Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, is trying to assemble a coalition of Democrats unwilling to support the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.
“Some of these people are taking a big step forward; [it takes] a lot of courage to step across the political divide and say I’m going to do the right thing for someone that more closely represents my values,” Mr. Rogers, 63, said Thursday at a Detroit campaign event with supporters.
Mr. Rogers, a former congressman who ran for the Senate in 2024, was joined by individuals who say they’re choosing him over their party’s nominee.
Mr. El-Sayed, 41, won the Democratic nomination against Rep. Haley Stevens, a more moderate candidate, by less than one percentage point.
He calls for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, cutting off all military aid to Israel and nationalizing the healthcare system.
Now Mr. Rogers is eyeing the half of Democratic primary voters who didn’t back Mr. El-Sayed.
Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett denounced Mr. El-Sayed’s proposal of Medicare for all, saying so at Mr. Rogers’ event held at her mother-in-law’s home.
“You will lose your health insurance if the other candidate gets in office,” she said. “That is what Medicare for all means. … They will control your doctors, they will control your medication, they will control your visits, they will control everything.”
Ms. Whitsett said she was “not standing here as a Democrat or a Republican, because I’m neither.” She stopped attending Michigan’s House Democratic caucus meetings in 2025.
The event was held amid Mr. Rogers’ strategy to paint Mr. El-Sayed as too far left for Michigan — a state that has helped elect President Trump twice but has not voted for a Republican senator in over 30 years.
Mr. Rogers lost by 20,000 votes to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024. He and Mr. El-Sayed are vying for the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Mr. Rogers also invited Asher Lopatin, a Michigan rabbi who accused Mr. El-Sayed of antisemitism for having rallied with Hasan Piker, an online commentator who once said America deserved 9/11.
Mr. Lopatin said Mr. El-Sayed “has shown contempt for the Jewish community and, frankly, for American values by making Hasan Piker, a vicious antisemite and racist, his campaign surrogate. … He’s never disavowed Hasan’s antisemitism.”
The rabbi continued, “As someone who votes Democrat usually, I am proud this time to support Mike Rogers.”
The Washington Times reached out to Mr. El-Sayed and Mr. Piker for comment on the accusations of antisemitism.
Mr. El-Sayed has pushed back on claims of antisemitism. He characterizes himself as a critic of Israel, which he says is “not the same as Judaism and the Jewish people.”
Cole Wozniak, an El-Sayed campaign spokesman, responded to the Rogers campaign event in a statement to The Washington Times.
“Mike Rogers will put Donald Trump ahead of Michigan every single time,” he said. “Abdul’s the only candidate with a coalition that can win this November and will get right to work in the U.S. Senate getting money out of politics and putting money in your pockets.”
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