Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers are fighting to represent Michigan in the Senate. Here’s what they say.

November 1, 2026 / 7:45 PM EST / CBS News

Control of the U.S. Senate after Tuesday's midterm elections could come down to Michigan, where a close and contentious battle has been playing out between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers.

The test for Rogers, 63, is whether a Republican can win in the shadow of inflation, war and President Trump's negative approval ratings. The test for El-Sayed, 42, is whether ideas that thrill the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are what Middle America wants right now.

El-Sayed is the son of Egyptian immigrants. After a Rhodes Scholarship and a medical degree from Columbia University, El-Sayed went straight into public health administration and then politics.

He won Michigan's state Democratic primary against a more centrist rival by a margin of less than a percentage point. El-Sayed now has ambitions not just to beat his Republican rival Mike Rogers, but to remake the Democratic Party. He's running on transformation: busting monopolies, passing "Medicare for All" and an arms embargo on Israel.

El-Sayed is often associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, but he isn't a member, and he keeps his distance from the label. He describes himself as a…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/