Abdul El-Sayed refused to rank Iran and Israel by threat level during Thursday’s Michigan Senate debate, dismissing the question as “ridiculous.”
The Democratic hopeful, 40, faced Republican Mike Rogers, 61, in a heated exchange that saw both candidates trade accusations of extremism, foreign ties, and professional dishonesty. When moderator questioning turned to which nation poses the greater danger to the United States, El-Sayed balked.
“Here’s what’s happening right now: our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran,” El-Sayed said during the debate. “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.”
The former Detroit health director continued by pivoting to domestic priorities. “This is a situation in which I don’t think we should be a part [of],” he added. “I want our money spent here to buy schools and health care and child care here.”
Pressed a second time on which country he deemed the bigger threat, El-Sayed held firm. “Both of them have proven dangerous in their own way,” he replied, again calling it a “ridiculous question.” The evasion marked his second on the topic, having similarly sidestepped it earlier on the campaign trail.
Rogers seized on the ambiguity, blasting El-Sayed for what he cast as a pattern of dodging hard stances on terrorism. The former House Intelligence Committee chairman accused his opponent of failing to release any statement marking the three-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis.
“This is why you should get absolutely angry,” Rogers said. “He could not bring himself to even acknowledge the pain, the terrorism, the rape, the murders, cutting off of women’s breasts, putting children in ovens and killing them in front of their families.”
El-Sayed pushed back with a brief rebuttal. “I condemned that,” he said, referring to the Hamas assault.
The debate’s hypothetical questions cut both ways. When Rogers faced a moderator’s query about whether Israel could ever go too far, he offered conditional support with a notable caveat.
“I support just staunchly, their right to exist, the right to exist for the Jewish state and the right to defend itself in a very difficult neighborhood,” Rogers replied. “Listen, if they were talking about using nuclear weapons, they would definitely lose my support.”
The remark drew attention from observers who noted Rogers appeared to confirm Israel’s nuclear capability, a long-rumored status that the Israeli government has never publicly acknowledged.
Rogers worked repeatedly to tether El-Sayed to Islamic extremism, citing his father-in-law and donor’s alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties and noting that his birth mother, Fatten Elkomy, had worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which the Treasury Department targeted over alleged support for Osama Bin Laden. He also claimed El-Sayed’s “biggest funders are from a group that supports the Muslim Brotherhood” and that “he gets money from people who support openly Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda.”
El-Sayed countered by accusing Rogers of being “bought and paid for” by corporate donors, at one point swiping that “Mike does own a home in Florida!” and later raising an alleged yacht. Rogers fired back with his own property accusation: “Abdul owns a home in the United Arab Emirates! At least Florida’s in the United States!”
The GOP candidate also mocked El-Sayed’s medical credentials. “Well, he’s not really a doctor. He says he’s a physician,” Rogers scoffed. “[As a] matter of fact, if somebody came into his office and he tried to treat that patient, he’d go to jail.” El-Sayed noted he holds a medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and also attended the University of Michigan Medical School.
Rogers further attacked El-Sayed for not condemning the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). “My opponent here would not condemn the IRGC, which today is hanging two 19-year-old kids for saying that they want freedom in their homeland,” Rogers said. “This is the same IRGC that has killed American troops in Iraq.”
El-Sayed responded with a broader formulation. “I will condemn any, any use of force against a domestic population abroad,” he said. “That’s not hard to do. But I also condemn a war we shouldn’t be fighting, because here we are fighting this stupid war because people like him have been pushing for it for 20 years.”
The candidates’ clash over Israel and terrorism echoed an earlier campaign flashpoint. In March 2026, a man rammed a truck loaded with fireworks and gasoline into the daycare at Temple Israel in Michigan; no congregants were injured. El-Sayed’s initial response drew scrutiny when he noted the perpetrator appeared motivated by an Israeli attack in Lebanon, saying that “hurt people hurt people.” He later apologized to a Jewish group for that remark.
President Trump’s shadow hung over the proceedings. El-Sayed hammered Rogers on the Iran war and tariff battle with Canada, while Rogers strained to balance appeal to Trump loyalists with outreach to independents skeptical of both conflicts. “I have actually called the White House this week, talked to the Secretary of Commerce about getting the deal done,” Rogers said, touting his Trump-world access while expressing desire to end the trade war.
Polling shows the race remains extraordinarily tight, with El-Sayed holding a 3.2 percentage point advantage in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.