GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Republican Mike Rogers and democrat Abdoul El-Sayedcompeting for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, are set to hold their first campaign debate Thursday after weeks of fighting online and in ads flooding the state in one of the nation’s most closely watched races.
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 against then-U.S. Rep. two years ago. 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 several primary debates against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens before winning the nomination by less than a percentage point and advancing to the Nov. 3 general election.
Thursday’s debate begins at 7 p.m. ET and is broadcast locally on WOOD TV8, an NBC affiliate station, and nationally on NewsNation.
The meeting between the two candidates comes after an increasingly combative campaign.
President Donald Trump attacked El-Sayed in a social media post Wednesday evening, calling him “Muhammad” and saying he “goes back to the days of Jihad.”
“He is a RADICAL extremist and sympathizer of terrorism,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
El-Sayed, born in the United States 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. »
El-Sayed, who lags far behind in advertising spending, has crisscrossed the state for events while participating in interviews ranging from Fox News to Ezra Klein of the New York Times. He often used these appearances to attack Rogers.
“We’re running to win the race. He’s running not to lose the race,” El-Sayed said of Rogers in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.
Rogers held fewer public events while outside groups spent a lot of money on advertising.
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.
Rogers has broken with Trump on two major issues in recent weeks. In September, Rogers said the war with Iran must “end quickly.” On Wednesday, he released an ad criticizing Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying “we know Canada is not our enemy” and “we must end this tariff war now.”
El-Sayed is working to reunite a Democratic coalition that split in the primaries and is trying to appeal to independents and voters who previously supported Trump. He appeared Thursday with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, their first appearance since she supported Stevens in the primary.
Rogers faces a different balancing act as he works to get Republicans without Trump on the ballot and competes for moderates.
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