‘Special sauce of crazy’ — Midwest Dem candidate’s policies too extreme for voters: opponent
DETROIT, Michigan — Republican Mike Rogers is confident he'll defeat whichever Democratic rival he faces off with in the midterm elections in the crucial Senate showdown in this Great Lakes battleground state.
"It doesn't matter to us. We've looked at both candidates. We feel confident we're going to beat either one of those candidates that come out of that race," Rogers said in a Fox News Digital interview two days before Michigan's primary.
Abdul El-Sayed, a former Wayne County Health Department director who unsuccessfully ran an insurgent campaign for governor in 2018, is facing off for the Democratic Party's nomination in Michigan against Rep. Haley Stevens, a more moderate candidate backed by the establishment. The primary race is the biggest battle to date in the party's ideological war between the far-left and the center-left.
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Rogers says both El-Sayed and Stevens "are very radical, and they are way too extreme for Michigan." And pointing to El-Sayed, he charged, "Abdul, he has his own special sauce of crazy."
The expensive and combustible scrum between El-Sayed and Stevens in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is backing Stevens, is bolstering Republicans and potentially endangering a must-hold seat in November for the Democrats as they face an uphill challenge to win back the Senate majority.
"That certainly helps," Rogers said as he pointed to the Democratic primary battle.
Rogers, a former congressman who lost the 2024 Senate election in Michigan by a razor-thin margin while President Trump narrowly carried the state, touted that while the Democrats engage in what some describe as a civil war, "we've unified the Republican Party in a way I haven't seen in decades here on this particular race."
"We're building our team, our resources, and are ready for the fight after August 5 in a way I don't think Democrats are expecting," he highlighted.
El-Sayed, who, if elected, would make history as the nation's first Muslim senator, has made support for Medicare-for-all a major component of his campaign.
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He has also called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and is a vocal critic of Israel amid its war with Hamas — even characterizing Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide" against Palestinians. And El-Sayed, who served as a top surrogate on Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, has vowed not to accept PAC donations.
El-Sayed, who is backed by many leaders on the left and was joined on the campaign trail two weeks ago by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, has reiterated that he's not a socialist.
But Rogers argued that El-Sayed is "in a different league altogether about pushing that socialist agenda, Democrat Socialists of America are in Michigan working for him right now. They're parachuting in from all over the country."
"If you believe in the future of America and your own prosperity and your individual liberties, well…. We're going to talk about it because they've got plans to take all that away," Rogers claimed, as he pointed to the far left and El-Sayed. "And just because you're a smooth talker and could sell ice to an Eskimo doesn't mean people are ready to give up their rights."
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Both El-Sayed and Stevens are confident that Democrats will unite following Tuesday's primary.
"Let's make sure that anyone but Mike Rogers gets to the United States Senate," Stevens told reporters on Sunday. "After the primary, you're going to see a united Democratic Party. You are going to see us going full force, full fledge ahead."
And El-Sayed told Fox News Digital, "I think we all understand the risk of Donald Trump. We all understand the risk of Mike Rogers."
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"This is a guy who is not going to stand up and take on the war machine. He's not going to stand up and take on Big Pharma. He's not going to stand up and take on Big Tech. He is going to do the bidding of large corporations," El-Sayed argued as he referred to Rogers. "I think everybody understands what the stakes are. So I'm looking forward to welcoming everybody who might have voted differently in the primary."
Asked about El-Sayed's comments, Rogers charged, "The guy lies... this guy will lie from today until November 4, trying to get people to... walk past how bad he is for our state and our future in the country."
Fox News' Luke Trevisan contributed to this report.