At least for one night, the Republican candidate seemed to have successfully transformed the debate into a referendum on El-Sayed’s judgment and ideology.
Either Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers is still snake-bit from his narrow loss to Senator Elissa Slotkin two years ago, or he’s overcome with apprehension over the unfavorable political environment facing Republicans. Either way, his caution and the concessions he’s made to GOP-skeptical voters as a result of that trepidation have led him to endorse some pretty incoherent policy preferences. That was apparent in Thursday night’s debate in the Wolverine State.
Rogers wants the war against Iran to end so that gasoline prices will go down. But gasoline prices, like so many other commodities, would not go down if the U.S. withdrew from the blockade. Such an approach would also cede the advantages America has secured in the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S. Navy has reduced the effect of Iran’s attacks on shipping to a mere risk premium. Giving Iran the chance to once again block maritime traffic in the strait wouldn’t make any American safer or more financially secure.
Likewise, Rogers touted the economic benefits municipalities across America are deriving from building data centers in their communities, even as he insists on a moratorium on their construction. Donald Trump is waging a petty trade war against neighboring Canada, he insists, and that must stop. But the tariffs brought industry back to Michigan, including production of the venerable Chevy Silverado! And so on.
Voters would be justified in seeing a measure of inauthenticity in Rogers’s vaguely policy-flavored gyrations. But the GOP senatorial nominee also hit his marks.
Rogers’a attacks on Abdul El-Sayed were focused and deliberate. He exposed the Democratic nominee for presenting himself as a medical professional when he is not. He highlighted the exorbitant cost of El-Sayed’s socialistic policy preferences, an endeavor aided by El-Sayed’s own promise of government-provided “cradle to grave” health care coverage. For the most part, however, Rogers dwelled on El-Sayed’s proximity to and comfort with Islamist narratives and the radicals who act on them.
“Muslim Brotherhood.” “CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations].” “Al-Qaeda.” “Hamas.” “Hezbollah.” The name-checking of the various terrorist enterprises to which El-Sayed is exposed approached the point of gratuity, the goal being to drill into the voting public the Democratic candidate’s biggest liability. Some viewers were discomfited by the personal nature of Rogers’s line of attack. After all, he singled out his opponents’ immediate family members for opprobrium. But Rogers’s accusations have the virtue of being accurate.
His birth mother did work for a U.S. Treasury-designated terrorist financing front, the Islamic American Relief Agency. His father-in-law, a top donor to El-Sayed’s super PAC, does have connections to CAIR and the Islamic Society of North America, both of which have been implicated in terrorism-related scandals. And the candidate has “taken money from individuals on his campaign who openly support Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda,” as Rogers explained. El-Sayed himself complicated his defense against these charges when he steadfastly refused to evaluate whether Israel or Iran represents “the greater threat to the United States.”
I joined CNN’s NewsNight panel on Thursday night for a post-debate wrap-up. There’s a reason why Mike Rogers’s name almost never came up in our discussion. At least for one night, the Republican candidate seemed to have successfully transformed the debate into a referendum on El-Sayed’s judgment and ideology:
This goes long (sorry!), but I think a fuller version of our argument tonight over El-Sayed’s association with radical Islamist narratives really gets at why this has been a stubborn liability for him and his campaign. pic.twitter.com/sknKS3i9jM
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 9, 2026
That’s probably the best any Republican candidate can hope for in a year when voters aren’t inclined to be persuaded by the GOP.