GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are debating for the first time Thursday as they compete for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, a race that has become one of the nation's most closely watched and contentious.
For Rogers, a former congressman who was unchallenged in the Aug. 4 primary, the evening debate in Grand Rapids will be his first since facing off two years ago against then-U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin in a Senate race that the Democrat won by just under 20,000 votes.
El-Sayed, a progressive and former public health official, participated in multiple primary debates against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens before capturing the nomination by less than a percentage point and advancing to the Nov. 3 general election.
Thursday's debate began at 7 p.m. ET and is being streamed locally on WOOD TV8, an NBC affiliate station, and nationally on NewsNation.
Rogers continues to distance himself from some of Trump's policies
Rogers has broken with Trump on two major issues in recent weeks. In September, Rogers said the war with Iran needed to “end quickly.” On Wednesday, he released an ad criticizing Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying, “We know that Canada is not our enemy” and “We need to end this tariff war now.”
Early into the debate, Rogers doubled down on both. He once again said that the war in Iran needs to come to an end: “I do believe it’s going to come to an end. We need it to come to an end,” Rogers said.
Later, Rogers said that he had called the White House this week to push for a “deal” with Canada to end the tariff war.
El-Sayed opened the debate by going after Rogers, saying he had “flip flopped” and “reversed course.”
Trailing in ad spending, El-Sayed has been more aggressively campaigned
El-Sayed is working to reunite a Democratic coalition that splintered during the primary and he is trying to appeal to independents and voters who previously backed Trump. He appeared Thursday with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, their first appearance since she endorsed Stevens in the primary.
El-Sayed, trailing significantly in ad spending, has crisscrossed the state for events while also sitting for interviews ranging from Fox News to The New York Times’ Ezra Klein. He has often used those appearances to go after Rogers.
“We are running to win the race. He’s running not to lose the race,” El-Sayed said of Rogers during a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press.
Rogers has held fewer public events while outside groups have spent heavily on ads.
Rogers’ campaign did not make him available for an interview before the debate. He is scheduled to appear Friday in Oakland County with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
Trump attacks El-Sayed on Truth Social the night before debate
President Donald Trump assailed El-Sayed in a social media post late Wednesday, referring to him as “Mohammed” and saying he “goes back to the days of the Jihad.”
“He is a RADICAL Extremist, Terrorist Sympathizer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
El-Sayed, who was born in the U.S. to Egyptian immigrant parents, responded by pointing out that the president knows his name: “He says it every day.”
“He’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us,” El-Sayed wrote. “He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us.”