Obama backed a progressive candidate and attacked Trump in the final stretch of the U.S. campaign.

WASHINGTON.- A rising figure in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Abdul el-Sayed, a Muslim epidemiologist and former public health official of Egyptian descent, took the stage Saturday at a school gymnasium in Detroit to promote his candidacy on the first day of early in-person voting in Michigan, one of the most consequential US Senate races in the November 3 midterm elections. The event drew national attention not only because of the tight electoral contest El-Sayed is waging against his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, who is backed by Donald Trump, but also because standing beside him was one of the leaders with the most pull among Democrats, former president Barack Obama, a sign of establishment support for an opposition campaign shaken by the emergence of left-wing figures. "This election is our last and best chance to at least slow down some of the insanity of this administration [...] We have to start showing how a future beyond this government can look, and that begins with all of you sending El-Sayed to the Senate," he said. Before the Detroit event, Obama headlined another campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attacked the Trump administration. He said it has an "incompetence unlike anything seen in modern times" that has translated into "two years of chaos, cruelty and corruption." He was also biting in mocking Trump, which drew laughter from Democratic supporters. "I don't know if you've noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations [...] He has made the White House look like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Gold everywhere. So clearly, he is not focused on lowering prices for you," he said. El-Sayed, backed by Obama, is just one of the progressive candidates who have worked during the campaign to distance themselves from the "democratic socialist" label, the faction whose leading standard-bearers include New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and which has sought to redefine the political priorities of the American left. "I prefer to think of myself as a capitalist who understands how capitalism works," El-Sayed clarified in a recent interview, though he had left the door open to forming a "grand coalition" in his race for a key Senate seat. Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic candidate for Senate in the state of Michigan. Paul Sancya - AP In fact, last week the influential congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), who last August rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was in Michigan campaigning for El-Sayed and transferred one million dollars to a political account to boost him in his duel with Rogers. "I don't want to wake up on November 4 regretting not having done more to combat the smears [from Republicans] directed against Abdul," Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times. "I'm giving it my all on the ground," added the congresswoman, who is weighing a 2028 presidential run. Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. X/@updatesaoc Democratic debate The advance of progressive and democratic socialist figures in this electoral process, which could redefine the second stretch of Trump's presidency, has deepened the internal debate over the party's direction for confronting the mogul's policies. With Democrats favored in the polls to retake the House majority starting next year, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York) distanced himself from the DSA agenda, though he made clear that candidates backed by that organization who win their races "will be welcome." Throughout the campaign, the political relationship between Jeffries and Mamdani has been a continuous exercise in balance and pragmatism between the moderate wing and the socialist faction. And despite their marked ideological differences and moments of electoral friction, they kept communication channels open that recently translated into an unusual joint collaboration to reject ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) operations following a shooting in New York. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on August 31, 2026. J. Scott Applewhite - AP According to The Wall Street Journal, Jeffries—who could become Speaker of the House starting January in the event of a Democratic victory—has spoken with or met in recent months with all the DSA-backed leaders who won their primaries. A series of victories in the midterm elections could give the organization, founded in 1982 and which already has more than 120,000 members, its largest representation in history on Capitol Hill. "For a movement that barely had a few thousand members a decade ago, the transformation is remarkable. Bernie Sanders made democratic socialism comprehensible to millions of Americans. Ocasio-Cortez gave it a younger national face. Mamdani showed that they could defeat the Democratic Party machine, govern a major city and, then, help elect other socialists," wrote analyst Nik Popli in Time magazine. Bernie Sanders, the veteran senator from the state of Vermont. Getty Images "However, with the midterms approaching, the question now is how far this model can extend," he added. Two DSA members with a high probability of winning House seats, Darializa Ávila Chevalier (New York) and Melat Kiros (Colorado), have already begun laying out the political concessions they hope to obtain, such as the implementation of a universal health care system, a cut in US aid to Israel, and an end to participation in the war in Iran. Democratic candidate Melat Kiros after winning the primaries in Denver, Colorado. MICHAEL CIAGLO - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA "I worry much less about who holds the office of Speaker of the House and much more about what agenda they will push in Congress and in the [Democratic] caucus," Kiros, 29, born in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and a candidate in Colorado's first congressional district, told Politico. Her surprising July primary victory in Denver over veteran Representative Diana DeGette, with nearly 30 years in office, was one of the advances by the left wing that laid bare a deeper tectonic shift in the Democratic Party, in the midst of a reconfiguration over the political course it will ultimately take ahead of the 2028 presidential elections, with tensions between the traditional and more radical sectors. Riding the momentum generated by Mamdani, in recent months a diverse group of congressional candidates sharing many of his proposals has emerged nationally, with the affordability crisis as one of their focal points. And that growing enthusiasm has transcended the internal limits of the DSA. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. RYAN MURPHY - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA A September Gallup poll revealed that 43% of Americans now view socialism favorably. It is the first time a positive perception of that ideology has exceeded 40% since the pollster began measuring it in 2010. Still, experts note that even if all 19 democratic socialist candidates—out of 64 who ran in primaries nationwide, according to a Brookings Institution survey—were to win their elections, it would not be enough to form a group with decisive weight in Congress. "It's a very small number," said researcher Elaine Kamarck, one of the authors of the study. "The probability of socialists forming a subgroup within the Democratic bloc large enough to block initiatives or prevent them from moving forward is quite low," she added. Even so, the rise of candidates from the further left wing extends not only to Capitol Hill but also to mayoralties, governorships, and municipalities. In the District of Columbia, the nation's federal capital and seat of the White House, mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George identifies as a democratic socialist and has become one of Trump's main targets. President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Highland Heights, Kentucky. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI - AFP The president openly called her a "communist" and went so far as to threaten to place Washington under federal control if she won the election. Political coexistence is presumed to be very complicated. Polls anticipate that George will become the next mayor after the 11 years in office of Muriel Bowser, a moderate Democrat who also had a strained relationship with the mogul. By Guillermo Idiart