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[soft music playing]
[Abdul] Detroit's a huge city by square footage.
But a lot of the development has been deeply inequitable and it's mostly downtown.
We're, um, somewhere between midtown and downtown.
So, if you go this way.
That's downtown. That's the Renaissance Center.
It's GM's global headquarters.
[man 1] Better rock and roll, too.
[Abdul] So this is the Eastern Market.
This is one of the oldest outdoor markets in the country.
-We actually launched our campaign in that shop. -[Claire] Wow.
[Abdul] In the middle of February, which was very cold.
I am here today to announce my candidacy for governor of the state of Michigan.
[loud cheering]
[man 2] He's being called the new Obama.
Thirty-three-year old Arab American, Abdul El-Sayed
is a doctor and former Rhodes Scholar.
[woman 1] ...who ran Detroit's health department at just 30 years old.
[woman 2] If he wins, he'd become the first Muslim governor of any American state.
[Claire] Thank you all, thank you all so much. Thank you, Detroit!
[loud cheering]
We did it in the Bronx and we're gonna do it in Michigan.
[loud cheering]
[Claire] After progressives lose, in a state like Michigan,
there are always people who will say,
"Oh, we need to build a better baseball team.
Why can't our team win?"
Well, it's not a game.
The best analogy that I can think of for the situation that progressives are in,
in trying to compete in these types of elections is that...
there is a war going on between two different crime families.
And progressives are legitimate business operators
trying to compete against these two warring crime families.
That is the best analogy. They control the process.
They control the media. They control the money.
And... and it's incredibly difficult to take them on.
We learned today from former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Donna Brazile,
that the Clinton campaign, in her view,
did rig the presidential nominating process.
[man 3] Bernie Sanders wins by 12 percentage points
-and lost the delegate count... -[man 4] I don't... I don't think it's a good system.
These are the rules.
[woman 3] People are talking about "rigged" as if votes were switched here and there.
That's not the kind of rigging that we're talking about here.
It is a process that was unfair.
[woman 4] Turning to the midterms now.
A secretly taped audio recording is raising a lot of questions for Democratic leaders...
[Levi] After months of our campaign receiving messages from Democratic insiders
that there was a chosen candidate and it wasn't us.
Democrats nationally, the D-Triple-C,
came into this race and basically tried to destroy this candidate.
[man 5] This is going on all across the country.
♪ And the system's not broken It's fixed ♪
[man 6] It's just about how do we move the levers of power
to get our guys into office, right or wrong.
♪ But the system's not broken it's fixed ♪
[doorbell rings]
I'm gonna go say hi to these other people across the street.
[Abdul] Hey, how are you? My name's Abdul.
Really nice to meet you.
[woman 5] Okay, now... you are running for governor?
[Abdul] I am.
[woman 5] Okay, well can you tell me more about yourself?
[Abdul] Yeah, I'm a doctor by training.
[dramatic music playing]
So, you ready to take it over?
Hey, man. First of all, anything's better than what's in there right now, right?
Second of all, I think so. I'm a... I'm a doctor by training.
I rebuilt the health department here in the city
and, you know, for me, the reason I decided to run...
I don't know how y'all feel about the mayor.
I worked for him for a couple of years.
You know, he didn't want to take on issues that really matter, issues like water shutoffs.
You know the big demolitions program, putting lead out into the air.
Every time I come up to him and say, "Look, we have to do something about this,"
he'd shut it down.
So, I said, "You know what, if you're not gonna pay attention to it,
if the governor is going to poison kids in Flint
then we need leadership that's going to stand up and reset the agenda.
So, that's why I'm running.
[Max] A little bit to the left. Ah, my left. This way.
-Good. -[man 7] Good. Okay.
[Max] I've been managing campaigns for ten years.
[drilling]
I've previously managed candidates like Tulsi Gabbard, Seth Moulton
and Lisa Blunt Rochester, who are now in Congress.
I just said, "Hey, this is a guy who's doing things differently, like, let's give it a shot.
Let's see what happens."
The next governor of Michigan!
[cheering]
Thank you. Thank you.
[loud cheering] Ab-dul! Ab-dul! Ab-dul!...
[Adam] I went to Harvard. Graduated in 2015.
First caught the political bug when I was a Fulbright Scholar in India.
I was working for a politician there as a speechwriter.
I read in the news that this hot shot Detroit health director is running for governor.
And when I met him,
I kind of recognized that there is something very special about him.
So, kind of on the spot I agreed to join him.
[clapping and cheering]
[Claire] I worked on the Bernie campaign in 2016 as the distributed organizing director.
I got a chance to meet Abdul and I knew that I had to join this campaign
because he was someone who was not only thinking about what policies were necessary,
but was actually thinking about how to implement them.
[Abdul] I had the privilege to rebuild Detroit's health department as a doctor.
[Rhiana] I was a Rhodes scholar.
Abdul was, like, four years ahead of me or something.
He was like, "I need a policy director."
And I was like, "Don't you need a white man to do that?" Like...
People like my ideas, but they don't want me to be the person saying them all the time.
But Abdul did.
[Abdul] Every project that we took on, every single one, led us to the door of a politician.
Those doors don't open for people like you or me.
They open for the corporations, for the millionaires and the billionaires
who have bought and sold Michigan politics for far too long.
-[man 8] No more! -[Abdul] No more!
[cheers]
[Max] The average age of the campaign is right around twenty-four, twenty-five.
And even though they're so young, they are brilliant.
And everyone on this team has some kind of obstacle that they are trying to overcome
or they're trying to prove themselves in a very real way.
I think that's why they were attracted to Abdul
and I think that's why Abdul was attracted to us. Right?
[Abdul] Let me tell you why I believe so deeply in this society.
My dad, Mohammad... Raise your hand.
[cheers]
Took a bet when he moved here back in 1978.
He met and married my stepmom, Jackie. Mom.
[cheers]
And her family have been here since before the Revolutionary War.
They've been in Gratiot County now for six generations.
Teachers, small business owners, and farmers.
And together, Mohammad and Jackie, they built a life.
And I got to grow up in that home that they built.
Now, my father, he took a bet on a society, on an America
that was big enough for him, too.
Where it shouldn't matter the color of his skin or how he prayed
or that his name was Mohammad, that he could be just as American as anyone else.
-Yes. -Yeah.
[cheers]
[indistinct chatter]
I come from an uncommon but entirely American family.
[laughter]
Just keep going! Keep stumping, you know we're gonna stump around town with this.
Taking my movement to the people!
Take this door to door!
This is it.
This is about the leadership we want to provide to Michiganders.
[Max] You know, here's a Muslim guy, 33 years old.
He has an IQ of like 192.
And every time he tries to do something, you know, doors get slammed in his face, right?
Like Abdul has a lot to prove.
[man 9] Detroit in the house!
[cheers]
East side!
[cheers]
West side!
[cheers]
Alright, you guys ready to meet your candidates?
Alright, here we go. Make some noise as I introduce them.
First, we have Abdul El-Sayed...
[cheers]
Shri Thanedar.
[cheers]
I promise he's here somewhere... there he is!
And Gretchen Whitmer.
[cheers]
Let's first get to the candidate intros.
First, Gretchen Whitmer.
Alright. Hello, SCIU! Alright.
I'm Gretchen Whitmer. I'm running for governor because I am proud to be a Michigander.
But I look around in our state
and I know our kids and our workers and our families deserve better.
I think it is about darn time we have a governor who's more beholden to children
than Betsy DeVos.
And it is about time we have a governor who's ready to fix the damn roads.
[cheers]
[Max] It's really frustrating to see a large portion of the Democratic establishment
lining up behind another candidate.
Turning now to the Michigan governor's race.
-I'm Bill Schuette. -[man 10] Republican Attorney General, Bill Schuette,
is out on top in the Republican field.
The next governor of Michigan, Bill Schuette.
[man 11] Bill Schuette, endorsed by President Trump.
[woman 6] On the Democratic side there's businessman Shri Thanedar.
