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<\/a><\/p>\nDemocratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks with reporters at an event in Port Huron, Michigan, on October 6, 2026. (Jeff Kowalsky, AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a ridiculous hypothetical because here\u2019s what\u2019s happening right now: Our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran,\u201d said El-Sayed, Michigan\u2019s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t consider an ally a country that takes us to wars we don\u2019t need to fight, and I don\u2019t want to be fighting wars we don\u2019t need to fight,\u201d he added, describing both as \u201ckind of dangerous.\u201d Another attempt yielded a similar response, with El-Sayed denouncing \u201cone at risk of attacking us, one getting us into wars we have no business fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
El-Sayed, a former county health official, was responding to a question repeatedly posed by WOOD TV8 political reporter Rick Albin, in a debate against his Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers. The two candidates hurled insults at each other during the hourlong discussion, often returning to issues related to Israel and the Middle East. <\/p>\n
After making criticism of Israel a top issue in his primary campaign, El-Sayed eked out a victory against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in that early August race. Although he has earned the support of many democratic socialists, including Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, El-Sayed has stated that he is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. <\/p>\n
Rogers, on the other hand, has the official endorsement of President Donald Trump. However, the candidate has been distancing himself from the president, including by criticizing the trade war with Canada. <\/p>\n
Results of a CBS News poll published earlier this week showed El-Sayed leading Rogers, by 45.6% to 41.4%, with a 3.8% margin of error. A Quantus Insights poll released on Wednesday, meanwhile, gave El-Sayed a slightly narrower lead, with 47.6% to Rogers\u2019s 46.5%, and a 7.8% margin of error. <\/p>\n
While El-Sayed has been meeting with Jewish voters and leaders, he has not budged on certain issues of concern to many Jewish voters. For example, he has indicated only a willingness to recognize Israel\u2019s identity as a Jewish nation-state if Israelis and Palestinians jointly agree to it.. <\/p>\n
Liberal Michigan rabbis last month signed a petition from the Zioness Action Fund, a progressive Zionist group, calling upon the Democratic Party to agree to \u201cnonnegotiable\u201d principles related to Jewish safety and Israel. A separate cohort of Michigan Jewish leaders urged community members to reject El-Sayed entirely. <\/p>\n
Rogers and his representatives in August indicated that they would like AIPAC to refrain from spending directly on him in the general election, according to media reports. Asked about this at the Thursday debate, he said he\u2019d welcome \u201canybody that wants to help my campaign stop a guy who can\u2019t condemn terrorism in our own country.\u201d<\/p>\n
El-Sayed condemned the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, but added that \u201churt people hurt people,\u201d which critics interpreted as justifying the attacker\u2019s actions. He later apologized for those remarks.<\/p>\n
Rogers has repeatedly slammed his opponent for taking funds from donors affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Unity & Justice Fund super PAC and other groups and individuals. <\/p>\n
El-Sayed, on the other hand, accused Rogers on Thursday of accepting corporate PAC money and labeled him the \u201cguy who\u2019s going to rubber stamp everything Donald Trump tells him to rubber stamp.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two candidates criticized each other\u2019s policies and interrupted each other so often that Albin, the moderator, needed to step in. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got dozens of questions we want to get to,\u201d Albin said. \u201cYou can\u2019t litigate all of these with 14 different rebuttals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even prior to a pause for ads, Albin announced that the station is going \u201cto take a break from this pleasant conversation.\u201d When they returned, he declared that \u201cin 30 years of doing debates, I\u2019ve never seen it continue during the commercial, but it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The candidates continued to clash over Iran, with El-Sayed accusing the U.S. government of teaching \u201cthe Iranian regime that they had a choke [hold] on the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of policy you\u2019re going to get from a guy who wants to be a sock puppet for the Trump administration,\u201d El-Sayed added. <\/p>\n
Rogers, meanwhile, claimed that the U.S. had set back Iran\u2019s nuclear program by at least 20 years, adding that \u201cthis would be the time to wrap it up.\u201d <\/p>\n
As for Israel, Rogers said he supports \u201cthe right to exist for the Jewish state, and the right to defend itself in a very difficult neighborhood.\u201d The only way Israel could lose his support, Rogers stated, would be if the country talked about using nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n
Israel is widely assessed to possess an arsenal of approximately 90 nuclear warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The country is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has never acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
Albin then turned to El-Sayed, noting the politician\u2019s opposition to direct U.S. military funding for Israel. He asked, however, whether that position could change \u201cif Israel were attacked tomorrow by Iran or another state actor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want our tax dollars spent here,\u201d El-Sayed responded. \u201cIsrael has pushed us to go to war in Iran, and of course, my colleague, who thinks there\u2019s a war for everything, went right along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Albin pushed again for a yes or no answer, El-Sayed replied that he doesn\u2019t want the U.S. \u201cbuying weapons for other countries.\u201d <\/p>\n
Toward the end of the discussion related to the Middle East, Rogers recognized the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. He blasted his opponent for failing \u201cto even acknowledge the pain, the terrorism, the rape, the murders.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this accusation, El-Sayed responded, \u201cI\u2019ve condemned that. I didn\u2019t turn it into theater like you did.\u201d<\/p>\n