Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers told a Fox News town hall audience Monday night that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is vulnerable among two voting blocs that have long leaned Democratic — Black voters in Detroit and Jewish voters across Michigan — as the state’s closely watched Senate race enters its final two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3.
Fox News host Sean Hannity also spoke with Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. John James and House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain during the town hall, as the three Republicans worked to tie Michigan Democrats to government spending, socialism and the party’s progressive wing.
Hannity pressed Rogers about El-Sayed’s past criticism of former President Barack Obama, whom El-Sayed once called “not the right choice” to advance a progressive agenda after Obama’s 2012 re-election. Obama is scheduled to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24 and has already released a video urging Michigan voters to back the Democratic nominee.
“He is dismissive in Detroit. 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,” Rogers said.
Rogers also pointed to El-Sayed’s remarks on Israel as a potential opening with Jewish voters. El-Sayed recently declined to say whether he viewed Iran or Israel as the greater threat, telling debate viewers: “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.”
Rogers argued that even modest inroads among the roughly 70,000 Jewish Democrats in Michigan could shift the race.
“If we get half of them to vote for us, which we think — we had an event last night. Had over 1,000 people at it. We’re fired up and excited and scared for their children, by the way. They’re afraid for their children. They’re with us, and they’re going to vote, we think, 35,000 votes out of the Jewish Democrat — these are normally solid Democratic votes,” Rogers said. “That’s changing the dynamic.”
James Targets State Spending and Fraud
James, running for Michigan governor, used his time with Hannity to lay out plans for overhauling education and tightening scrutiny of government spending.
“Michigan is spending 50% more right now under Gretchen Whitmer than we spent under Rick Snyder’s administration, the last Republican, and $20 billion more per year than at the height of the pandemic,” James said. Snyder left office in 2019.
“Michigan does not have a taxation problem. Michigan has a spending problem,” James added.
James drew a comparison to Minnesota’s ongoing fraud investigations, citing videographer Nick Shirley, who has gained attention for investigating alleged fraud involving Somali-run childcare providers in that state.
“If a 19-year-old journalist named Nick Shirley can find $9 billion of fraud in Minnesota, a state with 50% of our population and 60% of our budget, what do you think he can find here?” James said.
Shirley did not himself uncover $9 billion in fraud; that figure originated with former federal prosecutor Joe Thompson, who estimated last year that fraud across 14 high-risk Medicaid programs in Minnesota could total $9 billion or more — an estimate Minnesota officials have disputed. Federal and state investigators have confirmed fraud involving taxpayer-funded childcare, food assistance and healthcare programs in Minnesota, including schemes in which defendants allegedly billed the government for services never provided.
McClain’s Closing Remarks
Closing out the town hall, McClain accused Democrats of concealing their real agenda.
“I don’t even call them Democrats anymore; it’s the Communist Party,” McClain said. “They want to pack the Supreme Court, they want to abolish the police, they want to let people out of prisons.”
Michigan voters head to the polls alongside the rest of the country on Nov. 3, with both the Senate and governor’s races rated among the most competitive in the nation.