He is dumping millions of dollars of his own money into this campaign.
[man 12] Former Detroit health chief Abdul El-Sayed is getting
great national press and national money,
but its former state Senate Democratic leader, Gretchen Whitmer,
who's winning the in-state donor support.
[man 13] Gretchen Whitmer, considered the favorite in Democratic field,
now has the support of all four Michigan Democrats
serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and two major labor unions.
Democrats seem to have landed on... this is... Whitmer's what they've got.
Yeah, I don't see anybody else.
Hey. I didn't wanna come barging in.
[man 14] Go back down. Let me do this last line again.
Starting today, in this race, let's choose to believe in the uniting idea of a shared future.
-Done. Alright. You're doing the ball there. -Huh?
-You had a nice little ball. -[man 15] I like that.
-Your palm... -I believe you're also, just, like,
it's almost a little Harry Potter, too, man, like. Right?
[Abdul] Aah... [laughs]
Do you want the pictures? Wedding album.
[man 16] Oh, oh, yes, yes. Let's film that. Let's film that.
Oh, my God. When did you all get married?
[Abdul] 2006.
-Wow. -[Sarah] This is old.
-Oh, my God. -[man 16] Huh! That's awesome. So cute.
This is before graduating from college?
-I think that's from my freshman year of college. -Wow.
So we were big babies that is, yeah.
Where are the other one?
Uh, you're gonna want to not get these things in the shot.
-Oh, okay. -[Abdul] I think we do not.
[man 16] Trying to keep the shot secular.
[dramatic music playing]
[woman 7] ...any butter in my hamburger.
[woman 7] This is something.
[woman 8] From voters: We realize you "don't" take corporate money.
We know your money support comes from... [imitates fanfare]
The Muslim Brotherhood. [tapping]
He knows all about Taqiyya.
What the heck is Taqiyya?
-Oh... Taqiyya... that stuff? -[man 17] Yeah.
-I just learned about it! -[woman 9] Apparently, it's something we should be using.
[woman 8] Where you're like allowed to lie to someone apparently, which is...
Yeah, yeah, I think we should do it.
I think we should start using Taqiyya. Maybe we'd get further.
-Maybe we'd get more money. -Because they used to seal it.
[Max] We've had a few threats in a few letters and hateful comments and stories.
We saw a real uptick right after we announced that we had raised a million dollars.
And then I think they really saw, like, oh, wait, like this guy's a real deal.
I think it will get worse.
That's why we've got Jordan to be our bodyguard.
-[baby cries] -[Abdul] Alrighty. I know.
I'm sorry. Okay.
Look I am Muslim. I'm never gonna run away from that.
But people hate you.
And most of the time when you walk in your life, people don't hate you.
High probability is that I will be there when she turns 18.
But there is a possibility out there where I'm not.
Sleep time. Time for sleep.
And I want her to appreciate at least why.
Why risks matter and why I took the risk,
frankly, for the world that she's going to inhabit.
Thank you so much.
[man 18] Yeah. Abdul.
[man 19] You know the last time I felt like this a long, long time. Very long.
-And that means a lot to me. -It's a pleasure to meet you.
Privilege is mine, and I really appreciate that. You would be well, okay?
-[Laura] Hi. How are you? -[Abdul] Hey, how are you?
[Laura] Good, nice to meet you, my name's Laura Loomer.
-[Abdul] Laura, very nice to meet you. -[Laura] Hi, nice to meet you.
-[Abdul] Thanks for coming. -[Laura] Thank you. Thanks.
So I just had a question for you.
I just wanted to know how you reconcile your own personal practice of Islamic law
with your Marxist socialist political platform
that directly contradicts tenants within Islamic law?
I... I think what's beautiful about our country is that I choose my own faith,
and you choose yours, or none at all, and that's the beautiful thing.
Right. But under Islam, for example, you know, gays are punished by death.
-I don't know that that's true. -People... gays are stoned.
-I don't know... I... I... I... -You're running and you're campaigning on issues of LGBTQ.
But you yourself said that you are a Sharia compliant Muslim.
-I didn't say that. -Well, you said that your head touches the floor
-34 times a day. -I choose to pray. -We're done.
-Right. -I think we're done.
-One last question. -That's it.
You guys gotta jump on that way faster. Way faster!
[Abdul] You wanna get Sarah out before, uh, we leave?
[indistinct chatter]
Morning.
[Max] It's not gonna be easy. I mean, Trump won this state.
I think the biggest challenge of our campaign is the cynicism that we see out there,
not only from, you know, white supremacists and Republicans and stuff
but also what we see from Democrats.
It's always, "Well, I'm not racist, but I know a lot of racist people."
When we get to that general election, I wonder if non-Muslims will vote for him.
-Where's Abdul? -[Abdul] Max, what's up?
There's a path. There's a real path.
So you start off, you're tied with Shri.
[Abdul] Oh, shit, are you serious?
[Max] Yeah, and then we do the informed vote.
She's still up, right?
But then once we go through the messaging, you're up by five.
I mean, once you start making a contrast with her, look at that. You go up by 15.
That's... that's a real poll.
Oh, did you see this?
They boost you another six points with the electability arguments.
-Really? -Yeah, that's the last piece... back here. See?
[Abdul] I mean, so this poll's helpful for endorsements and stuff?
[Max] Yeah.
[Abdul] And then the other side of it is also the electability argument.
[Max] That the electability argument isn't that big a deal?
Yeah, that's it. Yeah.
If you all thought that is because I'm Muslim I couldn't win. Check this out.
[Max] People would get kind of hung up on, "This isn't possible."
Because of the color of his skin, his religion, his youth...
But there's actually this giant pool of voters who should be voting who are not.
[soft music playing]
Two hundred and seventy-one thousand potential Muslim American voters.
Ali, very nice to meet you.
300,000 new registered voters.
[Abdul] I'm Abdul. Very nice to meet you, guys.
You guys ready to come out on the 7th?
[Max] Kids excited by the Bernie campaign.
Thank you, guys.
If we can pull them into the process, then all of a sudden,
you're looking at a win number that looks really possible.
Great job! Great job! Great job!
If you look at a candidate like Abdul El-Sayed,
I wouldn't be surprised, given what I know about him,
if he were to give Gretchen a real run.
[Max] Alright, we ready? Why don't we start off with Rhiana?
What's happening?
The big thing that I'm working on right now is our urban agenda.
Our affordable housing piece, you can quote me, is fire. Straight fire.
It's looking good. I think it will be very long, and it will be comprehensive.
But I think especially if we drop like right after Gretchen, the contrast will be very clear.
-Yeah. -So that when she rolls out her like five-page agenda,
-we roll out our 30-page agenda. -Yeah.
That people will be like, "Oh, wait!"
[woman 9] Yeah, she's searching. You're going to see a lot more desperation I believe
-coming out of that campaign -Yeah.
Because the general consensus is,
through a lot of the stakeholders in and out of this city,
is that they're very disappointed.
Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
[Joel] Hey, Adam, this is Joel Kurth fromBridge magazine.
Listen, I was hoping to talk to you today.
I think they're asking questions about whether or not El-Sayed is eligible,
and we're planning to do a story.
[melancholy music playing]
[Rhiana] So we went live with urban agenda early in the morning,
and people were like tweeting about it, and it was...
I wouldn't say it was revolutionary,
but we were taking like a decidedly anti-poverty stance, right?
And so it came out. The press conference was at 12:30. It went really well.
And then the Bridgearticle dropped like three hours later.
[woman 10] Abdul El-Sayed's campaign for governor could hit a major roadblock.
That's according to a report this week inBridge magazine.
The Michigan constitution says in order to be governor,
you must be a registered voter in the state for four consecutive years.
[man 20] A real legal question about whether the fact that he voted in New York in 2012
invalidated his Michigan registration.
[Rhiana] At first I just kind of laughed
because reading the Bridgearticle,
there were so many things in it that were othering, right?
Like at one point they describe Abdul...
getting coverage that called him the next Obama.
