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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Tom Perkins in Kalamazoo, Michigan

The populist playbook: Democratic US Senate candidate seeks to replicate Mamdani’s success

a man with a mic and his hand out
Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a Hands Off protest at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, on 5 April 2025. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy

During the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’s Fight the Oligarchy tour stop in Michigan, the Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed hit on bold populist policies like Medicare for all and taxing the rich.

But he drew among the loudest cheers from the crowd in Kalamazoo, when he bellowed his updated reversal of an Obama catchphrase that signified a new pugilistic tactic when dealing with Maga attacks. “When they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out,” he said.

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