Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is prepared to discuss his faith in his second debate against Republican Mike Rogers on Oct. 21 for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat.
The former Detroit health director, who would be the first Muslim senator if elected, released a new 30-second TV advertisement on Tuesday talking about his religious upbringing, which has fueled many GOP attacks, including being confronted at a town hall meeting by a Republican operative who asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-based Islamist group.
During the first debate on Oct. 7, both candidates traded personal insults and argued over the Trump administration's trade policies and the war in Iran.
But Rogers repeatedly made references to El-Sayed's roots as the child
of Egyptian immigrants, at one point falsely claiming his Democratic rival had refused to condemn a March attack on a Michigan synagogue.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent more than $30 million trying to prevent El-Sayed from winning the Democratic nomination in August.
El-Sayed and Rogers' second debate three days before early voting begins in Michigan may be just as intense.
Who is Abdul El-Sayed?
04:10 PM ET, October 21 2026, James Powel and Michael LoriaAbdul El-Sayed is a former public health official who won a contentious primary against Rep. Hayley Stevens to secure the Democratic nomination for Senate.
Born on Halloween in 1984, he grew up in suburban Detroit. His father was an engineer from Egypt and his mother worked as a nurse practitioner, according to the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. El-Sayed's parents divorced and he grew up mainly with his father and stepmother, a professor from a Protestant household in Central Michigan.
El-Sayed has a medical degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in public health as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He served as Detroit’s public health director and as an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University.
During the height of the COVID pandemic, he appeared frequently as an expert in media outlets.
El-Sayed made his first foray into statewide politics in 2018 when he ran for governor of Michigan, losing the Democratic primary to now Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: El-Sayed's faith is a focal point ahead of Michigan debate: Live updates