That was in a Guardianstory.
They say " The Guardian newspaper of Britain."
And then right after it talks about like how much of our money
has come from out of state versus in state,
which, again, has nothing to do with eligibility,
except it does because it goes towards this narrative of "Are you really from Michigan?"
And just so much of it was just like such subliminal dog whistling,
dog whistle racism.
[Adam] They ran with anonymous sources.
At one point, the reporter actually told me that one of their lawyers
was a lawyer that we knew had a conflict, right?
But they were anonymous Democrats who I think explicitly went after him
without wanting to attach their name on it
because they knew what it I think was playing into.
[Max] Yeah, it's bullshit.
Abdul 100% qualifies to be on the ballot.
His voter registration in Michigan has never lapsed.
They... they are so scared of Schuette that they are willing to do anything
to get the Muslim guy off the ballot, right?
And the big thing to see is the quote from Mark Penn's 2007 memo
where he talks about how to otherize a candidate
by continuing to state how you're American,
you were raised in the Midwest, all this stuff,
trying to alienate Obama and make him seem like other?
And that is exactly the same tactic here.
-[Abdul] Alright. -[Max] Alright. Looks like we've got everybody.
-Whole... whole gang is here? -Whole gang is here.
Alrighty. So when I jumped into this race, did all of my due diligence that I could.
Knew that because, ahem, I had gone to grad school abroad,
and then grad school in New York,
that somebody could say that I was not eligible to be on the ballot.
Our legal opinions are unequivocal.
If I felt like I was not eligible, I'd quit.
But this is, I think, how the world works when you try and do something and you don't belong.
There are two kind of pathways in front of us.
One is we can seek a preemptive judgment.
We can just go directly to a judge and be like, hey, we need you to rule.
Second is a challenge will have to be filed by a candidate.
So another candidate actually has to challenge our position on the ballot.
[Rhiana] Can we just acknowledge that white supremacy is exhausting?
-[Max] Yeah, it is. -[Abdul] Yeah.
This is nuts. Like I actually cried just a little bit because it is just so fucking tiring...
[Max] Yeah.
...to constantly have to like stand up and say why you deserve to be somewhere
or why you have the ability to do it... It's just fuck 'em!
-Fuck all of them. -Yeah. Exactly!
-It's bullshit. -[Abdul] Bullshit.
-That we even have to talk about this. Fuck 'em. -[Max] Come here. Give me a hug.
-Get... get... get up here. -Don't hug me because I'm gonna cry more.
-Stop. -[laughing]
Yes, fuck 'em. Like for real.
This... this has been powering me for a while.
Like, this is fucking maddening that they are doing this. Like, fuck 'em.
Yeah, I'll tell ya. I've always believed that you're never good enough.
And the reason you're never good enough is because
the world never lets you be good enough when you look like me.
Like there's a moment where I think every person of color has that.
You're like they'll never accept you.
And at some point you're like, well, then fuck 'em, right?
Like, I'm gonna... I'm gonna figure out how to get in there.
And when I do, it's either going to be because I blasted the door down, broke it down.
I got myself in there. But when I do, right,
we're going... we're going to make sure that we open up for everybody else.
That's what we're doing right now. So, yeah, fuck 'em.
[woman 11] In fact, we spoke with the El-Sayed campaign today.
A spokesman said this was an attack from insider Democrats.
[man 21] Alleging there are racist motivations comparable to the birther movement,
which questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the U.S.
[man 22] I'd like to welcome you to the Michigan AFL-CIO gubernatorial town hall:
a better Michigan for everyone.
[Abdul] I thought when the party apparatus saw that we had the most honest ideals,
the best ideas, and the energy to make it happen, and were inspiring people left and right,
that the party would have said, "Well, this is great. We've got a candidate."
But it's actually been exactly the opposite reaction.
That to me is pretty astounding. I just didn't see it coming.
[Max] Like they did this whole thing so that Gretchen wouldn't have to sue us.
That's what this is all about.
Keep her hands clean.
[Gretchen] I have built an unprecedented early coalition of support.
Our campaign raised over three million dollars last year.
No one's done this kind of work before.
But on top of that, I am ready to go toe to toe with Bill Schuette.
Let's make 2018 our year to start setting the agenda.
[Max] We should all understand nobody is going to endorse us until this is handled.
-I understand. -I mean, that's why I want to get it done sooner than later.
[Abdul] How possible is it to even get a Bernie endorsement with this hanging over our head?
[Max] He's being careful.
Part of me almost at this point is like either come now or just don't come, honestly.
[woman 12] To counter Shri, I think we need that...
-[Adam] Yeah. -[Abdul] That's the other thing. That's the other thing.
If we don't get Bernie endorsement within the month,
-I don't think it's possible to get him out. -[Max] Yeah.
I think... I think he's staying.
Hi, I'm Shri Thanedar running for governor.
-Shri Darth Vader? -No. Shri Thanedar.
[woman 13] For single payer healthcare, not a single penny of corporate money.
Scientist Shri Thanedar, the most progressive Democrat for governor.
[dramatic music playing]
The new poll has Republican Bill Schuette and Democrat Shri Thanedar
leading the primary battles in the race for governor.
For the Democrats Thanedar has a three-point lead over Gretchen Whitmer.
That's a big change from September
when the poll had Whitmer leading Thanedar by 24 points.
-How you doing? -Man, you can't be Shri.
I'm not Shri. Thank God I'm not Shri.
-How you doin'? -He's saying, "Thank God, he's not Shri."
-I'm Abdul. -Abdul.
-Nice to meet you. -Why I ain't seen you on TV?
Like the other guy's a millionaire. I'm not a millionaire.
-I've got to raise money the old-fashioned way. -Okay.
Well, I like you. I'm gonna have to do some further research.
-Please do. I hope you will. -Alright. Yeah.
-And thank you. -Of course, all we've heard right now is
-how you say his name? -Shri Darth Vader.
[laughing]
-I mean Shri... Thanedar. -Yeah. It's like new.
-Okay, good luck to you. -Appreciate it.
-Thank you. -Thank you. Bye, guys.
[Claire] I think that there are a lot of voters,
a lot of black voters in particular in Detroit and Flint and other places,
who are supportive of Shri because they hear that he is a progressive,
and they haven't really heard a lot of other information.
We initially thought that the Bernie endorsement would take care of it.
That he would drop out because he wouldn't be able to run as a progressive anymore.
Obviously, that hasn't happened. We don't have the Bernie endorsement.
[Max] Shri Thanedar is a guy who kind of woke up one day and was like, "I've got all this money.
I'll run for office." You know?
So this is somewhere about 1,600 square feet of space here,
just the hearth room and the kitchen.
[woman 14] It is a house built for entertaining.
We planned it to be a party kind of house. Yeah.
He is being sued for fraud.
I mean, it's just awful.
Some of the cases that have been brought against this guy.
And we've noticed he... he always tries to sit next to Abdul at forums,
and then he just says whatever Abdul says, you know, but worse.
And normally, you would just ignore him.
But he's got six million dollars. You can't ignore six million dollars.
[Ron] Hello and good evening, everyone.
I'm Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO.
Please join me in welcoming Bill Cobbs, Abdul El-Sayed,
Shri Thanedar, and Gretchen Whitmer
-Shri, you're up first. -Good evening. How are you?
Great.
So I am an entrepreneur, I'm a serial entrepreneur, so I've built businesses.
I immigrated to United States about 40 years ago to work on my PhD in chemistry.
And then I started a small chemical testing lab.
In the great recession, I lost my business that I built over 10, 20 years.
And I, in 2010, I came to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I rebuilt my business
from 2010 to 2016 I created 50 high-paying jobs.
I sold my business.
And then I took a little bit of money and put it into my campaign.
So I don't have to take money from corporations.
I am a business entrepreneur.
I call myself a fiscally savvy Bernie Sanders.
Thank you.
[Claire] We know that most of the people who support Shri probably would support Abdul.
