Key takeaways from US Senate debate in Michigan between El-Sayed, Rogers

The race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers is considered a key toss-up in the push to control the Senate.

Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, left, debates his Republican counterpart Mike Rogers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 8, 2026 [Paul Sancya/Pool via AP Photo]

The leading candidates in Michigan’s heated Senate race have faced off in their first televised debate, with less than a month remaining before the United States midterm elections.

Thursday’s hour-long debate was a microcosm of how tense the toss-up race has become.

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Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, formerly the health director for Wayne County, repeatedly sought to paint his Republican adversary Mike Rogers as a yacht-owning millionaire out of touch with ordinary voters.

For his part, Rogers, a former member of the US House of Representatives, lobbed accusations at El-Sayed that he was soft on “terrorism” and had foreign sympathies.

The Michigan-born El-Sayed has repeatedly faced Islamophobic attacks while on the campaign trail, with Republican President Donald Trump labelling him an “extremist, terrorist sympathizer” whose history “goes back to the days of the Jihad”. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim member of the US Senate.

The two candidates spent much of their hour onstage together speaking over one another, as they exchanged pointed barbs.

“He can’t condemn a terrorist act that happened on our soil in the state of Michigan. He can’t bring himself to condemn –,” Rogers began, referencing a March attack on a synagogue.

“I did condemn it,” El-Sayed said, jumping in. “No, you did not,” Rogers replied, with El-Sayed quickly responding, “You make stuff up. You make stuff up.”

The Senate race in Michigan is considered key to the battle for control of the US Senate. Democrats are seeking to flip both chambers of Congress, but shifting control of the Senate will be a tougher prospect, given that only a third of its 100 seats are on the November 3 ballot.

Host Rick Albin at times struggled to keep the debate on track, as tensions rose.

“We’ve got dozens of questions we want to get to. You can’t litigate all of these with 14 different rebuttals, so please work with me,” Albin told the two candidates at one point.

Here are the key takeaways from the evening’s debate.

Republican nominee Mike Rogers, right, speaks during a televised debate with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed [Paul Sancya/Pool via AP Photo]

Rogers insinuates El-Sayed family ties to ‘terrorism watch list’

The ferocity of the debate was underscored by the high volume of ad hominem attacks the candidates deployed against each other.

But Rogers repeatedly pushed a series of attacks that seemed to centre on El-Sayed’s identity as a Muslim.

In response to a question about healthcare, Rogers said that El-Sayed has “taken money from individuals on his campaign who openly support Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda”.

Later, when asked about his position on surveillance by Flock cameras, Rogers argued that such technology has helped catch people suspected of terrorism. He then implied that El-Sayed’s concerns about the cameras were suggestive.

“Why would that bother you?” Rogers asked El-Sayed. “Well, if you have somebody in your family that might be on the terrorism watch list …”

El-Sayed interjected, seeming to dare Rogers to continue his thought.

“Are you going to go ahead and say that I’m a – go ahead and say it,” El-Sayed said. “You’ve been tiptoeing about it the whole time. Just say it. Just say it. Go ahead and say it.”

Muslim and Arab candidates in the US have frequently been subjected to Islamophobic attacks on the campaign trail, accusing them of support for “terrorism” and Islamic fundamentalism.

Republican Mike Rogers insinuated El-Sayed may have family on the ‘terrorism watch list’ [Paul Sancya/Pool via AP Photo]

Both sides agree on ending the Iran war

There were issues, however, on which both candidates found a measure of common ground.

Both Rogers and El-Sayed agreed the US-Israeli war against Iran should end, but they had opposite views on Washington’s relationship with Israel and its role in the conflict.

High gasoline prices and inflation, El-Sayed said, were directly caused by the Iran war, and he blamed the Trump administration for Iran’s decision to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical trade route.

“This is what happens when you start wars you never should be fighting,” El-Sayed said. “We literally taught the Iranian regime that they have a choke on the Strait of Hormuz, and now we’re living in that reality.”

Rogers agreed that “we need [the war] to come to an end”, but he also justified the conflict, saying that Iran’s uranium enrichment programme had been “set back twenty years”, echoing a frequent White House talking point.

The Trump administration has argued that the war was necessary to prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon, a goal Tehran has long denied.

Rogers’s position led El-Sayed to accuse him of “cheerleading” for the war and the Trump administration.

Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed pushed for an end to unconditional support for Israel [Paul Sancya/Pool via AP Photo]

Rogers backs continued Israel aid, El-Sayed calls for end

As part of the debate about US foreign policy, the candidates were also pressed on their positions about the US alliance with Israel.

The country is considered the largest overall recipient of US aid since World War II. From the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 through September 2025, experts estimate that Israel received nearly $21.7bn in military aid.

El-Sayed has openly called for ending aid to Israel, and he has repeatedly denounced the conflict in Gaza as a genocide, in line with evaluations from United Nations experts and human rights watchdogs.

During the debate, he indicated he preferred US taxpayer dollars to be spent on domestic concerns like education and healthcare, rather than Israeli aid.

“He wants unconditional support for a foreign government,” El-Sayed said of Rogers. “I want unconditional support for kids in our schools, unconditional support for our healthcare, childcare.”

He also blamed Israel for the US military action in Iran. “I don’t want to be pushed into war by Israel, and I don’t want to be in war with Iran,” El-Sayed said.

Rogers, meanwhile, has joined most of his fellow Republicans in continuing to support aid for Israel. He argued that the country had “the right to defend itself in a very difficult neighbourhood”.

“Is there anything Israel could do that would lose your support?” the debate host asked.

“Listen, if they’re talking about using nuclear weapons, they would definitely lose my support,” Rogers replied.

Abdul El-Sayed, right, and Mike Rogers shake hands prior to their debate [Paul Sancya/Pool via AP Photo]

Rogers calls immigration crackdown ‘not appropriate’

Another hot-button issue during the debate was Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

The Republican leader has pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in US history, and his campaign has spurred human rights concerns.

When asked how they would approach the crackdown, both Rogers and El-Sayed agreed on tempering the militarised nature of the campaign.

In several cities, including Minneapolis, Minnesota, immigration authorities have been accused of racial profiling and using excessive force against immigrants and protesters, as well as violating their rights to due process.

Multiple fatal shootings have occurred during immigration enforcement operations, including the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January.

Rogers indicated he would not have supported such confrontational operations, but he repeated a Trump claim that the raids were taking dangerous criminals off the streets.

“I think the public efforts in Minnesota were probably not appropriate,” Rogers said. “You always want to go in quiet, get the bad guy, get out of the neighbourhood for less problems. So that, to me, was something that they could have done differently.”

He later claimed that, under Trump, the country had seen “the largest decrease in murders ever recorded”.

El-Sayed, meanwhile, has previously voiced support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a key agency in Trump’s deportation campaign. He defended that stance on the debate stage.

“ICE right now is not about immigration enforcement. ICE is about terrorising our streets,” he said.

Mike Rogers speaks to reporters in the spin room after the debate on October 8, 2026 [Jim Vondruska/Reuters]

Candidates debate Canada trade war and tariffs

Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, felt acutely in neighbouring Michigan, was another key topic of conversation.

El-Sayed depicted Rogers as an uncritical backer of Trump and his tariffs and tied him to past free trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which paved the way for companies to shift manufacturing facilities out of the US – though Rogers did not enter Congress until 2001, eight years after NAFTA passed.

“You did that, man. That was your policy. NAFTA, that was your policy,” said El-Sayed.

Rogers sought to distance himself from the current trade war but expressed support for a deal with Canada that would loosen some of Ottawa’s tariffs on US goods.

“I would like to see the deal made,” said Rogers, adding that high Canadian tariffs for US goods “should be eliminated”.

Both candidates tried to strike a balance between criticism of the economic fallout of the trade war and qualifying their support for more selective tariffs, favoured by some industries and labour unions as a means of protecting domestic jobs.

民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德和共和党候选人迈克·罗杰斯之间的竞选被认为是争夺参议院控制权的关键之战。

2026年10月8日，民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（左）在密歇根州大急流城与共和党候选人迈克·罗杰斯进行辩论。[保罗·桑西亚/美联社照片]

距离美国中期选举不到一个月，密歇根州竞争激烈的参议院席位争夺战中，领先的候选人进行了首次电视辩论。

周四长达一小时的辩论，正是这场势均力敌的选战变得如此紧张的一个缩影。

美国法院驳回特朗普维持密歇根州燃煤电厂开放的紧急命令（共3条，此为第1条）。

列表 2（共 3 条）：卡玛拉·哈里斯与阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德携手竞选，旨在团结民主党选民

