Port Huron, Mich. — After a town hall here, Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed told reporters that if Republicans want to cast him as the midterms’ central figure, he will not duck that fight.
Holding a handheld mic in a signature V-neck black shirt, he listened as a woman described burning through savings after emergency brain surgery, then sketched ideas for covering health care and paid leave for workers.
Later downstairs he branded Republican foe Mike Rogers gutless, said President Donald Trump feared a Michigan visit, and brushed off a question ranking Iran against Israel as a threat to the United States.
If elected, El-Sayed would be the nation’s first Muslim senator. He is crisscrossing Michigan to counter a Republican push backed by tens of millions that paints him as a dangerous radical.
He has also leaned into a confrontational style — mocking and taunting Trump and Rogers — that rubbed some Democrats the wrong way in a divisive primary against Rep. Haley Stevens.
No Republican has won a Michigan Senate race since 1994 even though the state backed Trump twice in three presidential campaigns, framing a consequential November contest.
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