So it's potentially a life or death thing for the campaign to have Shri in the race.
[soft music playing]
[Gretchen] Working hard and making things is what we do in Michigan.
My first job was in a lumberyard.
I'm Gretchen Whitmer.
In the state's senate I fought for working families
to increase the minimum wage and to expand Medicaid
to over 600,000 more Michiganders.
But there's still more work to do.
Like invest in skills training or repeal the retirement tax.
So that hard-working people earn more.
[Max] Look, all white, all white.
Hey.
We're just gonna double down on white, moderate Dems who don't want to vote for a brown person
because they think that that means they can't win, you know?
That's what they're doing. It's really sad.
Yeah, I mean it's also really sad that her number one issue is fixing the roads.
-I mean, people don't have clean water in the city. -Yeah, exactly.
And what water they do have is poisoned by the government.
And 80 percent of people in Detroit have infrequent access to a car.
Yeah.
Second off, it's done by her 527 group,
which is Building A Better Michigan,
that can take unlimited funds from unions and corporations.
[Gretchen] ...keep more of what they earn.
Let's get it done.
Look. Right here.
[Max] You know it says it's not dark money
because they have to report their donors.
But the way that you would do it,
the way that I think she's probably going to do it,
is you create a super PAC that takes dark money
and then they contribute that money to your 527
like that's kind of how that goes.
♪ Because your kiss Your kiss is on my list ♪
♪ Because your kiss Your kiss I can't resist ♪
-Good evening, Ithaca! -Yeah.
Traverse City, good evening!
Alright!
Good evening, Holland!
We need full-on campaign finance reform.
Campaign finance is so critical because it tells politicians who they care about.
Because if you're eating at the corporate trough,
the likelihood that you're going to shut that down
when a corporation comes and asks for a set of policy is minimal.
It's a big reason why for me, I don't take that money to begin with
because I would rather not lead than lead and have those handcuffs on my hands.
[Claire] Also do Bernie. That's your next commercial.
Sick and tired of the one percent, no more!
We're gonna vote for this man.
This man on August 7th!
You know, the funny thing is a young Bernie,
if you look at what a young Bernie looked like...
-[Claire] Yeah. -...looks like him
It's... it's actually very it's... it's quite creepy.
Yeah.
-[Abdul] Right? Does he look like him? -[Claire] Yes.
Who are you? I'm not going to caucus.
So... so, speaking of Bernie,
we've now been told to come back after the Medicare For All plan is out.
There's part of me that thinks that he's waiting to see if he can win
-before he puts his horse behind us. -Yeah.
-That's the other only thing. -Yeah, that's the other part of it.
Yeah. Well, if everyone just stands on the sidelines until the very last minute
-saying, is this legit? Can you win? Can you win? -Yeah.
-We're not gonna fucking win. -I know. I know. I know.
I still love you, Bernie.
I'll always love you, Bernie.
Just come help us.
[suspenseful music playing]
[woman 15] While we're waiting for Abdul to get here,
we are fortunate enough to have his policy director with us today.
Rhiana, come on up here.
Everyone is very nice.
So MichCare is our plan for a single-payer,
Medicare For All-style health care system here in Michigan.
How many people have read it?
It's a little long. Oh, bless you.
I'm sorry. I love details. So if y'all are like "We don't care", tell me.
So, single payer, essentially, means that instead of private insurance companies,
the government acts as your insurer.
Doctors are still private; hospitals still do their thing.
But instead of going through a corporation to get your insurance,
you go through the state.
And the reason that that's beneficial is, one, the state has no profit interest, right?
Which cuts down costs. And also, there's no CEOs making 13 million dollars a year from it.
Yeah.
-Abdul's actually about to walk in like right now. -[Rhiana] Awesome.
He's got the word. So he's here.
-So, if you want we can... -I'm done. Thank you all.
Let's give it up for Rhiana.
Thanks, Abdul! Man of the hour!
No. Please come.
Alright. Good afternoon.
Very good to see you. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it.
Hey, I just saying... Rhiana's killing it.
I was like, "I know! Look, don't you understand, she's smarter than I am!"
Come on. I'm just waiting. I'm waiting until someday you run.
-It's going to be fun. I'll be like, "I knew her when!" -For me...
-Let's just get you elected and then we'll think about this... -Fair enough.
[tranquil music playing]
[clock ticking]
Hi, Dave. My name is Tara, I'm calling from Abdul for Michigan.
We're coming in this afternoon to turn in our ballot petitions.
[Max] The Democratic Party has asked us to get the eligibility resolved as soon as possible.
But in order for us to take this to court, we have to have what's called standing.
And because nobody's actually been put on the ballot, yet,
there's really nothing to sue about yet.
And Abdul.
So this is the last step that we have to take in order to get on to the ballot
and then start to actually go through the legal process.
[Abdul] I wanna talk about what our press release is first.
Yeah, we've got to say something about eligibility stuff.
[Adam] I think we wait for them to ask.
[Abdul] Adam, if you think that you're gonna put this out
and nobody's gonna ask the eligibility question then...
[Adam] Do you know what we should do?
Let's say it, "Listen, we just submitted that our signatures blah-blah-blah.
One thing that I'm really concerned about is tomorrow,
Gretchen Whitmer has a fundraiser with Blue Cross Blue Shield."
-[gasps] -And... and you just hit that because you go on camera...
So, what I'm going to do is say "Blue Cross Blue Shield is holding a fundraiser
for a Democrat who is unwilling to talk about Medicare For All."
Thank you so much for being here.
We are so excited to be filing our 24,000 signatures to get on the ballot.
-How many did you pay for? -We didn't pay for any of them.
It's all a volunteer-collected effort.
[reporter 1] What's your thoughts on Gretchen Whitmer with her Blue Cross fundraiser?
You think Blue Cross is scared that you want to have a single-payer health system?
Look, all I know is Blue Cross is actively telling their employees, uh,
to fund a campaign that is not mine.
I mean, we don't take corporate money on this campaign as a matter of course
because I'm interested in being on the side of real people.
And real people deserve healthcare.
Gretchen's fundraiser, Blue Cross, $144,000.
I think we just put out a press release:
Gretchen Whitmer trades single payer for $144,000.
Alright, let's scrum up. Alright.
Um, we got a real gift last night from Gongwer,
reporting Gretchen Whitmer just threatens lashing out wildly
on the Blue Cross Blue Shield, um, money.
Um, she's trying to make it into a personal attack against her father
being CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield, formerly.
And... yeah, it's ridiculous.
This is disabusing me of so many of my beliefs about the world.
Look, at the end of the day, the whole system that we're fighting
is a system of people that have fundamentally corrupted themselves
and taken all the spoils for themselves.
Like they're the reason there are deeply poor people everywhere we go.
That's why.
[Rhiana] I just wish we could like...
Then you think they're just going to relinquish their power
and they'll be like, "You seem to have good ideas?"
Kind of! I think on some level.
[Abdul] "You know, guys, she's right."
Now you know why I have to be just like super thick-skinned and kind of mean sometimes
because inside I'm really mushy and it makes me sad that the world is what it is.
[clock ticking]
How do we find out when Blue Cross Blue Shield's posted this or?
-It's on all the online stuff. -Oh, is it? Nothing here.
They're smarter than that.
This is like the day for the party establishment, so it's like, you know, the lion's den.
[upbeat music playing]
Our next governor, Gretchen Whitmer:
[cheering]
We need a governor who's ready to fix the damn roads. What do you say?
Yes or hell yes, are you ready to win?
-Hell yes! -Let's go to work. Thank you.
-[Abdul] They brought a marching band? -[Rhiana] Yeah.
I'm not moving out of the way. I'm standing right here. I'm not moving.
-[man 23] Just a little bit. -I don't move for anybody.
-[Abdul] You've gotta watch out. -[man 24] Hey.
Hey, there, how are you? Good morning!
-How you guys doing? -[woman 16] Good.
Hey, enjoy the conference.
-You guys have a lot of fun. Okay? -You, too.
