Mike Rogers says his Senate campaign is gaining attention in Detroit — and hearing real frustration with the man he is running against. The Republican says dozens of Black pastors and community leaders in the city have expressed dissatisfaction with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and that some voters are now displaying Rogers campaign signs in their yards.
Rogers made the case in the race's final stretch, arguing at a Fox News town hall on Monday night that El-Sayed is vulnerable in the city Democrats count on most. "He is dismissive in Detroit," Rogers said. "We have just dozens of black pastors that we have talked to, neighborhood leaders in the city of Detroit that we've talked to. They're looking for a change." Some of those leaders, according to Rogers, describe El-Sayed as "arrogant and dismissive" of their concerns.
"Arrogant and dismissive" — how some Detroit community leaders describe El-Sayed, according to Rogers.
The math explains the focus on Detroit. The seat is open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, and Michigan is one of the most closely watched Senate battlegrounds in the country. Rogers — a former congressman and FBI special agent who chaired the House Intelligence Committee — was the party's Senate nominee in 2024 and lost to Elissa Slotkin by just 19,006 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast. Wayne County, home to Detroit, powered that margin: Slotkin carried it by some 264,000 votes. Even a small shift in the city could challenge Democratic support where the party's Michigan votes are concentrated.
Supporters outside Mike Rogers' new Detroit field office on Livernois Avenue, which opened October 17. (Colin Jackson / MPRN)
The outreach behind the claim has been visible for weeks. Rogers has courted Detroit through appearances at churches and closed-door conversations, and told CBS News his campaign recently entered a church whose members said no Republican had crossed the threshold in 76 years. "He's showing up more than a Republican would," Detroit-area Reverend Charles Williams II said of Rogers. On Saturday, the campaign opened its first Detroit field office, on Livernois Avenue near Seven Mile Road, and its pitch in the city leans on education and home ownership. El-Sayed, for his part, won a far tighter Democratic primary in August than expected — and lost Wayne County in that primary to Rep. Haley Stevens.
None of that settles the question. Rogers' claims reflect his account of conversations with community leaders; they do not establish that Black voters broadly are abandoning the Democratic Party or El-Sayed's campaign. El-Sayed and his supporters dispute Rogers' characterization and point to his own policies and record — he rebuilt Detroit's health department as the city's health director and later ran health services for Wayne County — as reasons for voters to support him. Former President Barack Obama is scheduled to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on October 24 and has released a video backing him, while the state Democratic chair, Curtis Hertel, has dismissed Rogers' courtship outright: "I don't think anyone's buying it." The extent of any shift in support would need to be established through broader voter feedback or the results themselves on November 3.
The key question is whether Rogers can translate the support he says he is gaining among Detroit community leaders into a meaningful change in voter preferences ahead of the Senate election.