列表 3（共 3 项）“近乎愤怒”：美国中期选举进入最后一个月的现状

民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（曾任韦恩县卫生局局长）反复试图将他的共和党对手迈克·罗杰斯描绘成一个拥有游艇、脱离普通选民的百万富翁。

罗杰斯曾是美国众议院议员，他指责埃尔-赛义德对“恐怖主义”态度软弱，并同情外国势力。

出生于密歇根州的埃尔-赛义德在竞选期间屡遭仇视伊斯兰教的攻击，共和党总统唐纳德·特朗普称他为“极端分子、恐怖主义同情者”，并指责他“有着可以追溯到圣战时代的过往”。如果当选，埃尔-赛义德将成为美国参议院首位穆斯林议员。

两位候选人在台上大部分时间都在互相打断，唇枪舌剑，针锋相对。

“他无法谴责发生在我们密歇根州领土上的恐怖主义行为。他无法让自己谴责——”罗杰斯说道，他指的是三月份对一座犹太教堂的袭击。

“我确实谴责了它，”埃尔-赛义德插嘴道。“不，你没有，”罗杰斯回答，埃尔-赛义德立刻反驳道，“你胡说八道。你胡说八道。”

密歇根州的参议员选举被认为是争夺美国参议院控制权的关键。民主党人力图拿下国会两院，但鉴于参议院100个席位中只有三分之一将在11月3日的选举中产生，因此改变参议院的控制权前景将更加艰难。

随着紧张局势升级，主持人里克·阿尔宾有时难以控制辩论的进程。

“我们有很多问题想讨论。你们不可能用 14 个不同的反驳论点来逐一解决这些问题，所以请配合我，”阿尔宾一度对两位候选人说道。

以下是当晚辩论的主要结论。

共和党候选人迈克·罗杰斯（右）在与民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的电视辩论中发言。[保罗·桑西亚/美联社照片]

罗杰斯暗示埃尔-赛义德家族与“恐怖主义观察名单”有关

辩论的激烈程度体现在候选人之间大量的人身攻击上。

但罗杰斯反复发起一系列攻击，这些攻击似乎都围绕着埃尔-赛义德的穆斯林身份展开。

针对有关医疗保健的问题，罗杰斯表示，埃尔-赛义德“在其竞选活动中接受了公开支持哈马斯、真主党和基地组织的个人的资金”。

后来，当被问及他对Flock摄像头监控的立场时，罗杰斯辩称，这种技术有助于抓捕恐怖主义嫌疑人。他还暗示，埃尔-赛义德对摄像头的担忧别有用心。

“这为什么会让你担心呢？”罗杰斯问埃尔-赛义德。“嗯，如果你家里有人可能在恐怖分子监视名单上……”

埃尔-赛义德插话道，似乎是在挑衅罗杰斯继续说下去。

“你打算直接说我是个——说吧，”埃尔-赛义德说道。“你一直都在拐弯抹角。说吧，说吧，说吧。”

在美国，穆斯林和阿拉伯裔候选人在竞选过程中经常遭受仇视伊斯兰教的攻击，被指责支持“恐怖主义”和伊斯兰原教旨主义。

共和党人迈克·罗杰斯暗示埃尔-赛义德可能有家人在“恐怖主义观察名单”上。[保罗·桑西亚/美联社照片]

双方同意结束伊朗战争

然而，在某些问题上，两位候选人找到了一定的共同点。

罗杰斯和埃尔-赛义德都认为美国和以色列应该结束对伊朗的战争，但他们对华盛顿与以色列的关系及其在冲突中的作用持有相反的观点。

埃尔-赛义德表示，高油价和通货膨胀是伊朗战争直接造成的，他还指责特朗普政府导致伊朗关闭了霍尔木兹海峡这一重要的贸易通道。

“这就是发动不该打的战争的后果，”埃尔-赛义德说。“我们亲身告诉伊朗政权，他们扼守着霍尔木兹海峡，而现在我们正生活在这样的现实之中。”

罗杰斯同意“我们需要结束这场战争”，但他同时也为这场冲突辩护，称伊朗的铀浓缩计划“倒退了二十年”，这与白宫经常提出的论点相呼应。

特朗普政府辩称，这场战争是阻止伊朗制造核武器的必要之举，而​​德黑兰方面长期以来一直否认这一目标。

罗杰斯的立场导致埃尔-赛义德指责他为战争和特朗普政府“摇旗呐喊”。

民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德力主结束对以色列的无条件支持。[保罗·桑西亚/美联社照片]

