By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed clashed in a Michigan U.S. Senate debate this week over allegations that El-Sayed received campaign donations connected to groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The exchange is among the sharpest in a race Republicans and Democrats alike consider competitive, for the seat retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is vacating in 2026.
Rogers, a former FBI special agent and ex-chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called on El-Sayed during the debate to return the donations and publicly disavow the groups, according to the debate clip aired on the broadcast. The allegation was not independently substantiated in the source material reviewed for this report.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, rejected the implication. “To call into question my loyalty to the Constitution … it’s really quite beneath you, Mike,” he said in the clip.
El-Sayed did not directly say during the debate whether he considers Iran or Israel the greater threat on the world stage when the topic was raised, according to commentary aired after the clip.
Rogers represented Michigan’s 8th Congressional District for seven terms, from 2001 to 2015, chairing the House Intelligence Committee during the 112th and 113th Congresses. He served as a U.S. Army officer from 1985 to 1989 and as an FBI special agent from 1989 to 1994, working organized crime and public corruption cases in Chicago before entering Michigan politics.
Rogers previously ran for Michigan’s other U.S. Senate seat in 2024, losing to Democrat Elissa Slotkin. He has also opened a campaign office in Detroit and Wayne County, El-Sayed’s home base, according to commentary aired during the broadcast.
El-Sayed served as Detroit’s health director from 2015 to 2017 and later led health policy efforts in Wayne County before launching his Senate campaign. The two campaigns have treated the 2026 race as closely contested, with surrogates from each national party expected to campaign in Michigan before Election Day in November.
El-Sayed, who holds a medical degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in public health from Oxford University, has not been shown in the source material reviewed for this report to have responded directly to the Muslim Brotherhood donation allegation beyond his statement that the question was “beneath” Rogers. Neither campaign’s full response was included in the clips aired on the broadcast.
Rogers’ seven-term House record included service on the Energy and Commerce Committee in addition to his chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee. Rogers provided national security commentary for CNN after leaving Congress in 2015, according to biographical material reviewed for this report.
