Michigan’s Senate race got very real very fast on Thursday night, when Republican Mike Rogers walked onto the debate stage in Grand Rapids and started swinging. Rogers, a former FBI agent and former House Intelligence Committee chairman, confronted Democrat Abdul El-Sayed over campaign donors and family ties to organizations the U.S. government has linked to terrorism, including Hamas and al-Qaeda.
The sharpest hit of the night had to do with El-Sayed’s mother, who reportedly worked from 1999 to 2004 for the Islamic American Relief Agency, an outfit the U.S. Treasury Department designated in 2004 for supporting terrorism, including financial assistance to Osama bin Laden. Rogers summed it up the way only a former FBI guy running for Senate can: “My mom worked at a small town chamber of commerce. Your mom work for an org supporting al-Qaeda.” Moderator Rick Albin probably did not have that one on his bingo card.
To be fair, there is no evidence El-Sayed’s mother participated in terrorist financing or committed any crime, and Rogers’ broader allegations about donor connections remain disputed. But the exchange captures everything about where this race is headed, and you can follow the Michigan Senate debate confrontation to see exactly how the night unfolded.
The Middle East exchange was its own disaster for El-Sayed. Rogers asked him a pretty straightforward question: does Iran or Israel pose a greater threat to American national security? El-Sayed called it “a ridiculous hypothetical” and then complained that “our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran.” That word “ostensible” is doing a lot of heavy lifting when you’re trying to win a swing state in the Midwest.
Rogers also went after El-Sayed’s Medicare for All plan, calling it “a disaster” and warning that wiping out private insurance while exploding government spending would hurt Michigan working families. “We cannot afford Abdul,” Rogers said, which is either a great bumper sticker or a great restraining order, depending on your politics. El-Sayed has the backing of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which Rogers was happy to remind everyone about repeatedly.
The two also tangled over President Trump’s tariffs, gas prices, immigration, and ICE, which El-Sayed wants to abolish. Things got so loud that moderator Rick Albin broke in with one of the great lines of the debate season: “I’d like to be a part of the debate, too.” Respect to Rick for trying.
Republicans haven’t won a Michigan Senate seat since 1994, and Rogers is clearly betting that El-Sayed’s progressive record and uncomfortable associations are the way to end that drought. After Thursday night, El-Sayed’s campaign has some explaining to do, and “that’s a ridiculous hypothetical” probably isn’t going to cut it. Drop your take in the comments or fire it off on social media.
