GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The first debate in Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate race turned combative Thursday as Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly traded personal attacks, talked over each other and even continued arguing during a commercial break.
The contentious hourlong grudge match followed weeks of the two candidates sparring online and in advertisements that have flooded the state in the highly competitive campaign for an open Senate seat.
“I’d like to be a part of the debate, too,” moderator Rick Albin said during the quarreling. “In 30 years of doing debates,” he added later, ”I’ve never seen it continue during the commercial. But it did.”
Rogers is a former congressman who ran unchallenged in the Aug. 4 Republican primary. He lost a previous Senate race to then-U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin by just under 20,000 votes two years ago. El-Sayed is a progressive and former public health official who defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary this year by less than a percentage point.
The seat is open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring. Both parties see the race as pivotal to deciding which party wins control of the Senate in November.
Rogers continues to distance himself from some of Trump's policies
Rogers has broken with Trump on two major issues in recent weeks. In September, Rogers said the war with Iran needed to “end quickly.” On Wednesday, he released an ad criticizing Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying, "we know that Canada is not our enemy” and “we need to end this tariff war now.”
Early in the debate, Rogers doubled down on both. Regarding the war, Rogers said: “I do believe it’s going to come to an end. We need it to come to an end."
Later, Rogers said he had called the White House this week to push for a “deal” with Canada to end the trade dispute.
“We were originally told that the Canadian tariff was going to be settled and settled quickly," Rogers told reporters after the debate. "It didn't happen. My argument is, and I made this to the administration, time to wrap it up.”
Rogers also criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's actions earlier this year, saying the “efforts in Minnesota were probably not appropriate.”
“That to me was something that they could have done differently,” Rogers said.
Trump had surged immigration agents into the state, stirring outrage when two protesters were shot and killed.
El-Sayed grilled on stance to not send funds to Israel
El-Sayed worked during the debate to not only attack Rogers but also appeal to Democrats who may still contemplating their vote after a contentious primary divided the party's coalition. Some in the Jewish community have expressed concern about El-Sayed's past comments regarding Israel.
El-Sayed was asked during the debate if he would support sending weapons to Israel if they were attacked by another country. He responded that he did not “want our tax dollars being used to subsidize war abroad.”
Asked later if Iran or Israel posed a more dangerous threat, he called it a “ridiculous question” and “both of them have proven dangerous in their own way.”
After the debate, El-Sayed was asked why he wanted Rogers to answer for his association with Trump while being dismissive of questions about his association with Hasan Piker, an online commentator with a history of controversial remarks.
“That's a serious question?” El-Sayed retorted. “To equate the most powerful person in the world with a streamer in California seems to me to just be — I'm not going to use the word — but silly."
High-profile Democrats have tried to help El-Sayed bring together Democrats in recent weeks. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appeared with him for the first time Thursday since she endorsed Stevens during the primary.
Trump attacks El-Sayed on Truth Social the night before debate
Trump assailed El-Sayed in a social media post late Wednesday, referring to him as “Mohammed” and saying he “goes back to the days of the Jihad.”
“He is a RADICAL Extremist, Terrorist Sympathizer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
El-Sayed, who was born in the U.S. to Egyptian immigrant parents, responded by pointing out that the president knows his name: “He says it every day.”
“He’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us,” El-Sayed wrote. “He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us.”
