Milwaukee Bucks forward and NBA champion Kyle Kuzma has publicly challenged former President Barack Obama’s campaign message in Michigan, arguing that voters in the state are more concerned with economic problems than with the religious identities of their elected officials. His remarks followed Obama’s weekend visit to Detroit, where the former president campaigned for Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, and other Democrats ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Kuzma, a Flint native, reacted to Obama’s Saturday rally at Cass Technical High School. During the event, Obama focused on the prospect of El-Sayed serving alongside Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, citing El-Sayed’s Muslim faith and Slotkin’s Jewish faith.
Obama described the two as a potential “power duo” and told the crowd that having a Muslim man and a Jewish woman representing Michigan in the Senate was something voters could take pride in.
Kuzma took to social media to push back. “This desperate psyop is unbearable to watch in Michigan. So tired of listening to it,” he wrote. “1 in 4 Black people in Michigan are below the poverty line and the message is Muslim/Jewish duo is what we’re talking about.”
The 31-year-old argued that economic hardship deserves greater attention, pointing to poverty among Black residents of Michigan and questioning why religious representation was being emphasized in such a closely watched race.
“Last thing that Michiganders care about is a religious identity pitch. And on top of that Michigan is a state where the population of Muslims and Jews are both 1 percent. What are we talking about.”
Kuzma’s comments carry added weight because of his roots. He grew up in Flint and has increasingly used his social-media platform to weigh in on political, economic and cultural issues beyond the basketball court. The former University of Utah standout entered the NBA in 2017, won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, and later joined the Milwaukee Bucks.
His criticism comes as Michigan voters continue to point to economic concerns as central to their decisions. A Fox News poll conducted in late September found that cost of living ranked among the issues Michigan voters considered extremely important in deciding their Senate vote, alongside immigration, President Donald Trump and U.S. policy toward Israel.
The same September 30 Fox News poll showed El-Sayed with a one-point lead over Republican nominee Mike Rogers, a margin small enough to fall within the survey’s sampling error. Rogers, a former congressman and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, narrowly lost Michigan’s other Senate race to Slotkin in 2024 and is now competing for the state’s open seat.
The stakes are high in a state that remains tightly divided. Trump carried Michigan in the 2024 presidential election by less than two percentage points.
Obama’s Detroit appearance was part of a broader Democratic effort to mobilize voters in the final days of the campaign, as the former president traveled through Midwestern battleground states on behalf of Democratic candidates.
Obama also came to El-Sayed’s defense against attacks related to his Muslim faith, drawing parallels to false claims about Obama’s own birthplace and religion during his presidential campaigns.
“They may even use your name or your faith to somehow suggest you are dangerous,” Obama told the crowd, adding that he had faced similar attacks during his own political career.
El-Sayed, the son of an Egyptian immigrant, used the rally to stress his patriotism and argued that criticism of American policy should not be mistaken for hostility toward the country. He has denied any ties to or support for the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic group founded in Egypt in the late 1920s that the U.S., Egypt and other countries have designated as a terrorist organization.
