Abdul El-Sayed’s faith and family have come under intense scrutiny in Michigan race. Here’s what we know.

October 29, 2026 / 10:42 AM EDT / CBS News

Few U.S. Senate races have captured the public's attention like the battle in Michigan between Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. It pits a 63-year-old former FBI agent and former congressman who has strong backing from President Trump against a charismatic doctor and political newcomer who, if elected, would become the first Muslim U.S. senator in American history.

Trump and Rogers have made El-Sayed's identity the focus of their stump speeches. The president has called him "a jihadist" and suggested El-Sayed would "have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate" — derisive rhetoric denounced by critics as Islamophobic. At a recent rally in Grand Rapids, El-Sayed shot back at the president: "I don't even care that he remembers my whole name because he can just go on and call me 'senator' after November."

Recent polls show El-Sayed with a slight edge on Rogers; a new poll out Wednesday from CBS Detroit and other Michigan TV stations shows him ahead by 7 percentage points.

As Election Day nears, reports about El-Sayed's faith and background have ricocheted around the internet. Several outlets, including the…

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