Abdul El-Sayed takes affordability message to Midland town hall

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed criticized the Trump administration’s economic and foreign policies, called for stronger support for people with disabilities and urged action to prevent gun violence during a Saturday town hall in Midland.

El-Sayed held the event at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland as part of his “Shouldn’t Be This Hard” town hall tour, which also stopped in Petoskey, Caro and Bay City.

He argued that political opponents focus on his name and faith to distract voters from issues such as gas and grocery prices, access to health care, clean air and clean water.

“My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford gas or groceries, or the reason you can’t see a doctor,” El-Sayed said to a crowd of about 175 supporters. “Their policies are.”

He pointed to tariffs and the war in Iran as examples of decisions he said were driving costs and creating uncertainty. El-Sayed criticized President Donald Trump’s tariff policies toward Canada, describing them as a costly “vanity tariff project.” He also called the U.S. involvement in Iran a bad idea and said the conflict had been a long-term goal of a foreign leader.

“There’s really only one person in the whole world who’s had a 40 year project to get us to fight this war and he’s the prime minister of another government,” El-Sayed said. “And he finally found the dumbass who’s willing to do it.” 

El-Sayed linked fuel costs to grocery prices, noting that food is transported by truck and that diesel prices affect the cost of getting products to stores. He said a semi-truck now costs about $1,200 to fill.

El-Sayed is a former public health official who led the Detroit Health Department from 2015 to 2017. He was appointed by Mayor...