PODCAST:
August 10, 2026 ~ Chris Renwick and Lloyd Jackson speak with Detroit News, Assistant Editorial Page Editor, Kaitlyn Buss, about the Republican attacks on Abdul El-Sayed. Could they backfire on them?
MICHIGAN ~ Republicans have launched intense attacks against progressive Abdul El-Sayed since he won the Democratic primary for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat last week, calling him a “communist” and “extremist.” But will their attacks work?
El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in the general election later in November, with the former narrowly winning a combative primary race against moderate U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. Detroit News Assistant Editorial Page Editor Kaitlyn Buss argued that focusing on his religious identity and calling him a “communist” might rile up Rogers’ base, but ultimately might not deter general election voters from El-Sayed and his ideas.
She added that even if Rogers defeats El-Sayed in the general election, Republicans run the risk of “continuing his movement” beyond November on the national stage if they keep up the current messaging.
“Conjecturing about what his true motives are, I think that’s what might backfire,” Buss told WJR. “So in that, you have not taken on what his real ideas are, the real message that he’s pushing out there, which is these huge government ideas that are wildly popular with some Americans.“
Some key proposals in El-Sayed’s platform show solid support among U.S. voters, though others are more divisive. For instance, his proposal for Medicare for All garnered a 65% approval rating across all political affiliations in a Data for Progress survey from December. While his positions on Israel have given some voters concerns, his push for an arms embargo on Israel appears to have support in polls as well, with Quinnipiac finding that 60% of voters oppose the U.S. sending more military aid to Israel. However, his support for abolishing ICE, a common source for GOP attacks, split U.S. voters more in a Navigator Research poll from February, with 47% approving and 45% disapproving.
Rogers and his supporters have also faced some allegations of Islamophobia with their attacks against El-Sayed, who is Muslim and of Egyptian heritage. In his first public statement following El-Sayed’s win, Rogers invoked Osama bin Laden and 9/11 in an apparent reference to controversial comments made by left-wing Twitch streamer and vocal ally to El-Sayed’s campaign, Hasan Piker. Rogers, along with an ad paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, falsely claimed he supported the Muslim Brotherhood, pointing to a 2011 op-ed he wrote in Huffington Post where he spoke in favor of protestors in what was known as the Arab Spring. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed there was “green-red convergence” between “communists and the Islamists” during a conversation on Fox News about El-Sayed.
The Democratic nominee also called out Republicans who have used his full name of Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed in ads and attacks. “That’s the only play they got. They’re gonna point at me, they’re going to point at my name, like, ‘Wow, he’s different,’” El-Sayed said in his primary victory speech last week.
When asked whether these comparisons were legitimate points to make during a campaign, Buss said that in politics, she has seen fear work “in a number of ways,” though she does not believe this will be a viable long-term strategy. She instead suggested that the GOP’s message should focus on how his policies could impact voters’ wallets, such as how much they could pay in taxes as a result of his policies, and then contrast how Rogers’ platform could save them money.
The most recent polling average from RealClearPolitics shows El-Sayed and Rogers are statistically tied, with Rogers only up by 0.3%. Michigan’s U.S. Senate race is perhaps the most watched race in this year’s midterm election, with the swing state likely to decide the balance of power in the narrowly divided Senate.
