Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for the Senate, is squaring off against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old Rhodes scholar and doctor who never practiced medicine. It is important to Michiganders, of course, but also important to the Senate. It is possible it will determine who controls the Senate.
According to Mr. Rogers, “This is a battle between common-sense ideas and radical, extremist policies, peddled by a con man, that are out of place in our society.”
Will Mike Rogers’s conservative record and moderate demeanor attract Republicans along with disaffected Democrats?
Mr. El-Sayed won his primary by 1 point and many Democrats voted against him.
The WSJ points to Rogers’s background as an asset in the race:
Rogers is a former Army lieutenant who joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He then entered Michigan politics, serving two terms as a state senator and seven terms in the House, where he rose to become Intelligence Committee chairman.
The Muslim Card
The Muslim card is both a plus and a minus for El-Sayed.
When Rogers released a video of himself tooling about in a cherry-red vintage Ford pickup truck, El-Sayed’s campaign said on X: “Mike Rogers’ campaign has the aesthetics of a 1960s white flight suburb and a KKK cross burning.”
A columnist for the Detroit News likened the crack to Hillary Clinton’s dismissing Trump voters as a “basket of deplorables.” Nolan Finley pointed out to his readers that the Ford F-150, which debuted in 1975, is “the nation’s bestselling truck line and is the symbol of working America,” making the staffer’s comment not a smart thing to say in Motor City. Finley had a larger point: Mr. El-Sayed isn’t even trying to appeal to the middle.
Michigan Jews Against Extremism
Eric Bronstein, a businessman, declares, “Many of us have been fiercely supportive of Democratic candidates and principles. All of us have felt threatened and alienated by the politics and allies embraced by Abdul El-Sayed, which has included demonization of Jews, equivocation on terrorism, exclusion of Jewish Americans from public life, and expression of implacable hatred of the world’s only Jewish nation.”
Rogers Takes the Advantage
Rogers is firmly pro-Jewish:
He’s firmly pro-Israel, but he’s also said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee should stay out of the race. AIPAC spent $32 million in the Democratic primary in an unsuccessful effort to defeat Mr. El-Sayed and that has become an issue.
El-Sayed has denounced AIPAC and Israel. El-Sayed also has denounced AIPAC and Israel, but he also claims he wants only equal rights for Muslims. He also claims he wants only equal rights for Muslims.
Israel Bloodthirsty
Although El-Sayed says his commitment to “Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters.”
But Mr. El-Sayed calls Israel “bloodthirsty,” accuses it of “apartheid and genocide,” and likens American attempts to ban Shariah, or Islamic law, to white supremacy.
Where Mr. El-Sayed is doubling down, Mr. Rogers is reaching out, writes William McGurn.
“Time is money in Michigan, and early votes are money in the bank,” he says. “People forget or get busy, a sudden trip pops up, there’s bad weather on Election Day. I need my voters to defeat Abdul by putting the vote in the bank as soon as the polls open in September.”
