Rogers Looks To Crack El-sayed's Coalition After Bruising Michigan Primary

Michigan Democrats are racing to rebuild their divided coalition after a bruising Senate primary. But Mike Rogers and Republicans are already working to peel away disaffected voting blocs, with a specific eye toward Jewish and Black voters, while prepping to hit Abdul El-Sayed with a record war chest.

Rogers is already hammering El-Sayed with cutting attacks accusing him of antisemitism as his team starts working to pull in disillusioned Democrats and independents who backed his primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens.

“He’s beyond antisemitic He hates Jewish people,” Rogers said of El-Sayed after his win, echoing similar comments from President Donald Trump. In response, a spokesperson for El-Sayed pointed to his remarks rejecting those attacks in an interview on CNN Wednesday. In that interview, he pivoted to the economy. "He's more focused on me and what I'm going to do when we're living through an affordability crisis that is generational," El Sayed said.

Republicans are also making plans to reach out to Black church and community leaders who backed Stevens in what became one of the most toxic and expensive Democratic primaries this year.

El-Sayed drew criticism earlier this year for issuing a statement after a thwarted terrorist attack at a Michigan synagogue condemning the attempt while linking it to Israel’s military action in Lebanon, saying “hurt people hurt people.” Republicans are also hammering him for campaigning with far-left twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has a history of controversial comments.

If El-Sayed and Democrats can’t coax enough Stevens and other voters back into the fold, Democrats in the state privately acknowledge they will lose the seat in November. El-Sayed won his Tuesday primary narrowly, and struggled with many Black voters and Jewish voters across the state. Rogers’ advisers say they’re already getting an organic outpouring of interest from traditionally Democratic-leaning Jewish voters and independents.

Bobby Schostak, a former Michigan Republican Party chair who helps fundraise for Rogers’ campaign, said he’s heard from Jewish community leaders and has in turn been helping to reach out to “traditionally non-Republican voters who are members of the Jewish and Christian community” to plan potential fundraisers and events with Rogers. He declined to say who was involved in the potential events. Dennis Bernard, a prominent Jewish Michigan activist who supported both Stevens and Rogers in their primaries, also said there are early-stage event plans to help Rogers, adding that “there is a tremendous amount of outreach” from Rogers’ campaign and allies to Jewish leaders.

Democratic leaders in Michigan know they have little time to repair relationships following a brutal primary in which El-Sayed depicted Stevens as a corporate-backed stooge and Stevens painted El-Sayed as a publicity-hound.

Michigan Democratic leaders attempted their biggest show of unity Thursday at their annual post-primary breakfast in the Detroit suburbs. Stevens and El-Sayed even hugged onstage at the event. El-Sayed and the Democratic statewide ticket, along with party leaders, will also hold a rally Friday night in Detroit.

Not everyone who attended the breakfast was sold. 

Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit, who founded the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus and endorsed Stevens in the primary, said in an interview he spoke briefly with El-Sayed at the unity breakfast. Arbit said El-Sayed expressed an interest in a more substantial conversation in the future.

“I hope to have the opportunity to meet with Abdul El-Sayed and communicate my deep concerns about some of the rhetoric of his campaign and the impact it has had on the Jewish community he hopes to represent,” Arbit said.

The Thursday event served as the first major step for Michigan’s Democratic Party leaders to coalesce around El-Sayed. It included remarks from Sen. Elissa Slotkin urging Democrats to unite to defeat Rogers and push back on Trump, according to three people in the room, granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door event.

Slotkin, who defeated Rogers in 2024 and stayed neutral in this primary, quickly endorsed El-Sayed after he won. Democrats expect her to appear with him on the campaign trail, likely during the Senate’s August recess.

After the breakfast, Michigan’s Democratic Party leaders, Slotkin, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rep. Debbie Dingell, El-Sayed and key Democratic nominees issued a statement about the new statewide ticket, saying that “Michigan Democrats are fired up and focused on one thing this November: making life more affordable for every family in this state.”

