With just 13 days until Election Day, Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are facing off in the final debate in the race for the U.S. Senate.
Watch the debate live from WXYZ.
With just 13 days until Election Day, Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are facing off in the final debate in the race for the U.S. Senate.
Watch the debate live from WXYZ.
– Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed offer competing visions for US Senate in second and final general election debate
– Both sought to make the case that their opponent was untrustworthy and was obscuring unsavory parts of their record
– The candidates were asked about trade, social security, healthcare, immigration and more
In his latest campaign ad released late Monday, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate candidate in Michigan, struck a resilient and matter-of-fact tone that suggested the recent racist attacks on him, his Arabic name, and his Muslim faith are no secretâbut he has no plans to try to hide his identity to appease Republicans and Democrats who have claimed heâs an âextremistâ or accused him of terrorist ties.
Bring the World Along
âą International Public Cooperation and Governance Boards: We should negotiate a US-China treaty to pause and ban superintelligence, modeled on the Cold War deal in which Reagan and Gorbachev eliminated a class of nuclear missiles through inspections. A verification board would count chips and data centers, a scientific panel would share threat assessments, and a 24-hour hotline would flag incidents. Access to American chips and cloud services should be conditioned on signing and complying, and we should tighten chip export controls now.
âą No AI in Nuclear Command and Control: Humans, and only humans, should decide whether to use nuclear weapons. That is already US policy: Biden and Xi agreed to it in 2024. We must make it permanent, cover early warning and decision support, keep frontier AI out of the chain, and get every nuclear nation to sign on.
Safeguards Everyone Can Count On
âą Independent Audits: Outside experts test frontier AI before release. Even leading AI companies now accept this.
âą Protect Whistleblowers: Insiders who sound the alarm should get legal protection, back pay, and rewards.
âą Hands Off State Laws: No weak federal law should block states from protecting their people more strongly.
âą Be Ready: We need a national AI emergency plan, with regular drills across government.
âą Get AI Money Out of the Fight: Full disclosure of AI-industry political spending, including through super PACs and other dark money entities.
Plan Builds On Sanders-Casar Bill To Ban AI Superintelligence And Impose Severe Criminal Penalties For AI Abuse
New Proposals Address Growing Concerns In Wake Of AI Whistleblowers, Follows Release Of Abdulâs AI Under Democracy Proposal
In Stark Contrast, Mike Rogers Has Up To $2.6 Million In Investments In Tech Companies That Stand To Benefit From AI Boom, Calls Concerns About AI âFearmongeringâ
The exchanges captured two sides of a candidate who is the central figure in one of the nationâs most consequential Senate races. El-Sayed would be the countryâs first Muslim senator, and heâs crisscrossing the state to counter a Republican effort, fueled by tens of millions of dollars, to portray him as a dangerous radical. But he has also embraced his confrontational side by mocking and taunting Trump and Rogers.
âIf they want to make me the main character in the midterms, Iâm not shying away from it,â El-Sayed said in an interview. âRun against me. See how well that works out for you.â
During a rally in Tennessee on Saturday, President Trump repeatedly misnamed Michiganâs Democratic Senate candidate Abdul ElâSayed as âMohammed,â calling him a âjihadist.â
President Donald Trump: âLike Mohammed El-Sayed â I call him Mohammed. Somebody said, ‚His name isn‘t Mohammed; itâs Abdul.â I said, ‚To me, it‘s Mohammed.â Iâm the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want. To me, heâs Mohammed, and heâs a radical jihadist.â
A campaign finance report filed on Friday revealed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committeeâs super PAC, the United Democracy Project, has resumed spending on Michiganâs US Senate race, dropping $95,000 on mailers opposing Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in a bid to help Republican Mike Rogers weeks ahead of the key midterm contest.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) report came a day after Rogers and El-Sayed clashed on the debate stage over healthcare, drug prices, military assistance to Israel, and other issues. Asked during the debate whether he would accept AIPACâs support in the race, Rogers said, âAnybody that wants to help my campaign stop [El-Sayed]… Iâll take all of that help.â
Abdul El-Sayed wasnât supposed to be a politician. He studied to be a doctor, but realized it was our broken politics that was making people sick. Abdul has dedicated his career to building government agencies that actually work for Michiganders. He is running for the U.S. Senate because he believes life in America shouldnât be this hard, and as your Senator, Abdul will fight to build a government that works for you, not Elon Musk, Donald Trump, or their billionaire friends.
You can‘t actually talk about what you want to do?
Ripping Rogers as a âcorporate sellout,â El-Sayed said that he is âa guy who spent 14 years in Congress with one goal: to figure out how to cash out the day he left. And guess what he did: As soon as he left Congress, after having taken corporate check after corporate check after corporate check, to empower the corporations to pick your pockets, he went and he cashed out.â
âNot in Michiganâno, winters are too cold for him,â he added, eliciting chuckles from the crowd. âHeâs got thin skin, after all. He went to Florida. So, Mike, if you wanna be a Florida man, go be a Florida man.â
Rogersâ who was unopposed in Tuesdayâs GOP primary, worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation before entering politics, first at the state level and then representing Michiganâs 8th District in Congress from 2001-15. In comments to Fox News late Tuesday, the Republican cited his time fighting âterrorismâ in the FBI and falsely claimed that El-Sayed believes âAmerica deserved 9/11.â
MICHIGAN â On Tuesday, August 4th, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination for Michiganâs United States Senate seat, prevailing in the most expensive Senate primary in American history. The race drew record breaking outside spending from AIPAC and corporate special interests, totaling nearly $70 million, Abdul having been outspent 11:1.
An average of $95 was spent for every vote against Abdul, more than 10 times as much as Abdulâs $9 per vote average.
Big money, the Democratic old guard and attacks on El-Sayedâs Democratic Socialist leanings dominated the primary, and leave the last man standing on the Left bruised and battered heading into the showdown with Rogers.