This is an editorial, the opinion of Florida Man News Network. It is separate from our news reporting. We take no money from campaigns, and no candidate asked for or saw this endorsement before publication.
Updated Nov. 1, 2026: This editorial originally listed Rep. Haley Stevens among El-Sayed's supporters. On Nov. 1, Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers. Read our news report.
Mike Rogers had one job this fall: tell Michigan how he'd lower its bills. Instead, he spent months telling voters that his Muslim American opponent is a danger to the country. Fact-checkers found nothing to back it up. He kept saying it anyway.
That isn't a national security argument. It's race-baiting, and Michigan should bury it Tuesday by electing Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.
The campaign Rogers chose to run
Start with what's on the record.
President Donald Trump, Rogers' chief ally, called El-Sayed "Mohammed" and said he "goes back to the days of the Jihad" the night before their first debate (AP via Fox 5). At a rally, Trump called him a "radical jihadist" (Metro Times). Rogers didn't run from it. Over that same weekend, Metro Times reported, Rogers endorsed the terrorist label himself.
At the Republican midterm convention, Rogers tied El-Sayed to the Sept. 11 attacks (Michigan Advance). In a debate he asked him, "are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?" (Sinclair via News Channel 9). He dragged El-Sayed's birth mother into a debate (Metro Times). He ran an ad calling El-Sayed's "radical ideology" a "threat to our national security" (The Nerd Stash).
Researchers documented a surge in online hate aimed at El-Sayed while the attacks ran (Metro Times). Metro Times reviewed the campaign and found "repeated falsehoods." It stopped asking Rogers' campaign for comment "to avoid spreading falsehoods and bigoted attacks on El-Sayed's Muslim faith" (Metro Times).
When a newsroom stops calling you because your answers are bigoted lies, you are not running a serious campaign.
The lies, one by one
"El-Sayed believes America deserved 9/11." Pants on Fire (PolitiFact). Those were a streamer's words from 2019. El-Sayed said, "America didn't deserve 9/11" (FactCheck.org).
"He's tied to the Muslim Brotherhood." Bridge Michigan found no evidence, and found he "has never pledged support to the organization itself" (Bridge Michigan). Rogers said El-Sayed "didn't disavow" it. False: asked directly, El-Sayed said, "Sure, yeah, absolutely" (PolitiFact). Fact-checkers found the attacks on his birth mother's old job false or missing key context (Michigan Advance via States Newsroom).
And the hypocrisy: on Meet the Press, Kristen Welker confronted Rogers with his own 2012 comments about being willing to engage moderate members of the Brotherhood (Newsweek). The group was fine to talk to when Rogers was the one talking. It became a smear when a Muslim candidate stood in his way.
"He wants to ban gas-powered cars." False. Bridge Michigan found he "never directly advocated" a ban. He opposed an EV mandate and said Michigan should keep building combustion engines (Bridge Michigan).
"He wants to defund the police and empty the prisons." Mostly False (PolitiFact).
"He couldn't condemn a terrorist who attacked Jewish children." Mostly False (PolitiFact). He condemned the Temple Israel attack. When his follow-up comments hurt people, he said, "I made a mistake" (JTA). Rogers has never apologized for a single false thing he's said about El-Sayed.
"He's a fake doctor." He holds a doctor of medicine degree from Columbia (Bridge Michigan). PolitiFact: "he is a doctor" (PolitiFact). He's a public health doctor who ran Detroit's health department. He doesn't treat patients and shouldn't use "physician." Rogers turned a word choice into "fake," because "fake" fits the story he's selling about who belongs.
"He won't stand up to Iran." He told an Iranian American student, "I want freedom and democracy for the people of Iran, no question," and refused to cheerlead another regime-change war (Fox News). Michigan families paying for the Iran war at the pump know which candidate wants more of it.
El-Sayed's answer to all of it: "I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American" (Sinclair via News Channel 9). Barack Obama's answer: "We've seen this movie before. I starred in it" (Voz).
Florida Man, running for Senate in Michigan
We're a Florida news site. We know a Florida Man when we see one.
He left. Rogers moved to Florida after Congress and has spent two Senate campaigns explaining why (Washington Examiner). The Michigan Democratic Party says he took a $50,000 Florida homestead tax exemption in 2022 (Michigan Democratic Party). This year he was caught campaigning from Florida again, joking he'd rather be "on the beach in Florida" as Michigan braced for a winter storm (Metro Times).
He cashed in. He runs as a China hawk. The Detroit News reported that he and his wife gained hundreds of thousands of dollars in wealth through companies that partnered with Chinese firms (Michigan Democratic Party, citing the Detroit News). El-Sayed says Rogers made $14 million "advising the same corporations he was regulating" (Sinclair via Fox Baltimore), and that he took about $1 million from big pharma, then voted 19 times to keep drug prices high (Sinclair via KMPH).
He inflates his own legend. Rogers says he "spent years hunting terrorists" (Truthout). Metro Times found he was home in Washington during the bin Laden raid and learned the outcome in a phone call (Metro Times).
He's Trump's man. "Donald Trump is on the ballot through Mike Rogers," El-Sayed said, and they're "hip to hip on this war" (Sinclair via News Channel 9).
The man Michigan should send
El-Sayed ran Detroit's health department and served as Wayne County's health executive (theGrio). He's running on what life costs: health care, gas and groceries. The UAW backed him because he "has never taken a dime from corporate PACs" (Washington Examiner).
"I'm asking you to support Abdul El-Sayed for the United States Senate," Obama says in his ad. "Abdul's a doctor, and he's taken on special interests to fight for good jobs, better healthcare, and lower costs" (El-Sayed campaign). Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Kamala Harris back him (Washington Examiner). So do Sens. Elizabeth Warren (campaign) and Bernie Sanders (AP via Washington Times), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (CNN via KEYT) and Indivisible (Michigan Advance).
He beat $65 million in outside money in the primary (NBC News via NBCDFW). He's been outspent nearly 2-to-1 since (AP via WDBO). He's still ahead, 51.4% to 45.1% in the latest WDIV/Detroit News poll (ClickOnDetroit). That lead holds only if you vote.
Our endorsement
If Mike Rogers wins, every campaign in America learns that calling a Muslim American a terrorist is a winning strategy. Michigan can teach the opposite lesson on Tuesday. Florida Man News Network endorses Abdul El-Sayed for U.S. Senate.
How to vote
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find your polling place and ballot at the Michigan Voter Information Center. Absentee ballots must reach your city or township clerk or a drop box by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Don't mail it now; drop it off.