Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers used the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel to attack Democratic rival Abdul El-Sayed, accusing him of spreading antisemitism and sympathizing with terrorists. In a statement Wednesday, Rogers accused El-Sayed of fundraising off October 7, campaigning with progressive commentator Hasan Piker and appearing to sympathize with the attacker who targeted Temple Israel in Michigan earlier this year. "At a time when we especially need to turn the temperature down and stand alongside our Jewish friends and neighbors, he only spreads antisemitism and incites more violence," Rogers said.
The attack is part of Rogers' broader effort to make El-Sayed's views on Israel, Hamas and antisemitism a central issue in the closely watched Michigan Senate race, where Rogers has trailed in polling in the weeks leading up to the November 3 election. El-Sayed and his campaign have not yet commented on the anniversary as of Wednesday morning. Newsweek reached out to El-Sayed's campaign for comment Wednesday.
El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected, has been an outspoken critic of Israel's war in Gaza, which he has described as a genocide, and has called for ending U.S. military aid to Israel. Rogers' Wednesday attack also revived a controversy from last year's anniversary. On October 7, 2025, El-Sayed's campaign, which was still in the primary race at the time, sent supporters a fundraising email criticizing Israel's ground invasion of Gaza while making no mention of the Hamas attack that preceded it.
A campaign spokesperson said the email "mistakenly went out" the day before. Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow, then one of El-Sayed's primary rivals, called it "beyond tone deaf." Scrutiny grew over the spring, when El-Sayed rallied at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who had called Orthodox Jews "inbred" and described Zionism as a "mental illness." Michigan Representative Haley Stevens, a Democrat and El-Sayed's rival for the Democratic nomination at the time, accused him of "choosing to campaign with someone who has a history of antisemitic rhetoric." El-Sayed later put distance between himself and Piker. Israel also dominated the money in the Democratic primary.
The United Democracy Project, AIPAC's largest super PAC, spent a record $30.6 million in this race backing Stevens. El-Sayed made AIPAC and the tens of millions of dollars spent to support Stevens a centerpiece of his campaign, casting the contest as "the many versus the money." Stevens, in turn, said El-Sayed wants to "blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans." On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas militants fired several thousand rockets into Israel and thousands of militants attacked through holes blown in the border fence or with boats or motorized paragliders. Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities cited by the , left the territory in ruins and sparked an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Rogers' attack comes as recent polls show El-Sayed holding a narrow edge, with several of the latest surveys putting the race within a single point. A Quantus Insights poll conducted October 5 to 6 found El-Sayed leading Rogers 48 percent to 47 percent among 744 likely voters.
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