Michigan’s 2026 Senate election is about far more than which party wins an open seat.
Abdul El-Sayed could become America’s first Muslim senator
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is a Michigan-born, trained doctor, epidemiologist and former Detroit health director. If elected, he would be the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. He faces Republican former congressman Mike Rogers for the seat left open by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters.
The race could shape control of the Senate. Republicans hold a 53 to 47 majority, and Democrats need to gain four seats to take control. A political scientist told FOX 2 Detroit that Michigan is “one of the better pickup opportunities that Republicans have.”
Late polling leaned toward El-Sayed. A New York Times/Siena poll, as reported by FOX 2, had him ahead 53 to 42. A Glengariff poll for the Detroit News put him at 51.4 to Rogers’ 45.1. FOX 2 notes that most polls are within the margin of error, and some show a tie.
Trump’s Muslim Brotherhood claims, and what fact-checkers found
At a rally in Port Huron on 25 October, President Donald Trump said he was there “to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator”, CBS News reported. He also said El-Sayed “would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate”, according to NBC News. Earlier in October, Trump called him “a Muslim Brotherhood guy, 100 per cent” and said, “I call him Mohammed.”
Bridge Michigan found no evidence that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or pledged support to it. Rogers claimed El-Sayed believed America deserved the 9/11 attacks. FactCheck.org rated that claim false, tracing the remark to commentator Hasan Piker, not El-Sayed.
El-Sayed’s response to Trump: “he can just go on and call me Senator after November.” Former President Barack Obama, campaigning for him, said: “This stuff didn’t work on me, not in Michigan,” The National reported.
AIPAC spending and Haley Stevens’ endorsement of Mike Rogers
The race is the most expensive in Michigan’s history. The Detroit News, as cited by The American Prospect, put total spending at about $243 million.
In the Democratic primary, AIPAC and allied groups spent upwards of $30 million, mostly backing Representative Haley Stevens, by most estimates. El-Sayed won the 4 August primary by about one point, 48.5 to 47.5 per cent.
On 1 November, Stevens endorsed Rogers, the Republican running against the Democrat who beat her. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it a “despicable betrayal”, and her chief of staff, Justin German, resigned.
In the general election, AIPAC’s United Democracy Project sent up to $9 million to a pro-Rogers fund, Newsweek reported, citing the New York Times. Asked about AIPAC’s support, Rogers said: “I’ll take all of that help.”
Rogers campaign staff registered as foreign agents for Israel
Drop Site News reported that Abigail Ronson, a spokesperson for the Rogers campaign, and communications staffer Jesse Stokes are registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for work for the Israeli government. Ronson registered in May 2026 and Stokes in October 2025, through Clocktower X LLC and Havas Media Network, for an Israeli government campaign to combat antisemitism in the US, Middle East Monitor reported.
According to the report, Ronson is one of 14 Convergence Media staff working on a $46.5 million Israeli government project, and the Rogers campaign has paid Convergence Media millions of dollars. The $46.5 million is the value of the Israeli project, not money paid to the campaign. The campaign had earlier denied that Ronson was a staff member, and neither Ronson nor Stokes responded to Drop Site.
What FARA registration does and doesn’t mean
Registering under FARA is a legal disclosure requirement for people doing political or public-relations work for a foreign government. It does not, by itself, show espionage, illegal election interference or wrongdoing, and the records do not show that Israel directed the Rogers campaign. What they do raise is a question of transparency: whether voters were told that people speaking for a Senate campaign were also paid to work for a foreign government.
What happens next in Michigan
Michigan voters are deciding whether to send the country’s first Muslim senator to Washington. Whatever the result, the race has exposed a sharp contrast. One candidate’s faith was turned into an accusation without evidence. His opponent’s campaign had foreign-agent registrations on public record that drew far less scrutiny.
Sources
- Drop Site News, foreign-agent investigation: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/mike-rogers-campaign-spokesperson
- Middle East Monitor, foreign-agent registrations: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20261102-2-working-on-us-senate-candidates-campaign-registered-as-foreign-agents-for-israel-report/
- The National, first Muslim senator and Trump’s claims: https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/10/15/trump-accuses-michigan-senate-candidate-abdul-el-sayed-of-muslim-brotherhood-ties/
- The National, El-Sayed and Obama quotes: https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/10/28/abdul-el-sayed-name-election-michigan/
- FOX 2 Detroit, Senate stakes and polling: https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/michigans-2026-senate-race-what-know-about-abdul-el-sayed-vs-mike-rogers
- ClickOnDetroit, Glengariff poll: https://clickondetroit.com/news/local/2026/10/27/democratic-candidate-el-sayed-leads-michigan-us-senate-race-new-poll-finds
- CBS News, Trump’s Port Huron rally: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-port-huron-rally-republicans/
- NBC News, Trump’s metal detector remark: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/trump-islamophobic-rhetoric-michigan-rally/
- Bridge Michigan, Muslim Brotherhood fact check: https://bridgemi.com/?p=80164
- org, Rogers’ false 9/11 claim: https://www.factcheck.org/2026/08/rogers-makes-false-9-11-claim-about-el-sayed/
- The American Prospect, campaign spending: https://prospect.org/2026/10/12/aipac-tiny-expenditure-michigan-senate-race-el-sayed-rogers/
- Newsweek, UDP spending for Rogers: https://www.newsweek.com/aipac-dumps-last-minute-9m-behind-mike-rogers-in-rebuke-of-abdul-el-sayed-12607752
- Axios Detroit, primary result: https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2026/08/05/michigan-senate-primary-el-sayed-wins-against-stevens
- Al Jazeera, Stevens endorses Rogers: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/1/why-did-democrat-haley-stevens-just-endorse-a-republican-for-us-senate
- Al Jazeera, Democratic backlash: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/2/us-midterms-1-day-to-go-democrats-rally-around-el-sayed-amid-attacks