But a number of key Michigan House Democrats — including Stevens herself as well as Rep. Hillary Scholten, a close Stevens ally who has harshly criticized El-Sayed and did not endorse him in a statement after he won — were not listed on the joint statement.

El-Sayed has already reached out to at least one potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who is the only Black governor in the U.S. and could help him shore up support among Black voters. A third party put him in touch with Moore on Thursday morning, according to two people familiar with the conversation, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Those early conversations are expected to eventually turn to asking Moore to campaign in Michigan, according to one person familiar with the matter. Moore campaigned alongside Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the state's Democratic gubernatorial nominee, in June, but stayed out of the primary. A spokesperson for Moore didn’t respond to an inquiry.

The outreach comes as El-Sayed attempts to win back Black voters, a critical Democratic voting bloc that predominantly backed Stevens.

In the Senate, Democratic Party leaders are also trying to navigate the fallout of the race, in which Minority Leader Chuck Schumer quietly backed Stevens over El-Sayed.

Schumer and DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand both spoke with El-Sayed Wednesday after his win, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Gillibrand also donated the maximum amount to El-Sayed’s campaign after his primary win and expressed DSCC support as he turns to the massive challenge of facing the well-funded Rogers.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also spoke with El-Sayed shortly after his win.

But some other Senate Democrats, including several weighing 2028 presidential runs, are wary of jumping in too quickly, according to four Democrats involved in the conversations and granted anonymity to discuss the private talks.

Their biggest concern: getting caught up in Rogers’ sharpening attacks that he’s campaigning against someone who believes America deserved 9/11. That’s a reference to comments made by Piker in 2019, when he said that “America deserved 9/11,” though he later apologized for the remark and said it was “inappropriate.”

Jewish voters comprise less than 2 percent of the state’s electorate — a small but significant slice that could have outsized influence in what’s likely to be a close contest this fall. In Michigan, roughly 61 percent of Jewish voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 65 percent of Jewish voters nationwide, according to a 2021 analysis from Brandeis’ Steinhardt Social Research Institute. Stevens beat El-Sayed two-to-one in several Jewish population centers across the state. In West Bloomfield, the site of the spring synagogue attack, Stevens won 66 percent of the vote compared to less than 32 percent for El-Sayed.

Andy Schor, the mayor of Lansing, Michigan and one of the highest-ranking Jewish Democratic elected officials in the state, said El-Sayed risks losing Jewish support to Rogers if he keeps attacking Israel.

“They might vote for Rogers,” Schor said of Jewish voters. “I think there are some in the Jewish community who might cross over.”

Schor endorsed Stevens in the primary but has not yet decided whether he’ll endorse in the general election. His advice for El-Sayed: Focus his attacks more directly on Israel-aligned groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent a record sum against El-Sayed in the primary, instead of on Israel itself.

“A lot of folks hear the word ‘PAC’ and they think ‘corporate government,’” he said. “They don't even think about it as an Israel thing. I think he'll continue to beat on AIPAC, and if he's smart, he won't beat on Israel as much,” he said.

El-Sayed made overtures to Jewish voters on Wednesday, stressing his “commitment to Jewish safety” and to “fighting the fight against antisemitism and Islamophobia” in his victory speech and in an interview on MS NOW. His allies have dismissed allegations of antisemitism against him and defended his criticism of Israel and its government.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is Jewish and is one of El-Sayed’s most prominent backers, argued Wednesday that “to be critical of the right-wing extremist government of Netanyahu and his horrific policies in Gaza does not make you antisemitic.” And he argued that his endorsee is clear “every day that we will not accept antisemitism at all,” Sanders said.

Former Rep. Andy Levin, a Jewish Democrat who endorsed El-Sayed and lost to Stevens in a 2022 primary in which she was backed by AIPAC, said El-Sayed’s stances reflect an electorate that has shifted dramatically on Israel since the war in Gaza broke out and predicted that a “majority of Jewish voters will vote Democratic in the fall, including for Abdul.”