One of the things Abdul El-Sayed was noted for during the Michigan Senate primary race was his supposed ability to "connect" with voters through social media platforms. He did this in part by sharing his own wacky videos and also by highlighting endorsements from well-known but controversial influencers like radical Twitch streamer Hasan "America deserved 9/11" Piker.
It's true that, in a modern world, a good social media game can definitely help a candidate for public office gain in popularity. The 2024 Trump campaign understood this very well, blitzing social media with images, video clips, memes, and ads - one of which (the "Kamala is for they/them" ad) is credited with helping Trump win over disaffected voters who felt abandoned by the Democrat Party, paving the way for his reelection to a second term in office.
But something El-Sayed doesn't comprehend, but which the Trump campaign did, is that it takes more than a good social media presence to go the distance - it takes a consistent ground game matched with a solid message that resonates and connects with a broad majority of voters, most of whom get that social media is not real life.
As we've reported, though El-Sayed won the primary, he did so by narrow margins over Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), winning by less than 5,000 votes out of over 1.5 million cast. As we also documented, El-Sayed has big problems with certain normally reliable Democrat voting blocs like black voters and Jewish voters, something that was confirmed with actual hard data: the primary votes.
That resulted in his GOP opponent, Trump-backed former congressman Mike Rogers, kicking the general election campaign season off with an outreach campaign to disaffected Democrats who have decided to put their country over their party.
El-Sayed has had no effective counter to this so far, beyond seemingly staged very public cringe encounters with black purported hecklers, whom he bizarrely responded to by proclaiming that he was "also African" (his parents are from Egypt).
SEE ALSO: El-Sayed Proclaims 'I'm Also African' in Response to Black Purported Heckler, and I Smell a Setup
El-Sayed's way of trying to get under Rogers' skin is by using social media to pretend to be a tough guy, even insinuating he would love to beat the 63-year-old up in a game of no-pads football. He's also bashed the Army veteran and former FBI special agent as a "coward" for supposedly refusing to commit to debating him. El-Sayed tried this on Wednesday, even telling Rogers that he had been able to find a flight for Rogers that he could take that would get him on a debate stage.
But Rogers had a smackdown of a response, informing El-Sayed that he had been a bit busy peeling off Democrat voters who didn't vote for him in the primary, but that debate arrangements could be discussed soon:
Hey Abdul, my calendar has been a little jammed up, I’ve been traveling the state meeting with the majority Democrats who didn’t vote for you.
Now that you’ve recovered from your underwhelming primary performance, we’re looking forward to making sure the rest of Michigan knows EXACTLY who you are. We’ll be in touch soon with a date that works — need to find a time between our meetings with folks that voted for Haley.
P.S. — have really enjoyed her media hits while you’ve been away.
Hey Abdul, my calendar has been a little jammed up, I’ve been traveling the state meeting with the majority Democrats who didn’t vote for you.
— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) August 20, 2026
Now that you’ve recovered from your underwhelming primary performance, we’re looking forward to making sure the rest of Michigan knows… https://t.co/ICZ9hoseku
The icing on the cake was a press conference Rogers held Thursday morning with some of those same Democrats:
Mike Rogers out here holding press conferences with Michigan Democrats endorsing him is a pretty impressive flex.
— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) August 20, 2026
Meanwhile Abdul is furiously tweeting from Hasan Piker's basement about how he can beat anyone at arm wrestling. https://t.co/wtlsjadTHw
WATCH: @KarenWhitsett4 warns Michigan voters about Abdul El-Sayed’s Medicare for All plan:
— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) August 20, 2026
"I do not want to lose my Blue Cross Blue Shield... You will lose your health insurance if the other candidate gets in office."
"That is what Medicare for All means." pic.twitter.com/ej3NtFMPhS
🚨Democrats in Michigan are LOVING Mike Rogers.
— Great Lakes HQ (@GreatLakes_HQ) August 20, 2026
"I’m not asking you to be a Republican. I’m asking you for the opportunity to earn your trust."
"Abdul El-Sayed and I have very different visions of Michigan and America." pic.twitter.com/eswZEft9SU
Mike Rogers gets it, and he sees very clearly that there are opportunities there for him in Michigan among disaffected Democrat voters that aren't often there for statewide Republican candidates in other states. As a result, he's taking the ball and running with it, understanding that these are the kinds of voters a Republican not named Donald Trump needs to win a statewide race in purple states like Michigan.
It's anybody's guess how this turns out in November. But as an outsider looking in, I'm feeling better about this race and the chances to flip this seat by the day.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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