By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers challenged Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed during a Michigan debate to disavow campaign donations tied to groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and to return the money. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and epidemiologist running for the Senate seat retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is vacating, responded forcefully in a recorded clip from the debate, rejecting the suggestion that his loyalty to the Constitution was in question.
El-Sayed served as Detroit’s health director from 2015 to 2017 and later led public health efforts for Wayne County, where he helped erase $700 million in medical debt, before entering the 2026 Senate race.
El-Sayed rejected Rogers’s line of questioning directly. “To call into question my loyalty to the Constitution … it’s really quite beneath you, Mike,” he says.
Rogers, during the debate, called on El-Sayed to return the donations in question and publicly disavow the groups connected to them, though the allegation was not substantiated with evidence presented in the clip aired. El-Sayed did not separately address whether he considers Iran or Israel the greater global threat when the topic came up during the debate, according to commentary aired after the clip.
El-Sayed holds a medical degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in public health from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat in the 2026 election.
Abdul El-Sayed is represented through a recorded clip played on air during the broadcast — from the Michigan U.S. Senate debate.
