DETROIT — The United Auto Workers-endorsed Michigan candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, Jocelyn Benson and Abdul El-Sayed, emphasized the economic challenges of families in an appeal to the Detroit-based union’s delegates Thursday at the UAW's constitutional convention.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited, and Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, is stepping down at the end of his second six-year stint. The openings pave the way for a critical election on the direction of Michigan’s future and influence in Washington, D.C.

The UAW endorsed Benson, Michigan's secretary of state, for her actions around Michigan’s elections, including refusing to hand over voter registration information to President Donald Trump. It also backed El-Sayed, the former director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services and a candidate for governor in 2018, for his refusal to take political action committee money and his support for stopping stock buybacks, UAW President Shawn Fain said. Both candidates are Democrats.

"Working people in Michigan set the tone for the agenda for our politics," Fain said, "and we are reasserting our power in this state."

Benson in her address said that if she isn’t elected in November, key UAW values are put at risk: “We are in the middle of a battle over the future of our democracy, your jobs and our economy, and the 2026 election is one that will determine that future for generations to come."

She promised to have the United Auto Workers play a key role in her campaign and beyond if elected governor of Michigan.

“The UAW is going to be front and center as we fight, not just through November, but into 2027, into 2028,” she said. “Together, we can make Michigan the best place in the nation to live, to work, to raise a family included in our union values.”

El-Sayed pushed government-funded health care for all, abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, proposed federal legislation that would institute larger penalties for employers that violate worker protections, overturn state “right to work” laws that allow workers to choose whether to join a union and pay dues while working in an organized workplace, and ban employers from mandating meetings used to discourage unionizing.

"Donald Trump is just the worst symptom of the disease of our politics ... the system that allows free corporations and billionaires and special interests to buy and sell our politicians in ways that leave them rigging the system against us," El-Sayed said. "We pay more for the stuff we have to buy, get paid less for the work we do and watch as our tax dollars get misappropriated to buy bombs and tanks for other countries instead of schools and health care for our own. We want to get money out ofpolitics, put money in your pocket and pass Medicare for all."

Wendy Drew, 60, of Romulus, Michigan, a 30-year UAW member who works at auto supplier Magna Seating in Highland Park, felt inspired by the candidates. She related to the comments on high costs, especially health care. Drew lost her husband to COVID-19 during the pandemic.

“That’s really affected my world,” Drew said. “They both said when being in the grocery store, and you have to choose between buying food or paying DTE to keep the lights on — it’s the same price. What they stand on and believe in are the same as what I do.”

Meanwhile, Patrick Dewey, 28, of Muskegon, Michigan, was impressed by Benson’s strong stand for the UAW. With half of his family being Mexican, he also appreciated El-Sayed’s stance on ICE. Although he sees the need for border protections, Dewey said he disagrees with how ICE has carried out its role, including separating families and not having enough training for agents.

“He knows what the working-class needs,” Dewey said. “He knows to make it happen, we just need to get in there first and then fight it head on.”

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