First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Mike Rogers is making Abdul El-Sayed's refusal to condemn Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the IRGC a major issue in Michigan's Senate race — arguing that anyone seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate should be clear where they stand on organizations linked to terrorism.
The question Rogers is putting to El-Sayed is direct: will the Democratic candidate unequivocally condemn Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — three organizations the Republican ties to terrorism and regional instability?
Rogers has accused El-Sayed of refusing to do so, and he is framing that refusal as disqualifying for anyone asking Michigan voters to send them to Washington.
The messenger matters here. Rogers is a former FBI agent and a former congressman who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, and he is leaning on that national-security background to press his case on the airwaves and the campaign trail, turning his years inside America's intelligence apparatus into a weapon against his rival.
He knows this seat well. Rogers was the Republican nominee for it in 2024, and he is running again in 2026 — this time for an open seat, with no incumbent standing in his way.
Across the aisle, Abdul El-Sayed is a physician and former Detroit health director who is seeking the Democratic nomination to carry the party's banner into November.
The opening exists because Senator Gary Peters is not seeking re-election, leaving Michigan's Senate seat up for grabs in what is shaping up as one of the most closely watched races of the cycle.
Rogers's standard, in his own words: "Any candidate seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate should be clear about their position on organizations linked to terrorism and regional instability."
Beyond the two names on the ballot, the fight raises broader questions about national security, political accountability, and what voters should demand from anyone seeking to represent them in Washington — questions that will follow both candidates all the way to November.
Rogers is betting that this will be a defining campaign issue. But voters will judge the dispute on the candidates' full statements and records — not on accusations alone — and it is those records, not the rhetoric, that Michigan voters will weigh on Election Day.
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