Abdul El-Sayed said on Monday he would work with Donald Trump on policy matters benefiting Michigan if voters send him to Washington, even after Trump used a Sunday rally to attack him as a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member and vowed to stop him.
The exchange landed because El-Sayed is running in Michigan for a Senate seat that could help decide control of the Senate. He is facing former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers in one of the country’s most competitive races, and the clash between the two men now sits alongside the larger question of who voters trust to speak for the state.
Trump sharpened that fight on Sunday by bringing David Beamer onto the stage and repeating the line that El-Sayed was tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Beamer said the enemy is now right here among us, a remark that drew criticism and was described by some observers as Islamophobic. El-Sayed, who was born in the U.S. and would become the first Muslim senator if elected, answered by trying to pull the race back to Michigan rather than into the insult.
He said most voters judge character over skin color and dismissed the attack as the kind of politics that thrives on division. There are always a few small people who want to make America small like them, he said, adding that the vast majority of folks in this state believe in a big America. He also said Republicans have nothing to say about solving the problems in voters' lives and that their whole campaign strategy is to talk about me.
Rogers has tried to draw a line between himself and the harsher language used at the rally, saying on NBC's Meet the Press that he has never called El-Sayed a terrorist. But the issue is no longer just who said what on Sunday. It is whether Michigan voters see a candidate willing to work across the aisle on the state’s priorities, even after being singled out by Donald Trump, and that answer may matter as the race moves toward Oct 26, 2026.
