- US Sen. Bernie Sanders, former presidential candidate and a longtime champion of progressive causes, returns to Michigan
- Sanders stumped for Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, congressional candidate Donavan McKinney and other Michigan progressives
- In his Detroit speech, Sanders called on increased taxes on the wealthy, universal health care and criticized Iran War
DETROIT — Rallying progressive supporters in Detroit, Michigan US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday joined US Sen. Bernie Sanders in calling for a tax on the wealthiest Americans.
“I think we need to tax billionaires,” El-Sayed told a crowd of 1,360 at Detroit’s Mumford High School.
Sanders — who won Michigan’s presidential primary in 2026 — returned to Michigan to campaign for El-Sayed, an Ann Arbor Democrat and former Wayne County health official who is locked in a tight US Senate primary race with state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and US Rep. Haley Stevens.
The winner of the August contest will go on to face the winner of the Republican primary, where Mike Rogers is the heavy favorite.
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In his remarks, Sanders also made the case for a wealth tax, telling the crowd that the top 1% in America holds more wealth than the bottom 93%. He also claimed that Elon Musk, with a reported net worth of $800 billion, holds more wealth than the bottom 53% of households combined.
“Maybe these billionaires should start paying their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said to applause.
Sanders and US Rep. Ro Khanna have proposed a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires that could generate up to $4.4 trillion over 10 years that would be pumped back into cash assistance, health care and housing programs. The nonprofit Tax Foundation says tax avoidance and administrative complexity could significantly lower collections.
El-Sayed has backed that plan as part of his own tax policy agenda, which calls for additional taxes on billionaires and corporations.
“If you’re a billionaire and I tax you at 8%, you know what you still are? You’re still a billionaire. Your kids’ kids’ kids’ kids are going to be rich,” El-Sayed said Sunday.
“Maybe you could spend a little bit — you’ve already won at capitalism — so that all of our kids can get to go to good schools,” El-Sayed said.
Wealth claims
Sanders’ claim that the top 1% of Americans hold more wealth than the bottom 93% appears to be roughly accurate, according to Federal Reserve data. However, that data is not broken down as granularly, so an exact comparison is impossible.
As of the third quarter of 2025, the wealthiest 1% of US households held 32% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 90% also held 32% of the wealth.
The Musk claim appears to be exaggerated, however. Again, an exact comparison is not possible using Federal Reserve data. But as of the third quarter of last year, the bottom 50% of all households had a combined net worth of $4.3 trillion, compared to Musk’s reported wealth of $800 billion.
Spain, Norway and Switzerland currently levy a net wealth tax. Several other European countries repealed wealth taxes in the 1990s and 2000s, with some citing low revenue because wealthy people moved elsewhere to avoid higher taxes.
Sanders noted that a state-level wealth tax proposal is likely to make the ballot this year in California. That measure would levy a one-time 5% wealth tax to fund health care, education and food assistance programs.
Medicare for All
El-Sayed also used the rally to remind supporters he is the only candidate in the US Senate race pushing to enroll all Americans in a “Medicare for All” government-run health care system, an idea popularized by Sanders in his 2016 campaign for president.
Sanders said one of the reasons he’s endorsing El-Sayed is because “he is a doctor, and he knows firsthand how broken this system is,” arguing that Medicare for All is not a radical idea in a nation as wealthy as the US.
For individuals and families, the proposal backed by Sanders and El-Sayed would eliminate premiums, deductibles and most co-pays.
An expensive proposal
Single-payer health care proposals have been a perennial priority for progressives, but they’ve never garnered majority support among congressional lawmakers or voters, many of whom value the choices private insurance offers despite any problems they encounter, John Z. Ayanian, the inaugural director of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, recently told Bridge.
Some voters are also wary of putting the government fully in control of their health care and fear such a system could limit their choice or create longer waiting times for procedures or new treatments, he said. Any version of a single-payer system would also come with a high price tag.
John Holahan, a fellow with the Urban Institute, estimated in 2020 that the Sanders Medicare for All plan would cost $34 trillion in federal spending over 10 years, including the existing costs the federal government currently spends on health care. Accounting for inflation and other factors, he told CNN and later confirmed to Bridge that he projected a single-payer plan would cost nearly twice as much as that initial estimate in 2026.
