El-Sayed, Rogers Split on Who Michigan's Economy Serves

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit Economic Club audience Tuesday that a handful of giant corporations now dominate markets, leaving Michigan families to pay the price. “Old ideas have not been working,” he said. “We are suffering for them.” Republican Mike Rogers, his opponent in the U.S. Senate race, offered a different diagnosis and cure.

The two candidates appeared separately on Oct. 20 at the Detroit Masonic Temple, taking questions for about 25 minutes each. The event came two weeks before Election Day and one day before a second televised debate. The race could decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate.

Competition, Unions and Health Coverage

El-Sayed, a former public health official from Ann Arbor, called himself a capitalist, then described a market he says no longer works for ordinary people. “The problem right now, however, is that we have a few very, very large corporations who dominate a ton of our economy,” he said.

He made his point with a show of hands. How many people in the room had a cellphone made by Apple or Samsung? Most hands went up. El-Sayed said that showed an oligopoly: a market with limited competition. “I think we need to start standing up to monopolies and oligopolies and start regulating them,” he said.

His agenda: restore “competitiveness in a market,” increase union influence and provide government-funded health care coverage to everyone. He connected that last proposal directly to the business community in the room. “Guaranteeing health insurance to everybody in this country would be the single most important thing we could do for small business,” he said.

Rogers' Case: Access and Low Taxes

Rogers, a former U.S. House member from White Lake, emphasized his bipartisan legislative record and ties to President Donald Trump's administration. Trump endorsed him in July 2025. “My thing is this: Send somebody back that can actually go and get a meeting and fix it,” Rogers said. He argued that sending someone whose goal was to “gouge the president's eyes out” wouldn't help Michigan. “We don't have a lot of time to get our very low metrics up,” he added.

His economic platform centered on boosting American-made energy, keeping taxes low and improving student reading scores. Rogers criticized what he called some Democrats' “anti-business” policies and said he would “use business to solve our problems.” “I think that's the difference,” he said.

Rogers ended by recounting a conversation with an elected official in Detroit, who told him the city would not become a “Democratic Socialist city.” “That's what's on the ballot,” Rogers said, pointing to support El-Sayed has received from prominent democratic socialists, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Rogers described their proposals as “big government, government control, more rules, more regulations, another Green New Deal.”

The Stakes

Organizers said dozens of reporters attended, including journalists from multiple foreign countries, among them Finland and Japan. The race is a microcosm of the national fight this fall. The winner will succeed U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, who announced in January 2025 that he wouldn't seek a third six-year term.

Some political observers say Democrats need to hold Peters' seat to have any chance of flipping the GOP-led Senate. Republican Vice President JD Vance called the Michigan race the most important in the country when he spoke in Monroe the previous week.

El-Sayed took reporters' questions after the event. Rogers didn't. Asked whether Rogers amounts to more of the same in Washington, El-Sayed said: “I don't know what Mike Rogers is. He won't say anything except for he refers to himself in consistency with what Donald Trump wants. I don't think he has an economic viewpoint. I think his economic viewpoint is go along to get along.”

Why This Matters:

The Detroit forum put a basic question to Michigan voters: who should the economy answer to? El-Sayed argues that concentrated corporate power limits competition, and that regulation, stronger unions and guaranteed health coverage can spread security more widely, including to small businesses. Rogers favors access to the administration, low taxes and a lighter regulatory hand. The choice will shape how much oversight large companies face and whether health coverage remains tied to employers or becomes a public guarantee. Senate control may ride on the outcome. Michigan's decision will reach well beyond its borders, affecting workers, small-business owners and families nationwide.