Why The Professors’ Union Got Behind El-Sayed

The American Association of University Professors made a rare move: endorsing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s primary. Todd Wolfson, president of AAUP and a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers, joins the show to explain why. We discuss El-Sayed’s own family ties to the union, why AAUP’s Michigan locals overwhelmingly backed him in internal polling, why AAUP says it would endorse any candidate—centrist or progressive—who champions public higher education, and why Wolfson argues that decades of defunding, not campus politics, is the real story behind the cost of college. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-now-with-perry-bacon ➡ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/right-now-with-perry-bacon Get full access to The New Republic at newrepublic.substack.com/subscribe