Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers faced off for their second Michigan Senate debate on Wednesday evening.
Rogers said that voters should choose him because Michigan is suffering. The state’s education ranks 45th nationwide and 46th in economics, while residents pay the highest auto insurance rates nationwide.
Rogers warned that electing El-Sayed would bring a bigger government and more taxes.
“What you’re going to hear tonight is a very different view of how we fix these problems, how we get Michigan back up and running again,” Rogers said.
If elected to the Senate, Rogers said that he plans to lower costs for Michiganders by exploring American energy, making permanent the tax cuts on overtime and tips and Social Security.
El-Sayed said that he would push to end the Iran War.
Rogers slammed El-Sayed for showing what he called a “pattern of deception” by lying about being a physician, lying about being an Egyptian dual citizen, and lying about not taking corporate money.
🚨 BREAKING: Mike Rogers is DECIMATING Abdul El Sayed in front of Michigan voters in a pure masterclass "He lied about being an Egyptian dual citizen." "Did you lie about his relationships with an organization that should give us all pause [Muslim Brotherhood]? Yep, he did." "Did you lie on your resume? Yep, did. You lied about being a physician." "He lied about some of his stances on these positions as he's flipped again." "This is a pattern that we need to understand!" Rogers is going RAPID FIRE mode and everyone sees Abdul's lies! 🔥 This is the same case his new ad makes about Mohammed's family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and now he's saying it straight to voters' faces Michigan's Senate seat could decide who controls the Senate VOTE RED, MICHIGAN.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 21, 2026
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El-Sayed claimed that Rogers was bought by companies and, if elected, would accrue more debt and fight more wars.
Rogers claimed that El-Sayed was bought out by the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
🚨 JUST IN: MI Senate candidate Mike Rogers is MIC DROPPING Abdul El Sayed 🫳🏻🎤 "So — being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah, is not a problem?" 🤯 "If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America? Or are you for these TERRORIST groups overseas?" "You can grin and you can smile, and you can talk real pretty, but I'm going to tell you what, that is a RISK to our NATIONAL SECURITY." 💯 Boom. Pair that with Abdul's relentless socialism and that's ALL the more reason to vote red in Michigan Rogers is putting the question point blank: whose side are you on? PALESTINE and GAZA, IRAN and HAMAS, or America? Abdul is clearly not happy all of this got out. The Senate comes with intelligence briefings and votes on national security. HE WOULD BE A VOTE FOR ISLAMISTS
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 21, 2026
Watch live: Final U.S. Senate debate between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers https://t.co/OIrreFsOWA
— WXYZ Detroit (@wxyzdetroit) October 21, 2026
El-Sayed said that America should have secure borders, but he wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When El-Sayed ran for Michigan governor in 2018, he said that he wanted open borders.
Abdul El-Sayed in 2018: “We as a country, I believe, owe it to the world to open our doors.” https://t.co/XT6FK1eazm
— Kyle Martinsen (@KyleMartinsen_) October 21, 2026
EL-SAYED: “I believe that we don’t need ICE. In fact, we can go back to INS [pre-9/11] back when we were a lot more safe and secure…and then we need to make sure we have a clear pathway to citizenship.” https://t.co/KHdrTxZJMu
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 21, 2026
El-Sayed said that he wants to expand Medicare for everyone, while Rogers said that he wants to reform the healthcare system.
.@MikeRogersForMI on Abdul El-Sayed: "He wants to open the border. He wants to decriminalize people who cross the border... He wants to defund the police... He's so married to that Democrat socialist agenda that he can't get out in front of it now." https://t.co/ftQLPR5Y4h
— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) October 21, 2026
Medicare for All isn’t free. It’s higher taxes, longer waits, and the end of the plans UAW families already have. That’s his first bill.
— AFP-Michigan (@AFPMichigan) October 21, 2026
Rogers said that Medicare for All would cost everyone more in taxes and would mean losing private health insurance.
"These aren't real solutions. These are solutions that are going to make your life more miserable, and it's going to take away your choice," Rogers said.
Social Security’s retirement trust fund is expected to be depleted in 2032.
Rogers said that Social Security must get rid of about $500 billion worth of fraud in the program.
El-Sayed said that he would raise taxes to run Social Security and stop taxing Social Security.
.@MikeRogersForMI wants to lower taxes and make no tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security PERMANENT. Abdul El-Sayed wants to raise taxes to pay for socialist healthcare. "My opponent unfortunately has this massive tax increase he wants to put on every Michigan family." https://t.co/5aHN8llOuz
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) October 21, 2026
The moderators asked how the politicians would improve public safety.
El-Sayed said that he would fund the police, which is another policy change from his 2020 views when he called for defunding the police.
No matter how many tweets Abdul deletes, we all know the truth: Abdul has completely turned his back on our law enforcement. https://t.co/1PythYOJAg
— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 21, 2026
Abdul El Sayed tries to distance himself from his former position of defunding the police. Mike Rogers says not so fast. "We all want to get home safe at night. That's true if you're a member of the community. It's true if you're law enforcement. I believe that we need to fund the police when it comes to retirement, retention, recruitment." Rogers accuses El-Sayed of lying and deleting his social media record: "I mean, this guy has got new, new false information about every 30 seconds." "I will tell you this: He did call for defunding the police, and how we found it is he deleted all of this material. Why would you do that? Why would you go through and take all of that time to delete all of the material? X videos, comments, podcasts. Why? Because he was passionate about defunding the police. As a matter of fact, he asked the [President of] Egypt to defund the police there too. I mean, it's unbelievable."
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) October 21, 2026
When asked what the most important federal policy could improve Michigan’s auto industry, El-Sayed said that he wants to ban stock buybacks and invest in a $25,000 electric vehicle with a 300-mile range.
Rogers said that the federal government must ban the ability for the Chinese to build cars in the U.S.
“Remember, China doesn’t come here to make profits; they come here to steal market share,” Rogers said.
Another question asked to the candidates was how to improve the literacy of Michigan kids. Michigan ranks 44th in the nation in fourth-grade reading, with 25 percent of our fourth graders scoring at or above proficiency on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Rogers backed supporting literacy nonprofits that help kids read in four to 16 weeks. He also supported helping kids learn skilled trades and putting shop class back in school.
El-Sayed said that he would fund Michigan's schools more.
When asked if voters should show identification before voting, El-Sayed claimed that it was a form of voter suppression.
Rogers supports showing identification to vote. He said that it builds confidence in elections.
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