Abdul El-Sayed meets with Black leaders in Downriver area for roundtable discussion

One state lawmaker said he didn't see U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Metro Detroit's Downriver area ahead of the August primary. After a roundtable discussion on Tuesday with other Black leaders, El-Sayed said he's looking forward to further discussions. 

"I hope that today is part of growing a relationship, not building a relationship, but growing a relationship so that when I'm in the U.S. Senate, when you give me a call, I know what it is you're pointing to, and what it is I can do about it," said El-Sayed during the discussion. 

El-Sayed joined African American leaders from the state House and local mayors who represent the downriver area. He said the discussion helped him understand how the communities here feel overlooked. 

"I learned a lot about the ways that some of the smaller predominantly Black communities in Wayne County feel like the federal government just doesn't listen to them and they want a representative in the U.S. Senate who's going to be thinking about how to make sure that they make sure they have the resources they need for their communities to thrive," he told CBS News Detroit.

State Rep. Tyrone Carter said during the discussion that he hasn't seen the El-Sayed campaign have a presence in Downriver. 

"The message is, 'You didn't look this way, you overlooked us, and that's maybe why people didn't vote for you. People need to see you,'" said Carter. 

Carter said the opportunity to talk to El-Sayed in a smaller setting was one he didn't want to pass up. 

"That was why it was important today to have the mayors of Ecorse and Rouge and myself here because we represent this area, but we hadn't seen him," Carter said. 

He later added, "I think it was productive, it was opening, and I think we still need to have more conversations because the divisions within the party still exist.