Barack Obama to rally for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan before key US Senate race – US politics live

Shrai Popat

Reporting from Manchester, New Hampshire

With 10 days until the midterms election, New Hampshire has caused some eleventh-hour consternation for Democrats when it comes to the competitive Senate race.

Chris Pappas, the four-term Democratic congressman who is vying for the open seat, took to the stage in Manchester ahead of an intimate live podcast taping with Kamala Harris, the former vice-president, and Mini Timmaraju, the executive director of Reproductive Freedom for All – one of the country’s oldest abortion rights groups.

“Shouldn’t we have a senator that’s just going to turn the page on the chaos, the corruption, and the cruelty of what we’ve seen over the last couple of years?” Pappas told the crowd, while targeting his Republican challenger, John Sununu, a former US senator.

“He [Sununu] might still be our senator if he was pro-choice. But when he was in office, he voted for a national abortion ban. He voted not to require hospitals from providing emergency contraception to women who have been raped, and he stands with the Trump administration on their efforts to unwind family planning and to attack the right to choose,” Pappas said.

Sununu’s family name is also a known entity in the state – his brother and father are both former governors. In a state where voters handed Harris a win in 2024 while electing a Republican governor on the same ballot, some Democratic operatives are concerned this creates an opening for Sununu – who has characterized himself as an independent voice, focused on protecting New Hampshire from federal oversight.

The GOP nominee has also distanced himself from Donald Trump, despite winning the president’s endorsement.

If elected, Pappas would make history as the first openly gay man to serve in the US Senate.

A reminder that Democrats need to hold on to the 47 seats that they currently hold, which includes New Hampshire, as well as pickup four more.

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Updated at 19.45 EDT

“These are unsettling times,” Barack Obama said in his address at Abdul El-Sayed’s rally in Detroit, urging voters to elect “serious” candidates who share their values.

The former president noted that the economy is changing fast, artificial intelligence is set to change the world and the United States is facing a major housing shortage. He added that the Republican party no longer seemed to be the party of small government, and that Democrats are struggling to deliver quickly enough for people.

“We need serious people in Washington and state capitals,” Obama said. “These are serious times. This is not the time for reality TV.”

He added that “we need to make sure we elect” candidates like Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson. “They understand that what ails us right now, what’s throwing this country off kilter so much” is “about values.”

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