In the first debate of the general election for Senate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) repeatedly hit Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed over his supporters’ ties to and support for terrorist groups and El-Sayed’s comments on the Temple Israel terrorist attack — accusations that El-Sayed largely did not respond to during the deeply acrimonious exchange.

El-Sayed, for his part, said he would not support defensive aid to Israel even if it was under attack, framed Israel as a threat to the United States comparable to Iran, defended his decision not to issue a statement honoring the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and continued to sidestep questions on Iran’s persecution of its own civilians.

“He has taken money from groups in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has taken money from individuals on his campaign who openly support Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida,” Rogers said several times throughout the debate, and accused El-Sayed of failing to condemn terrorist groups and attacks. 

“The prattling and repetition of his argument does not solve the dismantling of terrorist networks that America demands,” Rogers added, framing himself — with a military and FBI background — as the clear choice for those concerned about national security, while El-Sayed repeatedly dinged Rogers as a war hawk who had been an avid cheerleader for the war in Iran and other conflicts.

At one point, Rogers suggested that El-Sayed opposed federal counterterrorism programs because people in El-Sayed’s family were tied to terrorism, leading El-Sayed to goad him, “Go ahead and say that I’m a — go ahead and say it. You’ve been tiptoeing around it the whole time. Just say it.”

Though he fired back at most of the attacks Rogers leveled throughout the debate, El-Sayed offered no direct response or rebuttal to Rogers’ barbs about his ties to terrorism. “He wants this to be about anything but his own record … going after my mom, my sister, got nothing to actually say about me. I’m a dad and a doctor,” the Democratic nominee said.

El-Sayed’s mother worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was designated as a terrorist organization for supporting al-Qaida, and his sister-in-law sued to be removed from a federal terrorism watchlist, according to recent reports.

He also insisted that he had condemned the Temple Israel attack. (El-Sayed apologized for his initial response to the attack, which many in the Jewish community saw as justifying or excusing it, as he tried to appeal to Jewish voters this summer.)

Asked whether he considered Israel or Iran a bigger threat to the United States — a question he dismissed earlier this week when asked by a reporter — El-Sayed again called the question a “ridiculous hypothetical.” 

“Our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran. We have watched as Iran has responded by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East, and then choking off the world’s energy supply,” he continued. “I think both of them have proven dangerous in their own way, one at risk of attacking us, one getting us into wars we have no business fighting.”

El-Sayed said he would not support providing defensive weapons to Israel if it were attacked by Iran or another state, and framed Israel as the aggressor against Iran, with the aim of drawing the U.S. into the Iran war and annexing southern Lebanon.

Abdul El-Sayed would not vote to provide defensive military weapons to Israel if it were under attack, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee said during last night’s debate. Read more: https://t.co/HzcvnWB5Fg https://t.co/RbMKkzJwbf

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) October 9, 2026

When Rogers raised the fact that El-Sayed had not issued a statement to commemorate the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks — describing in detail some of Hamas’ atrocities — El-Sayed responded, “I’m not somebody who tries to make political theater out of other people’s pain.”

Later, in the post-debate spin room, El-Sayed reportedly said, “Let me make a clear point here: I learned that when people are grieving, don’t step on their grief, and I know that how much things were being watched that this was going to be — whatever I said — it was going to feel like politicizing that moment. So I decided not to say anything.”

Pressed during the debate on whether he would condemn the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, El-Sayed broadly said he “will condemn any use of force against a diplomatic population abroad,” but focused his response primarily on condemning the war in Iran.

El-Sayed said that he believes that the U.S. can end the war in Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz or ensuring Iran cannot produce nuclear weapon and address those issues diplomatically after the end of the fighting.

Rogers, who has recently urged an end to the Iran war, said the conflict cannot end if Iran maintains the capability to produce nuclear weapons, but argued that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back 20 years so that is not a relevant concern at this point.

He also said that the use of nuclear weapons would be the only red line that Israel could cross that would cause him to withdraw support for the Jewish state.

