Political ad creates unlikely stars of county residents

Two stars have emerged from the hottest Senate race in the country, the one that will likely determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are vying for the open seat, but they aren’t the stars of the campaign thus far.

While most people here know Rogers has deep Livingston County ties, no one knew that El-Sayed has close ties in the community as well.

That’s where the two new political darlings come in.

We learned about El-Sayed’s ties to the county in an ad featuring Jan and Judy Johnson of Hamburg Township, his octogenarian grandparents. In that ad, they answer the question: “Where did Abdul El-Sayed come from?”

“Here,” the Johnsons say together in the 30-second spot as “Livingston County” flashes on the screen.

“We’re his grandparents,” grandmother Judy says, as grandfather Jan adds that they “helped raise him.”

And El-Sayed lived with them for four years while he attended the University of Michigan.

If you haven’t seen the ad, here it is.

Some pundits say Judy has a future in acting. “Grandma steals the show,” said Sam Stein of the Bulwark.

I, too, was captivated by the Johnsons, and I didn’t know El-Sayed had such close ties to Livingston County. So, intrepid reporter that I am, I tracked them down. They were happy to spend time talking about their grandson.

During the interview, I was surprised to learn that Judy Johnson is blind.

“Most people don’t realize it,” Jan said. “You can’t tell from the ad, but she’s had 15 surgeries on her eyes over the past few years.”

She is now blind. When I told Jan that I couldn’t tell that from watching the ad, he explained that the director had her “talking toward sound.”

“They coached her really well,” he said about the filming of the ad at their home. “Abdul coached me. We’re not actors.”

The two, who celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary last week, are taking Judy’s blindness in stride.

“The things we’ve gone through in our 64 years of marriage help us handle Judy’s blindness,” Jan said. “It’s just another adventure. We’ve been through a lot of things and this is just one more.

“She’s the love of my life. I tell her every day that she’s my favorite person in the world.”

Jan does all the cooking now, and he said he’s getting pretty good at it; after all, his mother was a home ec teacher.

Jan also helps Judy with her Bible study.

“It’s really sort of cool with Bible study now,” he said. “I read it to her, so I’m getting a lot of knowledge, too.”

The couple has lived in Livingston County for nearly three decades, and El-Sayed came into their lives when he was a toddler. Jan explained that El-Sayed’s parents divorced, and his mother remarried and moved out of the country. His daughter became El-Sayed’s step-mother when he was 2-1/2, and she helped to raise him.

“She’s been his mom,” Jan said.

“He spent a lot of time here with us,” Judy said. “And then he lived with us when he attended the University of Michigan.”

The Johnsons are both deacons at First Presbyterian Church in Brighton, where they’ve been members for 25 years. While El-Sayed was living with them, he gave talks at the church about Islam.

“People at the church just loved him,” Jan said.

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Originally from Gratiot County, Jan had a farm equipment business, but “when the farmers went broke, we went broke,” he said. “I was 45, broke, and had to start over.”

He ended up with a job at Federal-Mogul, a major supplier of automotive and industrial parts. “I joined as a sales engineer because I had sales experience and an engineering degree,” he said. “I started over at 45 and I didn’t retire until I was 75.”

And now they are hoping their grandson gets elected to the U.S. Senate.

While getting recognized from the ad can “sometimes be a little uncomfortable,” Jan Johnson said “we will do anything for Abdul.”