Former President Barack Obama has publicly thrown his support behind two younger Democratic candidates whose platforms sit well to the left of his own administration’s record: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Obama appeared in a political ad backing El-Sayed’s Senate bid, telling Michigan voters, “Michigan is where we fight back.” He has also appeared publicly with Mamdani, including a visit to a Bronx day care center where the two sang “Wheels on the Bus” with children.
The Atlantic recently examined this shift in a piece titled “Barack Obama Looks Left,” looking at the former president’s growing association with younger leftist Democrats, including Mamdani and El-Sayed.
Who are the candidates
El-Sayed, raised in a Muslim family with Egyptian roots, served as vice president of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Michigan during his senior year in 2006-2007. His 2016 Columbia alumni profile describes his nurse-practitioner mother and engineer father instilling in him “a commitment to social change.” In 2012, he signed a petition in New York supporting decisions made by then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
Mamdani grew up in an interfaith household; his father, Mahmood Mamdani, was Muslim. Mamdani has said his Muslim identity was “politicized” after the September 11 attacks. While a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, he advocated for Palestinian rights and criticized Israeli policy, and by 2014 was publicly supporting an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.
Policy positions
Both candidates back universal health care and wealth redistribution through expanded public programs funded by progressive taxation. Both have also criticized the federal government’s voter identification requirements and support abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with expanded protections for immigrants and criticism of the Trump administration’s enforcement approach.
On Israel, El-Sayed has called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “bloodthirsty.” Mamdani threatened in 2026 to arrest Netanyahu, whom he called a “war criminal,” if he arrived at the United Nations, before conceding in July 2026 that New York City lacked the legal authority to do so. On the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, Mamdani condemned Hamas before criticizing Israel’s response.
Obama, for his part, never officially embraced democratic socialism as president, though his administration passed the Affordable Care Act and pushed the country toward broader health coverage. His administration also relied on ICE to carry out deportations, a policy both El-Sayed and Mamdani now oppose.
Both campaigns have built support through small-dollar donations, volunteer organizing, and social media outreach, a model consistent with Obama’s own early campaigns.
Obama’s appearances with Mamdani and El-Sayed come as both candidates seek to define themselves ahead of their respective elections, El-Sayed for Michigan’s Senate seat and Mamdani in New York City’s mayoral race.
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