That's your alma mater right? You went to Cass Tech, right?
There's got to be something wrong with using a public high school marching band, right?
It's called you can pay people to do anything.
Welcome to democracy in 2018.
Alright, good morning, Democrats.
Those doors don't usually open for people like you and I.
They open for the millionaires, the billionaires, the corporations
who have dominated our politics for way too long.
And here's the thing. We are done waiting at closed doors.
We have a responsibility right now to stand up and take back our politics.
[Abdul] Thank you. Pleasure to meet you. Thank... thank you so much.
-Shri, Shri got booed off the stage. -Really?
-Umm, yeah, okay. Take care. -Alright.
No, thank you. I don't want you to give me more stuff.
These kids over here they are collecting "sigs" for Shri and they don't know what that means.
And they have some info so maybe we can get some info.
No pay by hour, two bucks a signature.
A couple of weeks ago he needed 1,200 valid signatures.
Uh, so it's going to be really close.
We might be able to get them off the ballot, maybe.
I got a question for you, Shri.
We have not been paid. No, we have not been paid.
We the ones got you on the ballot.
I got all the emails, all the schedules. We have not been paid.
We did all your petitions. You owe us $20,000.
-Why have you not paid? -Why you ain't pay me my money?
[man 25] Don't vote for Shri.
Do not vote for Shri. He's a crook. And he owes us money.
-He hasn't paid. -I worked out in the cold for you
and then you're gonna walk away. You act like you don't hear me.
-And I'm left with no-- -[man 26] Please answer the question.
-What is wrong with you? -They worked in the cold. -Thanks, Shri.
-Have you signed the petition? -No, I haven't.
You're not wearing a Shri sticker.
I'm not going to sign anything with somebody wearing a Shri sticker. That guy's a fraud.
He didn't know whether he was going to run as a Republican or a Democrat.
Went, um, went and met with a bunch of Republicans about running as a Republican, um.
He said he didn't, it didn't really matter, he'd take whatever position he needed,
you know, in order to win, that's all he wants to do.
I mean, we've had enough of that, man. You know what I mean?
-Yeah. -Like here, can I take it?
-It's all yours. -Alright.
[Adam] Jesus.
Thanedar kept 100 beagles and 50 monkeys for drug and chemical testing
until a judge stopped the cruelty and removed them to animal shelters.
His employees said dogs would even be used in electrical shock experiments.
There's no way. How is this real?
-How is that... how is this real? -So I think wait...
There's a video! There's a video of the dogs being rescued. Jesus Christ.
-Oh, my God, did you download this, too? -Yeah.
-[Claire] He already has way too much in it. -[Adam] He has a lot.
He has the drug that had the... there was a meth-like compound, never been tested on people.
-Yeah. -Then you have this: "Thanedar worked to get a coal power plant
off the hook for causing toxic sulfur pollution and acid rain."
I mean, Thanedar's company worked for an opioid producer
that was illegally marketing opioid-laced lollipops for back pain and headaches.
How did do they... who is this guy?
This guy's like a white-collar criminal. That's like what he is.
He's like a white-collar criminal.
-I just want to say one other thing though. -Cool.
-Hey. What's up? -Hey. How we doing?
[Adam] We're winning, we're winning a lot.
-What happened? -A volunteer discovered an online survey
that was testing all of Shri's potential negatives,
including bunch of negatives we'd never heard of before.
-Like he was selling fentanyl lollipops illegally. -And he killed 100 beagles.
He's like, Abdul, this shit is like, what the fuck?
[Claire] "Shri Thanedar uses business background and optimism in governor race."
[laughs]
See, this is the problem.
If you're wondering why so many voters in Michigan don't understand the truth about Shri,
just look at the way the media is covering him.
-Is covering him, yeah. -Look at this article that's come out
after all of that stuff.
Didn't include any of those things. Look at that breezy transition.
The way that, that she kind of writes off the issue of him
-leaving 170 dogs and monkeys to die. -...to die, yeah.
But Shri's still smiling. And it's like, what the fuck?
It's like insane. It's insane.
-How are you doing? How are you? -Very good.
It's going to be extremely tough because so many things just haven't stuck.
I guess I'm the next. Right? [laughs]
Good evening. How are you?
Well, what an enthusiastic crowd.
I grew up in poverty.
I'm the only candidate that knows what it feels like going to bed hungry.
[Claire] Some folks stay with Shri, even if they've heard about his negatives,
because they see him, he's sort of like a Trump who's a person of color,
who's from a poor background and went out there and became a millionaire.
[Max] Like here's a guy who has been accused and charged
and settled cases for fraud multiple times
and shocked dogs with electroshock therapy tests.
I just find it insulting that the Michigan Democratic Party won't stand up to him
in any way, shape or form.
I find it insulting that the Michigan media won't talk about it at all.
It seems like they're using this guy so that their establishment candidate can win.
[Max] We have some challenges in front of us that I wanted to talk about today, namely budget.
Anybody want to take a guess at what our cash on hand is right now?
[Adam] 650?
474,000.
So much money we have in the bank right now.
[Max] Right?
How much money you think Gretchen Whitmer's raised by now?
-[Adam] 5.5. -[Abdul] 5. -4.5.
-How do you know? -That's what I think.
Just... just looking at her.
Just around 4.5-5 million.
What do you think her cash on hand is?
-3. -2.
-3. -At least 2.
At least 2. So she has four times as much money as we do.
The nightmare that I have every night is that I miss a paycheck, and you guys don't get paid.
Every night. Every night.
[Claire] Did we... did we think we would have more money at this point?
We did. We did.
-Let's be clear. Eligibility kicked our asses... -[Max] Yeah.
...not because I'm not going to be on the ballot.
-Mm-hmm. -That is how this thing was always meant to play out.
-You understand, right? -Yeah.
The minute they realize they had to take us seriously was when we put up a million dollars.
-Yeah. -Everybody was like, holy shit, this is serious.
Yeah, right.
And so they were looking for a way to freeze that.
And that's why this all came out.
It took us from an eight-million-dollar campaign
-to a five-million-dollar campaign. -[Abdul] Yeah.
It's cost us around three million dollars.
Three million dollars, I'd say.
-Yep. Eligibility. -Yeah.
[cheering]
-Good to see you! How are you? -[woman 17] You come back, you build up our city,
which is good.
[Abdul] How is little ones.
But you tryna leave us behind. You know, we fired up, and we ain't takin it no more.
There ain't two Detroits.
It ain't just for the rich folks.
There's no campaign that's organizing like we are.
We're knocking on about ten thousand a week.
That's not including the 60,000 text messages we send a week.
And about the 40,000 phone calls we make every week.
No other campaign has a field organization like ours.
-How are you? -Good to see you, young man.
I'm Abdul. Good to see you.
-Thank you. -Appreciate you, guys
Appreciate you, too
-People see the energy that you bring. -Yeah.
You know and they're like trying to get a little bit more like you by trying to...
-and trying to make you disappear in the process. -Yeah. Yeah.
You know, when... when they fight you, you know you're winning.
-That's the whole thing. -No, of course. You know you got something for sure.
Hi.
That was awesome.
I think that went really well.
[Abdul] Yeah, it's exactly what we wanted, right?
Did you notice every single one of them being like, "I don't see any of your opponents here?"
Yep.
The SEIU is my favorite union by far.
Same! They're so great.
I intend to be an SEIU stalwart for the rest of my life.
That's why they're going to endorse you.
SEIU's endorsing Gretchen Whitmer.
-Oh. -Fuck.
So, wait a second. So, do we know exactly how this went down?
It's the international union I think that like cut some deal
because every single person except for two were for Abdul,
and the two that were not for Abdul were for fucking Shri.
And then they act like we're crazy when we talk about the establishment.
-I know. -Yeah.
It's like we're being gaslighted by the entire Democratic party.
Yeah, no, whatever.
I want to start talking directly to members of unions.
I was like, look, this is about a new kind of politics.
You're welcome here.
You know?
