Shortly after becoming the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed challenged Republican nominee Mike Rogers to a series of five debates.
After Rogers skipped a September debate in Detroit because he objected to the moderator, the two candidates are scheduled to take the stage Oct. 8 in Grand Rapids for their first face-to-face encounter. Many polls show a tight race in which retaining the seat of retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, is critical to Democrats' quest to take control of the Senate.
The debate could be an opportunity for El-Sayed, a public health official who would be the first Muslim U.S. senator, to lay out his progressive economic agenda and assuage concerns about his foreign policy views, said Matt Grossmann, a political
science professor at Michigan State University.
"It will be interesting to see how his charisma and well-rounded everyman approach comes through under such pressure," Grossmann said.
Rogers, a former seven-term congressman House Intelligence Committee chair, may try to differentiate himself from President Donald Trump as the war in Iran and the trade war with neighboring Canada are unpopular with Michigan voters, Grossmann added. Rogers has abandoned his previous support for the Iran war and Trump's tariffs.
"I expect Rogers to be on the offensive," Grossmann said.
El Sayed snaps back at Trump's 'Mohammed' post
04:35 PM ET, October 8 2026, Terry Collins
Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Thursday snapped back at President Donald Trump's late-Wednesday night Islamophobic Truth Social tirade, where he repeatedly called him "Mohammed" and a "terrorist sympathizer."
A night before the first Senate debate, Trump also called El-Sayed "a RADICAL Extremist," adding that "Mohammed’s Values are not exactly those of Michiganders, or those of our Great United States of America!" The president reiterated his "TOTAL ENDORSEMENT" for Republican Senate candidate, Rep. Mike Rogers.
El Sayed, seeking to be the first Muslim U.S. senator, responded Thursday, saying Trump knows his "name is Abdul" and that he says it daily.
"But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us," El-Sayed said about the president in a post on X. "He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. He thinks we don’t know any better.
"It’s time for change," El-Sayed concluded.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michigan debate live: El-Sayed and Rogers meet in high-stakes clash
