WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich., the open-seat Senate race between Republican Mike Rogers, a onetime congressman, and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, has turned deeply personal for voters in Detroit suburbs already shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas.
Rogers has worked to win Jewish voters after the Democratic primary between El-Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, in which Israel was a focal point. Stevens drew roughly $30 million in spending by groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Rogers planned an October event with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz billed around safety after October 7th and the Temple Israel attack. President Donald Trump claimed El-Sayed was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, though there is no evidence of affiliation.
The contest has divided friends. Jewish Democratic activist Lori Goldman described Rogers’ message as, in her words, “a fear campaign,” while Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus member Mimi Price-Miletic is not supporting El-Sayed and has not ruled out voting for Rogers.
In Dearborn, a city of nearly 100,000 residents that Trump won by 6 percentage points, Arab American leaders who aided Trump in 2024 have criticized Republican rhetoric. Bishara Bahbah, who helped lead Trump’s outreach in Michigan in 2024, said El-Sayed was born and raised in the United States and, in his words, “He’s as American as they come.”