Former President Bill Clinton praised a young Abdul El-Sayed during his commencement speech at the University of Michigan in 2007.
A resurfaced clip has gone viral just days ahead of the midterm elections, as El-Sayed hopes to defeat Republican Mike Rogers.
“I don’t want to embarrass your senior speaker,” Clinton said to the graduating class of 2007. “But I wish every person in the world who believes that we are fated to have a clash of civilizations and cannot reach across the religious divides could have heard you speak today. I just wish every person in the world could have heard you speak today.”
El-Sayed’s Speech
The Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan graduated from the University of Michigan in 2007 with a degree in biology and political science. El-Sayed was selected to give the commencement speech after achieving university honors every semester, becoming an Angel scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
“Education is a process of transformation. I realized I love Michigan because the person who’s leaving here today is better than the one who came, and I know that extends to you, my fellow graduates, as well,” he said after taking the stage. “The Michigan Difference isn’t in the classes or the papers we’ve written or the tests that we’ve sat through. It’s not the faculty, the administration, the facilities or even Ann Arbor.”
El-Sayed continued, “The Michigan difference is us. It’s the students. It’s in the diversity of names, faces, stories and experiences with which we decorate this great place. It’s in the time that we spent in self assessment, self-improvement and thought. It’s the questions that we’ve asked and those that we’ve answered. It’s the care we’ve shown the people we’ve helped and the passion that we have that defines us. Moreover, it’s the fact that we’re about to go out into a world that absolutely needs us. It needs to hear our story spoken loudly, to consider our opinions and to engage us in discussion. It needs us to ask it questions, to answer when it beckons, to show that we care and to give it mercy, compassion and love. It needs us to help those less fortunate. But, most of all, it needs us to spread that contagious Michigan passion that has come to define us. It’s that we have the audacity to believe that we can change this world and that each of us will.”
During a campaign rally ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, El-Sayed reflected on that pivotal moment, sharing that Clinton came up to him after the commencement to encourage him to run for office.
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Former President Clinton Praised Abdul El-Sayed During 2007 Commencement Speech in Resurfaced Clip