Michigan Senate Debate: Abdul El-Sayed vs. Mike Rogers Get Personal

Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers held their first face-to-face Michigan Senate debate Oct. 8, 2026, at WOOD TV8's Grand Rapids studio. The hourlong debate moderated by Rick Albin followed Rogers declining a prior FOX 2 Detroit debate over impartiality. El-Sayed holds a Columbia medical degree and won a primary against Haley Stevens; Rogers won the GOP nomination after a Trump endorsement for the seat left open by Sen. Gary Peters. Rogers accused El-Sayed of lying about being a physician and Egyptian citizenship, saying "That's a con man." El-Sayed said Rogers wanted to make it about them rather than gas and grocery costs under a Trump rubber stamp and accused Rogers of post-Congress corporate enrichment. El-Sayed said he does not want tax dollars buying weapons for other countries and repeatedly declined to say whether Israel or Iran is the bigger U.S. threat, calling both dangerous in their own way. He supported pausing the federal gas tax and blamed the Iran war Rogers cheer-led. Rogers said "It is a disaster. We cannot afford Abdul." Albin stopped multi-rebuttal cross-talk and noted the pair argued through a commercial break, unseen in his 30 years moderating. Clashes also covered Rogers' Florida waterfront home, UAE property owned by El-Sayed's wife, and tariffs costing Michigan households an estimated $5,600 a year.