El-Sayed, Rogers Invoke Israel, Muslim Brotherhood as Proxies in Final Michigan Senate Race Debate

A final critical debate Wednesday night between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers hit on several substantive policy issues — in between raw accusations of fealty to foreign entities.In what has been one of the ugliest campaigns of the midterm election season, Michigan’s U.S. Senate candidates exchanged accusations of allegiance to Israel and the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood, two entities who themselves have been hostile toward one another for decades.Though the debate hit on several issues facing Americans’ health and pocketbooks, it veered into several testy exchanges, in particular when moderators raised the issue of the war in Iran. During the responses, Mr. Rogers accused Dr. El-Sayed of being unable to declare the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist regime. Dr. El-Sayed then called Mr. Rogers “an AIPAC-backed politician” who “has got a war for everything.” He then cited a reported $9 million impending donation to a Super PAC supporting Mr. Rogers’s campaign from the pro-Israel lobbying group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee.Mr. Rogers clapped back with a rhetorical query about whether Dr. El-Sayed was being supported by members of the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood. “So being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas who support Hezbollah, is not a problem?” Mr. Rogers responded. “That is a risk to our national security.”Allegations of Dr. El-Sayed’s sympathy for, if not ties with, the terror group have been gaining steam since the unearthing of a 2012 Twitter post written by Dr. El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, currently a University of Chicago professor. In one, Ms. Abdelhadi recalled their mother, Fatten Elkomy, reminiscing about her “activism in the Muslim Brotherhood” during her time in college in the 1970s. In another, she reportedly wrote, “My family has long been MB.”Dr. El-Sayed’s parents are both from Egypt, but he was born in suburban Detroit in 1984 and raised primarily by his father, Mohamed El‑Sayed, and his father’s second wife, Jacqueline Johnson, a Michigan native. Ms. Elkomy is currently a nurse in Missouri.The linkage to the Muslim Brotherhood was further amplified in Wednesday’s exchange when Mr. Rogers referenced an open letter Dr. El-Sayed had signed in 2012 while the Democrat was in medical school. The letter, addressed to the then-Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, asked the new administration to “purge the media and police” of those who supported the autocratic Mubarak regime, which had recently been toppled during the Arab Spring. Morsi was elected president as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and was deposed by a military coup a little over one year into his tenure. He later died in prison.“I know you want to make this about you being a victim. This is about an ideology,” Mr. Rogers said, noting that the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned as a political entity in several majority-Muslim countries, is “very concerning to law enforcement in the United States because they use it for funding overseas operations.”“That’s the difference,” Mr. Rogers said. Dr. El-Sayed said little about how he would approach the organization’s status and activities should he be forced to deal with it as a U.S. senator, but he denied any links to the group. “He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I’ve never been a part of — because [of] my mom who’s a nurse in Missouri?” Dr. El-Sayed said. “It doesn’t make any sense and it’s actually really quite beneath you, Mike. To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you.” The repeated references to alleged ties is part of an attack strategy that has seen Dr. El-Sayed’s lead narrow in the polls against Mr. Rogers. The Democratic candidate is also underperforming compared to other state Democrats, including his party’s nominee for governor, secretary of state Jocelyn Benson. Polling averages currently show Dr. El-Sayed with a lead of about three points over Mr. Rogers, though a survey from Marist released on Wednesday showed Dr. El-Sayed leading by a mere two points. In the same poll, Ms. Benson led her Republican opponent by six points. Mr. Rogers has been seeking to build support from typically Democratic voters from Jewish and black communities despite overall discontent in the state with President Trump, an ally who narrowly carried Michigan in 2024, but whose net disapproval ratings are weighing on GOP candidates nationally. In another debate, Mr. Rogers said would accept help from AIPAC or any other legitimate group that wants to defeat Dr. El-Sayed.

El-Sayed, Rogers Invoke Israel, Muslim Brotherhood as Proxies in Final Michigan Senate Race Debate

El-Sayed, Rogers Invoke Israel, Muslim Brotherhood as Proxies in Final Michigan Senate Race Debate

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