In the final debate before Michigan chooses its next senator, the Democratic candidate was asked whether voters should have to prove they are citizens — and answered with the two words Republicans have been waiting to hear him say.
🚨 EXPOSED: Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed says proving citizenship to vote is "voter suppression."
El-Sayed faced Republican Mike Rogers on Wednesday night in the final debate of Michigan's U.S. Senate race, hosted by WXYZ-TV in Southfield and moderated by Chuck Stokes, Carolyn Clifford and Alicia Smith. The seat is open — Senator Gary Peters is retiring — and voters decide on November 3, 2026.
Asked about requiring proof of citizenship to vote — the question was framed around the SAVE Act, according to WDIV — El-Sayed did not answer the requirement directly. "This is about voter suppression," he said. "We deserve the right to vote. Nobody should take that away from you."
Rogers took the other side of it in one sentence: "I think it's very reasonable and rational to ask for a voter ID."
The sharpest exchange of the night came when Rogers pressed El-Sayed over the Muslim Brotherhood. "Are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?" Rogers asked. El-Sayed called the question "shameful" and told him it was "beneath you, Mike," adding: "I'm proud to be an American."
"I think it's very reasonable and rational to ask for a voter ID." — Mike Rogers
Even the lightning round produced a moment: asked whether candidates should undergo background checks, El-Sayed said yes, while Rogers answered, "It all depends" — drawing a mocking "So dependable!" from El-Sayed.
The citizenship exchange is the one likely to follow both men into the final twelve days of the campaign: one candidate calling proof of citizenship a reasonable safeguard, the other calling it suppression — in a state where the Senate majority could turn on the result.