罗杰斯支持继续援助以色列，埃尔-赛义德呼吁停止援助。

在有关美国外交政策的辩论中，候选人还被追问他们对美国与以色列结盟的立场。

该国被认为是二战以来美国援助的最大接受国。据专家估计，从2023年10月以色列对加沙发动种族灭绝战争到2025年9月，以色列获得了近217亿美元的军事援助。

埃尔-赛义德公开呼吁停止对以色列的援助，并多次谴责加沙冲突是种族灭绝，这与联合国专家和人权观察组织的评估一致。

在辩论中，他表示他更希望美国纳税人的钱用于教育和医疗保健等国内事务，而不是用于援助以色列。

“他想要无条件支持一个外国政府，”埃尔-赛义德谈到罗杰斯时说。“我想要无条件支持我们学校的孩子们，无条件支持我们的医疗保健和儿童保育。”

他还指责以色列应对美国在伊朗的军事行动负责。“我不想被以色列推入战争，我也不想与伊朗开战，”埃尔-赛义德说。

与此同时，罗杰斯与大多数共和党同僚一道，继续支持对以色列的援助。他认为，以色列“有权在局势非常复杂的周边地区进行自卫”。

“以色列做了什么事会让你失去支持？”辩论主持人问道。

“听着，如果他们谈论的是使用核武器，那他们肯定会失去我的支持，”罗杰斯回答说。

阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（右）和迈克·罗杰斯在辩论前握手 [保罗·桑西亚/美联社照片]

罗杰斯称打击移民“不合适”

辩论中另一个备受关注的热点问题是特朗普对移民的打压。

这位共和党领袖承诺将开展美国历史上最大规模的大规模驱逐行动，他的行动引发了人们对人权的担忧。

当被问及他们将如何进行镇压时，罗杰斯和埃尔-赛义德都同意缓和这场运动的军事化性质。

在包括明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯在内的几个城市，移民当局被指控存在种族歧视和对移民及抗议者过度使用武力的行为，以及侵犯了他们获得正当程序的权利。

在移民执法行动中发生了多起致命枪击事件，其中包括1月份Renee Good和Alex Pretti的死亡。

罗杰斯表示他不会支持这种对抗性行动，但他重复了特朗普的说法，即这些突袭行动将危险的罪犯从街头清除出去。

罗杰斯说：“我认为明尼苏达州的公共行动可能不太合适。你总是希望悄悄行动，抓住坏人，然后离开社区，这样就能减少麻烦。所以在我看来，他们本可以采取不同的做法。”

他后来声称，在特朗普执政期间，美国出现了“有史以来最大的谋杀案降幅”。

与此同时，埃尔-赛义德此前曾公开支持废除移民和海关执法局（ICE），该机构是特朗普驱逐移民行动中的关键部门。他还在辩论台上为自己的立场辩护。

他说：“现在美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）的目的不是为了执法，而是为了恐吓我们的街道。”

2026年10月8日辩论结束后，迈克·罗杰斯在新闻发布室接受记者采访。[吉姆·冯德鲁斯卡/路透社]

候选人就加拿大贸易战和关税问题展开辩论

唐纳德·特朗普与加拿大之间的贸易战，对邻近的密歇根州影响尤为强烈，这也是另一个重要的讨论话题。

埃尔-赛义德将罗杰斯描绘成特朗普及其关税政策的不加批判的支持者，并将他与过去的自由贸易协定（如北美自由贸易协定 (NAFTA)）联系起来，该协定为企业将制造设施迁出美国铺平了道路——尽管罗杰斯直到 2001 年才进入国会，而北美自由贸易协定是在八年后通过的。

“那是你做的，伙计。那是你的政策。北美自由贸易协定，那就是你的政策，”埃尔-赛义德说道。

罗杰斯试图与当前的贸易战保持距离，但他表示支持与加拿大达成协议，以放松渥太华对美国商品征收的部分关税。

罗杰斯说：“我希望看到这项协议达成。”他还补充说，加拿大对美国商品征收的高额关税“应该取消”。

两位候选人都试图在批评贸易战带来的经济后果和支持更有选择性的关税之间取得平衡，一些行业和工会认为有选择性的关税是保护国内就业的一种手段。