[Rhiana] It's just really frustrating
SEIU... like, those locals wanted us.
And they trust the apparatus to do what it's supposed to do.
And it's really frustrating because it just feels like I'm seeing all these institutions
that I believed in as a kid, and I thought they just like work for good
and didn't do anything else, and they don't.
And that's really sad.
[crying]
I'm lucky I have time to fight.
But lots of people don't, and they trust these institutions
to do the things that they say that they will do and to have their backs, and they don't.
Shri is just like me.
I am an immigrant.
And some people tell me I have an accent.
Shri is just like me.
We are actually more alike than you think.
It's like looking in the mirror.
-Shri Thanedar... -I feel so creepy!
-Oh, my God, that look is so about... -Oh, oh, oh.
Shri is nothing like us.
[woman 18] In the race for governor, Democrat Shri Thanedar
submitted more than 30,000 signatures to the Secretary of State.
The Indian immigrant and scientist going up against Gretchen Whitmer...
[Abdul] He's actually actively submitting crap signatures.
-He knows that. -[Max] Yeah.
-[Abdul] Some proportion of them are good... -Sure.
But his collection is so bad that I actually don't think he gets there.
First thing we got to do is just... is count them.
Right. So, you're the clear team, yeah?
[Claire] I know.
Hey.
[Adam] Okay, so unverifiable circulator signatures.
Potentially fraudulent. Yes.
[Claire] We're compiling all of the reasons that you can throw out a sheet or a signature.
[Max] And State's Attorney.
[Claire] The big thing that we're waiting on now is we have some remote data entry folks
who are getting all of the signatures of the voters actually entered in.
Then that needs to be checked against the Qualified Voter File
to see how many of these people who signed are actually registered voters
and how many of them already signed our petition or Gretchen Whitmer's petition.
-[Max] Come on in, baby. -[Claire] Hi, Molly!
-[Adam] Hi, Molly. -You're lucky because we need just one more person.
[laughs]
[Max] I think the odds are like between like 5 and 10 percent.
We can actually get Shri off the ballot.
Thirty thousand signatures.
-So, you have to disqualify 15,001? -Yeah...
It's a lot for me. I'm tired. That makes me tired.
-Yeah. -Okay. Great.
-[dog growls] -Oh, I hear you. It's okay.
-[Claire] Shri's far away. Don't worry. -Yes.
[Max] The digitizers aren't working out.
-[Claire] They're what? -Oh, God.
[Max] They'd called and said they weren't going to be able to finish.
Oh, my God! We need to work on every available option to get more people.
Okay. Alright.
-We only have a 24-hour window to get this done. -Alright.
-[woman 19] Should I sound the alarm? -[Claire] Yes.
Okay.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Max] Hey!
[all] Happy birthday!
Oh, wow.
This is the best present ever.
[Max] I mean, Jesus Christ this has just been a Herculean effort.
We are using data techniques that no other candidate in this race could put together.
And then pumping all of this out within a span of 96 hours.
Right, like I mean it's just like the fact that they only give you a week
to submit a challenge is, essentially, incumbent protection.
This is designed so that you cannot challenge other candidates.
Hey!
Hey, it looks like we got a shot knocking him off the ballot.
Yeah, so everything got done last night at like 3:00 AM.
Yeah, we did an initial match last night just with the data that we had
which was about 21,000 signatures.
Out of that we knocked out 11,000 of them
because they did not match to the Qualified Voter File.
So, yeah, we're gonna go for it. We're gonna go for it.
[Max] Go ahead and start populating that machine.
I've got to have it done by, yeah, 4:30-4:35 so that I can get it over to them.
[Claire] Okay.
-[Max] Hey. -[Claire] Hey.
[Max] I have all the last name ones downloaded.
Can he just move the first name ones to a separate spreadsheet?
-And I'll send those separately.-Okay.
Because I don't want them to be all mixed together
because they'll just throw out the whole thing.
[Claire] Okay.
[man 27] Holy cannoli!
[Claire] Done.
[Max] It's printing out the final PDF right now.
I'm at two percent battery.
-Oh, my God! -[Molly] What the fuck?
[man 28] Wait, what?
Where's your charger?
[Max] I'm actually doing the last of it right now.
I'll take it. It sent. It sent.
It sent. Thank God! We did it, motherfuckers.
-There are over 30,000 problems that we're flagging. -Yeah.
-[Max] Okay. Thank you. -[woman 20] Thank you.
Yeah. Bye.
[phone beep]
Shri Thanedar, challenging our eligibility.
No.
-Really? -He's challenging our signatures?
Yeah. No, he's challenging our eligibility.
-What? -Yeah.
Is that good?
-I mean... -[Claire] What a fucker!
Yeah. I mean, I think that he'll take it to court.
[dramatic music playing]
Hey, friends, as we've always held, I'm 100 percent eligible to run for governor.
And we're thankful that the Michigan Bureau of Elections has agreed.
So, for now, I'm enjoying this delicious peanut butter sundae.
The first thing I wanted to cover real fast is eligibility.
Judge signed the order this morning to dismiss the case.
[all cheer]
Hey, how are you? My name is Sarah.
I am with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed's campaign.
-There you go. -There you go. Let's do that. Let's elect him.
-So. -[Abdul] Are you willing to erase that?
Yeah, it's already in the spreadsheet so.
[woman 21] "An ambitious 24-page plan
for establishing a Medicare for all health system in Michigan,
a 37-page strategy for taking the profit motive out of education policy.
A 25-page plan for transitioning to a renewable energy economy.
The details matter. That's what distinguishes Abdul El-Sayed.
He sees the future coming and wants to make it work for all of us."
Hey.
Now, show me what democracy looks like.
[all] This is what democracy looks like.
Nina is calling Bernie tomorrow again, as is Shannon.
Okay. We'll see. I think he's coming.
[Max] You know, eligibility has been holding us up on several fronts.
We've got some big endorsements that we're hoping are gonna come through.
We went up on TV for two weeks with a great ad
and then there's still a lot of money out there to collect.
The poll that we ran in January shows that if we have the money to be able to fund our message,
we actually can win this race.
[Abdul] Y'all know who Shri Thanedar is?
Why? Because you've seen his ads.
You know why you've seen his ads?
Because he's put two million dollars of ads on TV.
Imagine what it could be if we put two million dollars of ads on TV.
We want everyone to put their money behind this candidate.
Okay, six people for one full ad. One, takbir! Two, takbir! Three, takbir!
Four, takbir! Five, takbir! Six, takbir. Seven, seven.
One more. One more. Oh.
Yes, takbir! Wow. Please give a round of applause.
Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
I know I've been a little colorful with the language.
You all know how I talk about those roads.
[crowd] Fix the damn roads!
Trump and Shri are very similar.
People have only heard of him because he's on TV.
[mouth words]
[upbeat music playing]
[man 29] Mackinac Policy conference is officially under way.
The stage is set here in northern Michigan for this gubernatorial debate.
Six candidates, three Democrats, three Republicans ready to meet face to face.
And they're going to do it in front of a very influential crowd.
[Abdul] Let's be clear. The hoity-toities at Mackinac don't think I have a chance.
-Yep. -How do they play?
They're like do I want to spend a ton to destroy him?
Or do I like him? Or nonentity.
[man 30] I mean, but it's not just the people in the room, right?
-[Abdul] It's the... yeah. -It's is this the opportunity to break out?
Just because so much media is going to be there
and so much attention is going to focused within the state.
[Max] Yeah. Alright. I gotta move you on.
[Adam] Can we do a quick closing statement? Forty-five seconds?
[Abdul] We hold these truths to be self-evident that all people are created equal.
-[Max] No, come on. -[Abdul] You guys get...
[Adam] Listen, I'm all about waving the American flag,
but I think what works for 45 seconds is closed door,
just closed door of a politician.
That's the thing that all of them... right, that's the one thing that actually...
-[Abdul] They're the ones who close the doors. -Yeah.
[man 30] It's also a fighter and truth teller moment.
