Rogers Targets Black and Jewish Voters as Michigan Race Tightens
WHO:
CNN - Michigan Black Business Alliance president and Detroit coffee shop owner Charity Dean said El-Sayed had listened to supportive and skeptical voters and responded to criticism and questions.
CNN - Detroit carpenter Quentin Murray said he was beginning to learn about El-Sayed and liked his message, describing it as “something new, something different.”
CNN - Rogers’s wife, Kristi, joined his ABC News interview and said that when he “says he’s going to do something, he does it.”
ABC News - Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers said he is reaching out to Black and Jewish voters who traditionally support Democrats.
ABC News - Rogers’s Democratic opponent is Abdul El-Sayed, a doctor and former public health official. El-Sayed has denied ties to terrorism and called such accusations Islamophobic.
CNN - Rev. Charles Williams II, pastor of Detroit’s Historic King Solomon Baptist Church, warned that even a small drop in Black voter turnout could threaten El-Sayed’s chances.
CNN - Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens by 1 percentage point in the August primary, with support from Arab American and Muslim communities, young voters, and progressives in college towns.
CNN - Black voters around Detroit largely supported Stevens in the primary; Jewish voters have expressed concerns about El-Sayed, a Muslim and critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
CNN - Black Republican Naura Evans, a teacher and mother of two from Sterling Heights, appears in an ad saying, “I voted for Barack Obama, but this year, I’m voting for Mike Rogers.”
CNN - Rogers served seven terms in the U.S. House, including as House Intelligence Committee chair; he has been out of Congress for 10 years and worked in cybersecurity, according to ABC News.
WHAT:
ABC News - A Fox News poll found El-Sayed at 50% and Rogers at 49% among likely voters, within the poll’s margin of error.
ABC News - Rogers said he opposed the Iran war, in addition to opposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
ABC News - Asked whether El-Sayed was a terrorist, Rogers did not answer directly, saying, “It’s not about how you pray, it is not about any of that. It is about how you think, it’s about what your ideology is.”
CNN - An anonymous prominent Black leader said, “In a close race, even a sliver of doubt about Abdul could lead to defeat.”
CNN - At El-Sayed’s Flint rally, only about a dozen of the few hundred attendees were Black.
CNN - CNN reported that President Trump has repeatedly belittled El-Sayed’s name, calling him “Mohammed Abdul El-Sayed.”
ABC News - Rogers said he saw “an opportunity” with “Jewish Democrat voters, African Americans in Detroit and Pontiac and Brooklyn,” and said he believed outreach to traditional Democratic coalitions would help him win. ABC News said there was no polling establishing gains in those groups.
CNN - Rogers said he had built “very untraditional” coalitions and proposed incentivizing Detroit home construction, linking it to high-school apprenticeships, and eliminating food deserts.
CNN - El-Sayed said Rogers was “simply a rubber stamp” for President Trump. Evans rejected that criticism, saying Rogers would make his own decisions.
ABC News - Rogers said he was “really worried” about prices and inflation and opposed new Canadian tariffs, citing the integrated auto industry. He said a Jeep Cherokee crosses the U.S.-Canada bridge “about a dozen times” during production.
ABC News - A National Taxpayers Union Foundation study estimated Michigan households faced an average additional tariff cost of $5,600 since January 2025, the highest of any state.
ABC News - Rogers defended proposing retired or off-duty police officers as Detroit poll watchers, saying, “I want it easy to vote, hard to cheat.”
ABC News - Rogers previously questioned the result of his 2024 loss to Sen. Elissa Slotkin; ABC News reported no evidence of wrongdoing or fraud.
CNN - Rogers has tried to link El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic terrorism. El-Sayed has denounced the Muslim Brotherhood.
WHERE:
CNN - The contest is for Michigan’s open Senate seat; Rogers’s outreach has included Detroit, Flint, and Pontiac. His campaign opened an office on Livernois Avenue in Detroit.
CNN - El-Sayed held a campaign rally in Flint and campaigned in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
WHY:
CNN - Black leaders cited historic tensions between Arab American and Black communities as a source of concern about support for El-Sayed.
CNN - Michigan is important to Democrats’ effort to gain four Senate seats; losing retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’s seat would make their path to a majority more difficult.
ABC News - Rogers cited the cross-border auto industry and economic pressures as reasons to oppose Canadian tariffs.
HOW:
CNN - Former President Barack Obama was scheduled to campaign in Detroit with El-Sayed and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson; former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Ayanna Pressley had also campaigned with El-Sayed.
ABC News - Rogers said he could influence President Trump by meeting with him about policies that work for Michigan.
CNN - Evans said she canvassed in Warren, Troy, and Sterling Heights to persuade voters to support Rogers.
(UPDATED October 21, 2026 11:00 UTC)
A Fox News poll put El-Sayed at 50% and Rogers at 49% among likely voters, within the margin of error, as Rogers said he opposed both the Iran war and tariffs on Canadian goods. Asked whether El-Sayed was a terrorist, Rogers did not answer directly, instead saying the issue was his ideology; his wife, Kristi, praised him as someone who follows through on what he promises. Black leaders cited historic tensions between Arab American and Black communities as a concern for El-Sayed’s support, while Michigan Black Business Alliance president Charity Dean said he had engaged with voters’ questions and criticism, and Detroit carpenter Quentin Murray said he liked his message.
--
(UPDATED October 21, 2026 00:27 UTC)
Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is courting Black and Jewish voters in Michigan, saying he sees an opportunity to build an unusual coalition as he runs against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for the state’s open Senate seat. El-Sayed, who won the August primary by 1 percentage point, has rejected Rogers’s attempts to link him to terrorism, calling such accusations Islamophobic, while a Detroit pastor warned that even a small decline in Black turnout could hurt his chances. Rogers has also proposed Detroit housing and job-training initiatives, opposed new Canadian tariffs over their impact on the auto industry, and defended plans for retired or off-duty police officers to serve as poll watchers; El-Sayed has called him a rubber stamp for President Trump.