Asked whether he would welcome public support from AIPAC, given reporting that his allies had urged the group not to get openly involved in the general election, Rogers sidestepped the issue but said that he would welcome anybody “that wants to help my campaign stop a guy who can’t condemn terrorism in our own country because he’s so close to the people who are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.”

A newly formed super PAC, Together for Michigan, ran an ad during the debate featuring comments from Taylor Weintraub, a mother of a student at the Temple Israel preschool that was attacked by a terrorist earlier this year.

“Since I could vote, [I] have been a Democrat and have considered myself a Democrat. When Abdul El-Sayed said, ‘Hurt people hurt people,’ it allows people to believe that this is acceptable,” Weintraub said in the ad. “It was justification as to why a terrorist would want to hurt all of these children. … He put the words out there and he cannot take them back.”

“Mike Rogers is here to listen to us and here to help us feel safe,” Weintraub continued.

The ad directed viewers to a website for Democrats supporting Rogers.

Ahead of the debate, members of the Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign, which has been pressuring El-Sayed to make commitments to Jewish safety and Israel’s right to exist, held a call with reporters on Thursday to urge both candidates to address their concerns during the debate.

Organizers said that thousands of people have now signed onto the movement, but they still haven’t received sufficient responses from El-Sayed’s campaign.

“If anything, he’s only given a lot of Jewish Michiganders reasons not to vote for him,” Rabbi Aaron Starr, one of the organizers of the effort said. “It’s been very alarming to see that he hasn’t shown more support.”

But Starr emphasized that members of his community aren’t just choosing between Rogers and El-Sayed — some are also considering writing in a candidate or sitting out the Senate race altogether.

Two leaders of the group, Rabbi Josh Whinston and Joan Lowenstein, a member of the Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee and president of the Jewish Federation of Ann Arbor, said that — despite Rogers’ public appeals and private outreach to members of the Jewish community — they haven’t heard from Rogers or his camp directly about trying to secure their backing.

Lowenstein noted that she’s a longtime AIPAC club member, “so I’m definitely on a list if he was going to reach out — and I have not gotten anything.”

Some other leaders of the campaign have been in touch with Rogers’ team, however: another leader of the Nonnegotiable campaign told Jewish Insider Rogers had reached out to them, while El-Sayed had not. Starr did not say specifically which candidates he had met or spoken with, but told JI that he had “outreach from a variety of candidates, both Democrat and Republican.”

The Nonnegotiable organizers also emphasized that their message is not just one for the Michigan Senate race, but also for the Democratic Party as a whole and the 2028 presidential field. Starr said that, even if El-Sayed wins, the difference in the margin of victory between himself and other statewide Democratic candidates will also be a significant message to the party.

The Nonnegotiable members said they were disappointed by El-Sayed’s failure to issue a statement on Oct. 7, particularly given that he has been consistent in honoring other Jewish holidays in the past month.

“His lack of communication is noticeable, and it comes back to what we’ve been saying — I’ve been saying now for a while is — when he communicates, he often communicates out of both sides of his mouth, and when he doesn’t communicate, it also becomes noticeable,” Starr said.

Members of the Nonnegotiable group emphasized that they wanted to hear from Rogers at the debate not only about support for Israel and the Jewish community, but also about standing up for other priority issues including civil rights, democracy, abortion rights, the Supreme Court and other issues they consider to be Jewish values.

Several Jewish university students in Michigan also joined Thursday’s press call, having publicly signed onto the Nonnegotiable petition.

Jacob Reich, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, said that he is organizing for and supporting Democratic candidates in other states, but in Michigan feels “torn between both my Jewish identity and supporting the Democratic candidate in my state.”

“We don’t have a candidate who supports all of my beliefs,” Robert Kashan, a freshman at the University of Michigan, agreed.

Reich emphasized that he saw multiple people on his campus on the Oct. 7 anniversary wearing Hamas T-shirts, but “I expect a lot more from a leader, especially someone who would be representing me in the Senate … so I would expect at least a statement memorializing Oct. 7.”