You're gonna go into the belly of the beast
and you're going tell them you're telling them the truth.
Single payer, tax returns, Blue Cross! Done!
[Claire] ...tax returns. Like single payer...
Corporate money. Millionaire! Done.
[man 31] And folks, they are still currently loading the Wyandotte...
Thank you. Catch you soon.
[mouth words]
[blows horn]
[soft music playing]
[man 32] Please watch your step.
[Abdul] Ugh, I hate Mackinac so much.
It's funny because like, if we win, this is going to be like...
-the summer home. -[Adam] Summer home.
[Abdul] And I'm just going to be like every time I've ever come here I've hated it.
Why am I here?
[laughing]
[Adam] This building does, to be fair, look like Augusta National,
which I mean is a compliment.
[Abdul] You do realize, that means nothing to me, right?
-In there. -Thank you.
-[woman 22] You're welcome.
Thank you.
[jazz music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
It's a plantation. A plantation.
Hello, I'm staying at the hotel. These gentlemen are not.
So, what do we do? Do you want to do the room charge or...?
-It'll be $80 each. -I'm sorry?
-It will be $80 each for the-- -$80 each?
You guys don't do an a la carte?
It's not a la carte. It's a fixed price.
-It's a five-course meal. -Okay.
It's a five-course... you guys want to share my five-course meal?
Yeah. [laughs]
-We're not doing that. Thank you. -Yeah.
Hey, sorry if I wake you.
Hey, Facetime me. Facetime me.
Can I go...
Ah, there she is! Look at her. Look at her with her ears.
Hi. How's are you?
[Sarah] It's bedtime and she's really sleepy.
-[chuckles] -[Jordan] Let's go with... yeah, let's stick to salad.
And for the entree, the pistachio-crusted rack of lamb.
[indistinct words]
Yes. Yeah, uh, but the dessert with that also.
Yeah, everybody was like, "Ah, your wife didn't come to the conference. Why not?"
I was like, "Well, because she works, and we're not independently wealthy."
And this is what real people are like. They have to work.
We have a baby, so there's that, so.
But did you say that?
No but a part of me was just like, it's ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous.
[soft music playing]
Let's go.
-[Jordan] Good luck. -[Abdul] Thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
Alright. You got him. Go get him.
[announcer 1] ...candidates for the State of Michigan.
[applause]
[woman 23] And welcome to the bipartisan gubernatorial debate
at the Mackinac policy conference here on Mackinac Island.
Let me introduce the candidates in alphabetical order by party:
Abdul El-Sayed, Brian Calley, Shri Thanedar, Patrick Colbeck,
Gretchen Whitmer, and Bill Schuette.
[applause]
Alright. The next question is going to go to the three Democrats.
What is your specific plan to finally repairing Michigan's roads?
And are you willing to raise taxes to do it?
And we are going to start with Gretchen Whitmer.
[Gretchen] Well, thank you. I am glad for this question.
It is time for us to fix the damn roads, to make sure every community has clean water
and that we get connected to broadband so we can maintain an edge in mobility.
We have to get these things right.
And it's on the next governor to do it, not just throw out positions.
[woman 23] Shri Thanedar:
Well, when... when I was growing up in India, my family fell into dire poverty,
and I saw my mother raise four girls, two boys, and my dad.
And I've seen a strong woman. I respect her.
And, you know, I respect her for what I learned from her.
I learned from her how to be... never give up.
How to stand for your rights, make a plan, and provide leadership.
And that's what I will do when I'm in Lansing.
Work with the Democrats, for sure, but also work with the Senate,
uh, possibly Republican to make our infrastructure top notch.
Wow.
Abdul El-Sayed:
Look, when we talk about why these things don't get done,
I want us to think about what we're doing in this room right now.
You got lobbyists from big corporations.
They're paying off politicians, almost everybody else on this stage,
to make sure that they keep getting their tax cuts
and that we don't have the money to invest.
If we're serious about building Michigan, if we're serious about building small business
and attracting and growing our talent, then we have got to stop with that.
Everybody has to pay their fair share.
Let's stand up and say, everybody's rate's the same,
and if you make a lot of money, maybe you should pay a little bit more.
And thanks to all of our candidates, all of us at Detroit Public TV.
Goodnight.
Too many Michiganders are suffering.
They don't have access to health care...
[Abdul] We won the buzz. Like we won the buzz hands down.
Did anybody have a breakthrough moment?
I was very impressed by the passion that Abdul El-Sayed brought.
I think on the Democratic side he was the most interesting, intriguing candidate.
Didn't agree with a word he said, but he said it with conviction, with forcefulness.
It didn't sound like he was repeating talking points in the way that, you know,
his... his Democratic opponents.
Gretchen Whitmer, I felt, was sticking on her talking points,
repeating her phrases over again.
Shri Thanedar seemed to get lost in the debate.
I think when you look at the Democratic side Shri walked in with momentum
-because of his advertising campaign. -Yeah. Yeah.
I think this debate has shifted the momentum from Shri to Abdul.
There's one point where Shri was literally reading off our website.
Yeah, this is amazing.
[Max] And we just got the report back from the Bureau of Elections.
They have recommended that Shri makes the ballot.
They say that he has gotten 16,000 signatures.
He needed to get 15,000.
So last night our staff were up really late putting together a point by point refutation.
Now we are heading down from Mackinac Island to Lansing so that we can stay overnight.
[horn blowing]
We're going to get up early in the morning and go to the hearing at 9:00 a.m.
You know, this is probably our last chance to try to get him off the ballot.
[dramatic music playing]
The list which you have before you contains the names of candidates
who have filed nominating petition found to be sufficient under...
[Max] The Board of Canvassers are a bunch of political appointees.
The two who represent the Democrats are white women in their mid-60s
appointed by the Democratic Party chair.
I mean, they are not inclined, just simply based on our polling, to be with us.
Yep. Alright. Will do. Thanks, man. Yep.
[woman 24] Okay. So we are now moving to agenda item six,
Shri Thanedar, candidate for governor.
This is the challenge in front of us here.
I would just note, this is the largest challenge we have,
I think ever seen with regard to an individual signature challenge,
close to 40,000...
[Claire] Going into that meeting in Lansing,
I'm thinking there's no way they can read this document that I have prepared
and not grant us at least a full review.
Okay, any questions?
Thank you very much for coming in.
And now I'd like to call on Claire Sandberg.
Claire, could you raise your right hand for me?
Do you solemnly swear, that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth,
-so help you God? -Yes, I do.
Thank you very much.
Based on our face review we found 3,212 signatures
that we would challenge for header/circulator issues.
And then with our 80 percent sample that we were able to digitize
and check against the Qualified Voter File,
69 percent came back with either first name not matching, last name, or both.
I understand that the Board of Elections in looking over this
their assumption was that those groups overlapped 100 percent.
And so they, in their report, reduced the number of challenges by 50 percent.
But in actuality,
the overlap rate between those two groups was 76 percent.
So that would leave a minimum number of valid signatures remaining
of only 10,717.
And that's without looking at fraud,
without looking at duplicates with other candidates, or etc.
So this is why we are asking for a full review.
And I'm happy to answer any questions about any of this.
[woman 24] Um, Sally. Our requirement is that we certify everyone
for the primary ballot by when, next Tuesday?
[Sally] Yeah, next Tuesday.
Uh, we have confirmed that thousands of signatures did exactly match,
first name, last name within the challenge.
We went through extensive effort...
[Claire] I think there's a moment in the hearing when I am listening to her response,
and her inability to account for some of the issues that we raised,
when I thought, they're going to give us the review, they're going to do it.
Uh, as you know, we follow a very methodical process.
I have staff here who are very experienced, people working nights, weekends,
and it was a little mind-boggling to us as to why so many of these people
were listed in this challenge.
We are very sure that mathematically it is not possible for us
to conclude insufficiency here.
And again, we did take probably the most thorough approach we've ever taken on a challenge.
What's the board's pleasure?
