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See the full story · 2 sourcesDETROIT — After falling just 20,000 votes shy of winning the U.S. Senate election in battleground Michigan two years ago, Republican Mike Rogers is urging Democrats, including Jewish voters, to cross party lines and vote for him as he makes a second straight Senate bid.
After a combustible and divisive Democratic Senate primary in which Abdul El-Sayed narrowly edged more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens for the nomination, Rogers is heavily courting Democrats disaffected with their left-wing nominee as he works to flip a must-hold seat for the Democrats in the midterm elections .
A key part of Rogers' pitch is directed toward Jewish Democrats, who are uneasy with El–Sayed's vocal criticism of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and who are outraged by El-Sayed's association with controversial online streamer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly railed against Israel to his massive online audience.
"I usually vote Democrat, but I'm going to be voting for Mike Rogers," Rabbi Asher Lopatin said as he stood next to Rogers this week as the former congressman and former FBI agent unveiled his Democrats for Mike coalition at a campaign event on Detroit's west side.
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A former Wayne County Health Department director, El-Sayed, if elected in November, would make history as the nation's first Muslim senator. The epidemiologist who unsuccessfully ran for governor as an insurgent candidate in 2018 has made support for Medicare-for-all a major component of his campaign and has also called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
But it's El-Sayed's stance and comments on Israel that have offended some Jewish people in Michigan, a state that also has a large Arab and Muslim population.
El-Sayed used the word "bloodthirsty" to characterize Israel's military moves in Gaza in an MS NOW interview this month and accused Israeli leadership of genocide against Palestinians. He has argued against unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, as have other progressive politicians. And El-Sayed has repeatedly declined to directly answer whether Israel has the right to exist.
But El-Sayed has also stated that he stands "in solidarity with my Jewish sisters and brothers" to "condemn antisemitism."
Lopatin, a rabbi in suburban Detroit who has made trips to the Middle East in search of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, argued that El-Sayed "has shown contempt for the Jewish community and, frankly, for American values by making Hasan Piker, a vicious antisemite and racist, his campaign surrogate and somebody he buddies up with."
Piker, who endorsed El-Sayed in the nomination battle, appeared at some of the candidate's campaign events, including the primary night party in Detroit. Piker, who has repeatedly stood by his comments critical of Israel, was also with El-Sayed at a party in Detroit on the eve of the primary.
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"I do have a lot of issues with a lot of policies of the Trump administration," Lopatin told Fox News Digital. "But it's more important to make a statement that we cannot let someone like Abdul El-Sayed get into the Senate."
Lopatin said Jewish voters who "normally vote Democrat are going to vote for Mike Rogers, and I'm hearing that. And there's a growing movement like that. And I think the more they meet him ... the more they're going to feel comfortable voting for a Republican, sometimes for the first time in their lives."
Stacy, a Jewish voter from suburban Detroit who asked that only her first name be used, told Fox News Digital she's also going to vote for Rogers.
"The Democratic Party is going way too far to the left for us moderates," Stacy, who backed Stevens in the Senate primary, emphasized.
Asked specifically about her party's nominee, Stacy said, "Abdul El-Sayed has been campaigning by putting a target on all Jews' backs."
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Some Jewish leaders in Michigan are circulating an open letter urging Jewish Democrats and independents in the Great Lakes battleground state to sign their names in support of Rogers. The news was first reported this week by the Jewish Insider and confirmed by Fox News Digital.
"This is sort of a do-or-die moment," a person involved with the letter who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News Digital. "There are many lifelong Democrats who are feeling homeless. ... It’s not just a leftward drift but has turned into an anti-Jewish drift as well."
But Joan Lowenstein, endorsement chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, doesn't condone the letter and told Fox News Digital her group is keeping its distance.
"We are a part of the Michigan Democratic Party, and are not going to advocate that anyone vote for a Republican," she said.
But Lowenstein, who also sits on the Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee, said those behind the letter "are passionate about this and feel it’s an existential issue, and I think that represents a lot of people. And, so, they have to do what they have to do.
"It’s sort of 50/50. Half the people I talk to say, ‘I could never vote for Abdul El-Sayed because of things he’s said about Israel and, consequentially, the Jewish community. And the other 50% say ‘it is so important for Jews as Americans to have an Democratic Senate that I could never vote for Mike Rogers.'"
Rogers and El-Sayed are running to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. The race is among a dozen that will determine if the Democrats win back the Senate majority from the GOP.
Rogers, in an interview with Fox News Digital, reiterated that he's not asking Democratic voters to become Republicans. And he highlighted concerns he's heard from Democratic Jewish voters in Michigan.
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