Advocates for Medicare for All contend that US residents already pay far more for health care than other nations without the same level of benefits.
And they argue Medicare for All could ultimately lower total costs by cutting private insurer profits, streamlining health care administration and empowering the government to negotiate lower drug prices and provider payments.
Health insurance in US Senate race
While the Medicare for All legislation Sanders has championed would eliminate private insurance options, El-Sayed said earlier this year he supports allowing an option for workers to keep supplemental private insurance provided by unions or employers.
That shift sparked criticism from McMorrow, who said earlier challenged El-Sayed to be “honest about what you’re fighting for — not rewriting definitions to have it both ways.”
Both McMorrow and Stevens support giving Americans a “public option” for insurance coverage, arguing it’s a more politically feasible approach that gives patients more choices. During her 2018 congressional bid, Stevens briefly supported Medicare for All, but walked back that endorsement before she was elected.
Republican Mike Rogers, meanwhile, has floated the idea of rolling back some provisions of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, and is expected to release a full health care plan soon.
Opposition to Israel aid
Sanders also spoke out against ongoing conflict in the Middle East, calling the Trump administration’s war with Israel against Iran “unconstitutional” and a violation of international law.
“Countries do not have the right, unprovoked, to bomb another country,” he said. “This war must end immediately.
The US Constitution states that only Congress can declare war, but many presidents have entered lengthy conflicts with congressional approval.
Trump has argued the War Powers Act, which requires the president to seek authorization for foreign conflicts, is unconstitutional and that he does not need congressional approval for the war with Iran.
Sanders told the crowd “we have begun making some progress on ending US military aid to the extremist government in Israel,” citing a jump in the number of US Senate Democrats who joined him in objecting to US arms sales to Israel.
Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats successfully blocked the measure, but Sanders said he viewed the shift as good news.
El-Sayed, who sparked controversy last month by rallying with an online personality accused of antisemitism, said he loves the Jewish people but criticized Israel.
“The single most dangerous thing that they tried to tell us is that somehow they can extend the definition of antisemitism to include a foreign government and its leaders,” El-Sayed said. “I call bullshit.”
Progressive vision for Michigan
Michigan Democrats could be the next to choose a different direction for their party, Sanders argued Sunday, citing electoral success of progressives like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdami, U.S. Rep. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey and Maine’s Graham Platner, a progressive oysterman expected to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican US Sen. Susan Collins.
“Status quo politics is no longer good enough,” Sanders said, pointing to El-Sayed, US Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and 13th Congressional District candidate Donovan McKinney — who is challenging incumbent Democrat Shri Thanedar — as progressive examples in Michigan. “We can do it if we stand together. There is nothing we cannot accomplish.”
Conservatives were quick to campaign off the visit, however.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a digital ad painting El-Sayed and Sanders as too progressive for Michigan, and Republican Mike Rogers, the likely GOP nominee, in a statement suggested Sanders’ return shows “Michigan Democrats are flocking to the most radical, anti-American figures imaginable.”
“Michigan can’t afford the left’s hazardous agenda of defunding the police, abolishing private health care, and skyrocketing taxes,” he continued.
US Senate candidates descend on Detroit
Sanders’ rally with El-Sayed on Sunday marked the end of a weekend where all three Democrats in Michigan’s US Senate race spent time courting metro Detroiters.
On Friday, Stevens joined a May Day labor rally at Michigan Central, where hundreds of union workers honored past gains made by the labor movement and advocated for better working conditions.
McMorrow, meanwhile, held campaign events Saturday at Motor City Java in Detroit and Starters Bar and Grille in Southfield, where she called for new leadership in the Democratic Party.
The race remains close, with the latest Detroit Regional Chamber poll conducted by Glengariff Group showing 36% of likely Democratic voters remained undecided.
In that poll, Haley Stevens held a 24.9% lead among respondents, with Abdul El-Sayed close behind at 22.9% and Mallory McMorrow at 16%. Pollster Richard Czuba noted there are “clear pathways among all three candidates.”
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