I'll make a motion that the board accept the staff report,
and deem the petition sufficient for Shri Thanedar, candidate for governor.
-In support? -Support.
Ruled and supported that we, uh, accept the staff report as sufficient...
And then, without even reading all the documents,
They just unanimously decided that the request was denied.
And I really thought then that we had probably lost.
And then later, I learned that this woman, Julie Matuzak,
who is a lobbyist for American Federation of Teachers,
which endorsed Gretchen Whitmer, and also sits on the Board of Canvassers,
while she was rejecting our request to just have a full review of Shri's signatures
to see whether he met the criteria to be on the ballot, was also,
unbeknownst to us at the time, running a dark money group to support Gretchen Whitmer
that gave $250,000 to Build a Better Michigan, Gretchen Whitmore's 527,
using money that came from we don't know where.
We don't know who the donors were, we don't even know what the legal entity was.
[dramatic music playing]
So it's a clear conflict of interest.
And if Julie and her colleagues on the Board of Canvassers had not made that decision,
I think we would have had a real shot at winning this campaign.
It probably would have still been an uphill battle,
but it would have been a very competitive race.
And they didn't want it to be one.
[Max] They're willing to do anything to get the Muslim guy off the ballot,
-that's what this is really about... -[woman 11] A spokesman said
this was an attack from "insider Democrats."
[Rhiana] So much of it was othering in a very quiet dog whistle kind of way...
[Max] It took us from an $8 million campaign to a $5 million campaign...
[Abdul] Yep, eligibility.
[Max] We should all understand, nobody is going to endorse us until this is handled...
[Adam] If we don't get Bernie endorsement within the month, I don't think it's possible.
[Claire] One of the crazy things about the total corruption of the process,
on both sides of this primary, both Shri Thanedar world and Gretchen Whitmer world
is just how little accountability there is.
[Max] Gretchen Whitmer, unlimited corporate money. What's she going to do with it?
[Claire] There's nothing that we can do about it.
[Sally] I'll make a motion that we'll accept the staff report...
And in fact, if we say anything about it,
if we say that the process was unfair and biased
and the establishment controlled the process
and manipulated it for the benefit of its preferred candidate,
they will say that we're crazy.
And that we're hurting the party.
And that we're helping Republicans.
So, we're in an impossible situation.
[dramatic music playing]
Hello and welcome to this debate, among the three Democratic candidates
for governor of Michigan.
[man 33] Alright. Let's begin with the questions tonight.
Again, you'll each have 60 seconds...
All of you have talked about raising taxes and/or fee for...
...prescription for repairing Michigan's roads.
I don't think I even need to say it, we need to fix the damn roads.
-We all... -[Kimberly] We see a divergence of opinion over healthcare...
...what is the single biggest problem in American life that you would solve
-with the wave of a magic wand, if you could? -Poverty.
[Gretchen] I am going to go right off of it
and say the best way to address poverty is a good job.
[Kimberly] ...are all talking about cutting taxes.
[man 33] And Abdul El-Sayed, this is your second and final rebuttal.
Look, it's about more than just fixing the darn roads.
- It's about fixing the darn politics. -[laughs]
We've got to stand up for a Michigan that embraces our future.
A Michigan where we believe in the ideal of a government
for the people and by the people.
That means no more corporate money in our politics, no more 527s,
no more people trying to buy the election.
It means standing up for things like MichCare, universal single-payer health care
for every Michigander to save us money and give people health care.
It is about a vision for Michigan that empowers all of us,
that says that all of us belong here and that our politics should dignify us all.
-Yeah! -Good! That was good.
We have a Facebook poll, Dr. El-Sayed is firmly in the lead.
[dramatic music playing]
[Abdul] You know, it's easy to think about what would have happened "if."
How much more we could have raised "if."
It was not even just about the numbers.
It's also about our momentum and our ability.
So like Shri is spending huge amounts of money on TV,
and I'm under an eligibility challenge basically between, uh, February and May, right?
You take that out and you flip that: completely different ball game.
[woman 25] So I'm gonna grab here. She's right here.
-I can't let you go. -Oh, my God.
She's looking at herself on TV.
Hey, Alexandria. Wanted to just call and personally congratulate you on an incredible win.
Now they'll tell us it's impossible.
You're not strong enough.
You're not rich enough.
You're not the right people.
I got a friend I'd like to tell them about.
I am privileged to introduce to you the future Congresswoman-elect
from the great state of New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
[Alexandria] Give it up again for Abdul.
[cheering]
I support Abdul because he knows that our greatest challenges are not left and right.
They are up and down.
-Hi. How are you? Hey. -Yes. Yes.
Are we all in? You guys want to come through?
[photographer] Alright. Say "democracy."
I think that the surge we experienced at the end of the campaign was real.
Who here believes that change is possible?
[cheers]
Welcome. I know you guys are all excited to knock some doors.
I was wondering if we could count on your vote for Abdul? Yes? Wonderful.
Thank you so much for your support. We're only a few points down...
And the AOC win, I think, really convinced people that
a candidate like Abdul could actually win.
-Good to see you, Doc. -Chris, thanks for having me.
[Chris] Where is the party?
Well, I'll tell you I think the party right now, it's soul searching.
And what we realized in 2016 is that our party lost a lot of voters...
-Appreciate you. Thank you. -August 7th.
[Claire] Hey, Bernie is in yet?
[Max] No, I just texted Jordan to see if he's called.
Well, apparently, it's happening.
Can I take you out to the floor here and have you tell them?
[Abdul] Bernie Sanders is endorsing this campaign!
[cheering]
We did it.
It means a lot to me that you've come. Thank you.
Bernie coming, like, those rallies were just fantastic.
But, you know, it just came way too late.
I am running because I, like you, like all of us, we are done waiting.
[cheers]
Done waiting, while people all over this state are told that they don't belong.
Excised out of our politics, told that they're less than because of what they look like,
the color of their skin, how they pray, who they love,
where they come from, who their parents are.
Until we have done that work, the work of democracy does not and cannot end.
[melancholy music playing]
-[crowd] Abdul, Abdul, Abdul. -[Abdul] Thank you.
[woman 26] Gretchen Whitmer outran two male rivals to win the Democratic primary
for Michigan governor, part of the so-called pink wave...
[Abdul] We need to stand up. We need to back our nominee.
We need to fight for a Michigan where we turn this state blue.
That is what I intend to do...
[woman 26] Democrat Gretchen Whitmer will be our state's next governor.
[man 34] We did hear from the governor elect, just moments ago.
I guess we're going to have to fix the damn roads now, right?
[Shri] Good evening.
My name is Shri Thanedar.
I am running to be your next State Representative.
We've got an incredible United States public health service
and an incredible CDC but they've been systematically underfunded.
They've been politicized in a way that I think it just...
[tearing up] I was walking out last night and Molly said something like, uh,
she's like, "I feel like I'm in a movie.
But this isn't the end of the movie. It's the middle."
And that's very true.
And, um, I want to make sure that we shut this down right.
So that when our time comes again, we're ready.
[upbeat music playing]
♪ I want clean water You're being ridiculous ♪
♪ I like fresh air You're being absurd ♪
♪ I guess I oughta Guys, don't be assholes ♪
♪ Forget to care Better than petulance ♪
♪ I dig plant farmers Narcissists ♪
♪ Not GMOs It's not that big a deal ♪
♪ And marijuana It needs further study ♪
♪ Just let it grow There you go again ♪
♪ Who will provide
♪ Rara, ridiculous
♪ Ha, ha You're hopelessly naive ♪
♪ To believe in a world That exists ♪
♪ Lala, we're having fun
♪ Wawa, disaster capitalists
♪ And the system's not broken It's fixed ♪
♪ Who will provide
♪ Rara, ridiculous
♪ Ha, ha You're hopelessly naive ♪
♪ To believe in a world That exists ♪
♪ Yaya, we're having fun
♪ Chacha The incrementalist twist ♪
♪ But the system's not broken It's fixed ♪