In Michigan, a Medicare-for-All Democrat and an Ex-FBI Republican Fight for Senate Control
Abdul El-Sayed wants to remake the Democratic Party and Mike Rogers says he just wants to fix Michigan, as polls open Tuesday in the race that could decide the chamber.
Control of the U.S. Senate could come down to Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers made their final pitches ahead of Tuesday's vote in one of the closest and most contentious races in the country. The contest tests two things at once: whether a Republican can win amid inflation, war and President Donald Trump's negative approval ratings, and whether ideas that excite progressives are what voters in the middle of the country want right now, CBS News reported.
El-Sayed, 42, is the son of Egyptian immigrants, a Rhodes Scholar and Columbia-trained physician who moved into public health and then politics. He won the Democratic primary over a more centrist rival by less than a percentage point. He is running on busting monopolies, a version of Medicare for All that leaves private insurance in place, and an arms embargo on Israel, with a sweeping tax on billionaire wealth to help pay for health care. He is often linked to the Democratic Socialists of America but is not a member. "I'm a capitalist who understands the idea that you should have guaranteed healthcare in the country," he told CBS.
On the trail, he says health care is no longer voters' top worry. It is artificial intelligence, he says, whether students holding $60,000 in loans for jobs that may vanish or rural residents fighting data centers over utility bills and water. He wants a Cabinet-level AI regulator and a "full-on pause" on frontier AI research.
Rogers, 63, is a former Army officer, FBI agent and 14-year congressman who left the House in 2015. His pitch is local. "This is a change election in Michigan," he said, noting the state has not elected a Republican senator in decades. "I don't really care what's happening around the country. I need to fix Michigan." He has focused on child literacy and has courted Black neighborhoods that rarely see Republican outreach, arguing El-Sayed takes them for granted. He has also attacked El-Sayed for campaigning with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying of their talk of 2028, "I want to take care of Flint."
El-Sayed's main attack is that a vote for Rogers is a vote for Trump. Trump's tariffs on Canada have cost Michigan an estimated $23 billion since January 2025, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Rogers says he opposes the tariffs, has raised them with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who told him "I'll get back to ya," and would back efforts to override the president. He supported the Iran war but said in September it should wind down. Asked about corruption in the administration, he said he would not have accepted a plane from a Middle Eastern nation as Trump did, though he does not think it was illegal.
The relationship with Trump is delicate for both. The president needs Rogers to flip the seat, and Rogers needs Trump to turn out the Republican base. They campaigned together in Port Huron last week, where Trump aimed his fire at El-Sayed. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, endorsed Rogers two days before the vote, adding another twist to a race that now decides far more than Michigan's own representation.
