable healthcare and nobody should go into debt,” Cathy Goike of Alpena said.

The event was a part of a larger tour El-Sayed was on that went from Sault Ste. Marie to Tawas City. The intent was to listen to Michigan voters within the northern region and understand key challenges in the area, according to the campaign website.

The Alpena County Michigan Democrats helped organize the event. Sara Lane, the chair for the group, said she is mainly concerned about affordability.

"We had different comments here today about...housing issues in the area, there's a lack of affordable health care," Lane said. "We're all sturggling with trying to be able to afford anything in life.

"It would be nice to see some of that trickle down to just regular people that live in northeast Michigan rather than different tax cuts for billionaires, stuff that we're never going to see."

In the 2024 election, the majority of counties within northern Michigan voted red, with the exception of Leelanau county, according to Politico. El-Sayed, progressive candidate, said he is hoping to continue to sway voters within the region by showing up and talking to people.

“We keep coming, people keep coming and we know that our message resonates in communities like this,” El-Sayed said.

There are currently three Democratic candidates and one Republican hoping to fill an open seat left by U.S. Senator Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, who is not seeking reelection, in the November general election. Currently the Democratic candidates include El-Sayed, Mallory McMorrow and Haley Stevens, all of whom are polling neck and neck in the August primary. The winner will likely go on to face Republican Mike Rogers.

Recent polls show in the months of April and May that Stevens and El-Sayed have been competing for the most votes for the Democratic candidate, according to the New York Times.

El-Sayed showed a 28% success rate among 405 likely voters in a poll through Mitchell Research and Communications, which was the highest percentage among the four options given other than “Don’t know.”

One Michigan voter, John Roussin, said he came to the rally because he wants to be more involved in politics. He said this rally was the first time he’s been involved “in a long time.”

“I think we need to get money out of politics,” Roussin said. “That’s number one, because then everything else will be easier.”

El-Sayed’s campaign has currently focused messaging on taxing billionaires and corporations and putting that money into public programs like public education and affordable healthcare.

Brian Perry is a resident in Alpena, who said his biggest concern is where government money goes.

“We’re spending money in ways I don’t always agree with,” Perry said. “Defense is important, but the way we’re doing defense is kind of the big question.

“I think right now, we’re seeing conflicts in Iran which is a whole very, very sensitive subject, but we’re spending money there, but not places where I personally feel it’s important.”

Outside of affordability, El-Sayed touched on many issues such as infrastructure. El-Sayed said the federal government needs to provide states with more funding to fix infrastructure. He said he wants to propose a federal water bill that would address broken infrastructure across the country.

“The state’s doing all it can,” El-Sayed said. “We need a federal water bill that actually addresses the fact that too many places across our state and our country are facing water challenges because the infrastructure is broken. We have not invested in it in a very long time.”

Currently, many Michigan counties are paying special assessments and dealing with the after effects of dam damages. Cheboygan County is still trying to drop water levels at the Cheboygan dam after historic flooding caused the water level to go to dangerously high levels in April.

El-Sayed said he wants to focus on policies that would increase federal funding to projects like improving dam infrastructure.