By Eric Bradner, Arlette Saenz

(CNN) — Kamala Harris is set to campaign Tuesday with Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, in a joint appearance between two Democrats in a state crucial to the party’s fortunes in this fall’s midterms — and the presidential primary to follow.

Harris and El-Sayed plan to hold a roundtable in the Detroit area focused on Black maternal healthcare, an issue she focused on as vice president. She will also attend a private reception with Michigan leaders hosted by the Oakland County Democratic Party and its chair, former US Rep. Brenda Lawrence, where the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jocelyn Benson, is expected to speak, a source familiar with the matter said.

Later in the day, Harris plans to separately meet with Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP’s Detroit branch; Rev. Genetta Hatcher of The Room Church; and other faith leaders in an event focused on voter turnout.

It’s a notably robust schedule for the former vice president, whose political plans are a subject of intense debate within the Democratic Party. Michigan, which Harris narrowly lost in 2024, isn’t just a swing state in general elections — it’s also poised to become one of the first six states to vote in the Democratic nominating process under a new calendar approved by the Democratic National Committee this year.

“People like her,” Anthony told CNN on Monday. “People like the fact that this African American woman who was vice president, for the first time in the nation’s history, is coming back to the ‘D’ to talk to us about the importance of voting.”

Anthony said that “nobody has a lock on anything” when it comes to the 2028 primary — echoing the sentiments of several other Michiganders who spoke to CNN.

Stephanie Stamps, a Democratic voter from Farmington, said she “possibly” would want to see Harris run for president in 2028, but noted “there might be better candidates at this point.”

“I don’t feel like she had the best shake” in 2024, said Stamps, arguing then-President Joe Biden should have dropped out earlier to allow for a full nominating contest to play out. “I think she would have done a good job, but I think she’s gone a little bit underground since that point, or at least I haven’t seen a lot of her.”

Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to win control of the chamber in November. Crucial to that math is holding onto the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan — a battleground state, to be sure, but one that is generally more favorable to Democrats than other states with competitive Senate races this fall including Alaska, Texas and Ohio.

Harris and El-Sayed, a former public health official in Wayne County, are seeking to unify a Democratic Party fractured by his hard-fought primary against Rep. Haley Stevens for the Senate nomination.

El-Sayed won the primary on the strength of his support among progressives. But Black voters, including Anthony, largely backed Stevens. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee, has openly appealed to Black Democrats as well as Jewish voters amid El-Sayed’s sharp criticism of Israel and an initial statement about an antisemitic attack in March on a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, near Detroit.

Anthony, who endorsed Stevens in the primary, said an El-Sayed endorsement is “still a work in progress.”

“I think he’s a good man. I really believe that. I think that he’s saying some of the right things,” he said.

Two years ago, Harris and El-Sayed were on opposite sides of a key political debate in Michigan. El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel, initially supported the “Uncommitted” movement, a push to vote against Biden in the state’s Democratic primary over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Michigan Democrat eventually supported Harris as the nominee as she campaigned against Trump. But Harris still had to navigate the angst within her own party over the administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, and frustration from Arab American voters and supporters of the “Uncommitted” movement played into her loss in the state.

Publicly, Harris has repeatedly said when asked about a 2028 run that she is “thinking about it” — and has offered no timeline for a decision. In addition to the Michigan trip, Harris is planning to campaign with Democrats in Nevada and Georgia in the coming weeks.

“I think it’s important that we bring different groups of people together. The thing about democracy is — it’s not about dividing. It’s about bringing people together,” El-Sayed said in an interview with CNN on Labor Day. “I’m grateful for the folks that she’s willing to talk to on our behalf.”

Stamps, who is supporting El-Sayed in the Senate race, said she hopes Harris can convince those voters who didn’t cast ballots in 2024 because they “thought maybe it would be closer to a slam dunk” to turn out in this election.

“Hopefully, we’ll get out and vote this time, since it’s kind of proven that if you don’t, who knows what we’re going to end up with,” Stamps said.

The-CNN-Wire
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