Michigan Democratic Party

She was elected by the Democratic Party of Michigan with their support, with their funding, and it just, I can't...

It beggars belief to me to think that the Michigan Democratic Party is okay with this and can't pull her into line in some way, shape, or form and say to her, "Hey, it's not cool to be supporting John James, who is clearly MAGA.

We know that.

He has supported Trump up and down the ticket with his votes in, in DC." And it just, it, it frustrates me no end.

John Ossoff gave a big chunk of change to the Georgia party.

Now, part of that may be because he wants to get bottoms, catch a Lance bottoms, the Democrat into the governor's mansion so that if he becomes president, they get a point, a democratic Senator, right? But also more and more candidates are recognizing the Michigan democratic party came back from the Trump loss, in part because Debbie Stabenow put a few hundred grand into off-cycle field organizing, right? They began to build a presence on the ground in like 2017.

Yeah.

For years...

I think more Ossoffs and Debbie Sabanows, more candidates, high-profile candidates are going to have to stand up.

and invest their own money in the kind of infrastructure.

You know, when I was doing work with the Michigan Democratic Party, 2000 to 2024, they talked constantly about, this was projects that were supporting state ledge candidates mostly.

And they talked about building the vote from the bottom up, right? But it's too easy for the media and for big donors to, to only want to fund shiny, shiny, shiny things.

Keep it locked in.

We'll be right back with more of Chu's Views and our interview with Curtis Hertel, who is the Michigan Democratic Party chair.

We'll be right back.

[upbeat jazz music] All right, guys, welcome back to Chu's Views.

If you're just tuning in, I am talking with the chair of the Michi- ca- Michigan Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel.

Curtis, um, let's talk about young voters.

Are we doing the right things? What are we missing, if we're missing things, as it relates to young voters and their ability to say, yeah, I, the, I think the Democrats are gonna get it right this time.

You know, one of...

Just give it to Spain, though.

What is this fucking madness? The Michigan Dems opened their convention with a land acknowledgement, and whoever the chair was mispronounced the Native American tribe's name.

So all these people are yelling at her.

She's like, well, you give the name.

And so Abdul El-Sayed is getting some questions about the fact that now he and Kamala Harris are campaigning together.

According to, uh, Paul Cannon, who is the former communications director for the Michigan Democratic Party, uh, Paul says that, quote, "He," talking about El-Sayed, "has relationships to deepen with Black voters and civic leaders in Detroit." And he said that El-Sayed holding a conversation on Black maternal health with Harris and leaders, including at the NAACP, quote, "gives him an opportunity to do exactly that." El-Sayed is doing what he's supposed to do, and yet he is properly getting questioned about this.

Now, I don't know how y'all gonna feel about this particular, um, reporter who asked these questions because of the way the questions were posed was a little, a little contentious.

But one thing I like about El-Sayed, he know how to handle himself in front of a, he know how to handle himself in an interview and in a conversation.

So who knows what's going to happen there on that race.

Now, Becky Alexander, she chairs the Michigan Democratic Party Jewish Caucus, and she was reported saying that the conversations that she's having with members are uncomfortable and maddening.

So she would not even say if she would vote for him.

She put it this way.

I support great Abdul and a whole bunch of others who were saying that after the meeting.

Well, now the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has been pretty critical of Abdul El-Sayed at first, and she also stayed away from her own Michigan Democratic Party convention, the nominating convention, which took place in August, because she said she didn't feel safe because she is Jewish.

And she said, I have a lot of concerns about the anti-Semitism in the Michigan Democratic Party.

And I don't feel safe to go to my own convention.

She said she was getting threats.

It really, really is, I promise people at home, it's a way smaller world than you think it is.

You think of the DNC, you think of the Democratic Party, of the coordinated Michigan Democratic Party campaign.

And you imagine, you know, hundreds of canvassers.

You imagine all these big budgets.