Sanders to stump for progressive El-Sayed ahead of Michigan gubernatorial primary

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is hitting the campaign trail for Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) on Sunday. 

The progressive firebrand and former 2016 presidential contender will deliver two speeches in Detroit and Ypsilanti in an effort to boost El-Sayed just two days before Michigan’s primaries.

Sanders’s planned appearance at the rallies comes days after another high-profile progressive, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, stumped for El-Sayed in Grand Rapids, Flint, Detroit and Ypsilanti. 

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Ocasio-Cortez, a first-time candidate and former organizer for Sanders’s 2016 campaign, stunned many in the political world last month with her near-landslide defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) in a New York Democratic House primary.

El-Sayed is hoping to pull off an upset of his own on Tuesday. In most recent polls, the former director of the Detroit Health Department has placed in third, behind the other two Democratic candidates for governor, former state Sen. Gretchen Whitmer and businessman Shri Thanedar. 

El-Sayed has positioned himself to the left of the Democratic mainstream, vowing to set up a statewide, single-payer health-care system and put in place a $15 per hour minimum wage — proposals that closely mirror those of Sanders.