Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed sparred over Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, gun policy and government regulation of business in their second Michigan Senate debate on Wednesday evening, their final scheduled face-off before the Nov. 3 general election.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Michigan health director, accused Rogers of standing in lockstep with President Donald Trump on the conflict with Iran, which El-Sayed called “aimless.” He pointed to an upcoming Trump campaign appearance with Rogers as proof. “They are hip to hip on this war, and you are paying the cost,” El-Sayed said.
Rogers, a former FBI special agent and congressman, responded by returning to a line of attack from their first debate, saying El-Sayed would not say whether Iran poses a greater threat to the United States than Israel does. “My opponent can’t even condemn the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], which is the terrorist enforcement arm of Iran,” Rogers said.
The debate turned personal when Rogers accused El-Sayed of deleting old social media posts and videos in which he had called for defunding the police. Rogers also claimed El-Sayed once urged former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, to defund police in Egypt. El-Sayed, who has repeatedly faced questions about Muslim Brotherhood ties during the campaign, pushed back hard. “He keeps raising this question about this association with the organization,” El-Sayed said. “It’s really quite beneath you.”
Fox News Digital has not found any direct link between El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood. Critics have instead pointed to his past role as vice president of the Muslim Students Association chapter at the University of Michigan in 2007, a group named in a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood strategy memo written by Mohamed Akram.
Health Care, AI and Guns
El-Sayed again promised to expand programs such as Medicaid and to “put money in your pocket,” a central theme of his campaign. Rogers dismissed the pledge as empty, warning that El-Sayed’s health care plan would raise taxes and strip people of private insurance. “These aren’t real solutions,” Rogers said. “It’s going to take away your choices in healthcare.”
When asked about regulating artificial intelligence, El-Sayed said he would support putting “democratically appointed folks on the board of these AI corporations” to address what he called a threat to workers. Rogers seized on the comment, accusing El-Sayed of wanting government control of private companies and linking the idea to the Democratic Socialists of America. El-Sayed has not been endorsed by the DSA, though he has backed and been backed by DSA-aligned candidates, including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The debate closed with a dispute over gun policy. Rogers declined to give a yes-or-no answer on universal background checks, saying “it all depends.” El-Sayed mocked the response, prompting Rogers to bring up a 2023 YouTube video, since made private, in which El-Sayed suggested amending the Constitution to replace the right to bear arms with a right to health care and argued that only police or community groups should carry firearms.
Local Reaction
Following the debate, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad issued a statement praising Rogers as “the commonsense, steady hand Michiganders want to see in the U.S. Senate.” Runestad also criticized El-Sayed over his past appearances with commentator Hasan Piker, saying El-Sayed “seemingly justified the horrific terrorist attack targeting children and the Jewish community in Bloomfield Hills.”
Rogers and El-Sayed have now completed their scheduled debates and are not expected to meet again before voters decide the race on Nov. 3.
