Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed invoked the teachings of Jesus Christ to attack Republican opponent Mike Rogers' faith as a "simulacrum", a move that drew immediate condemnation from the Michigan GOP and the Republican National Committee.
El-Sayed, who defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in last week's Democratic primary, made the remarks during an appearance on the "I've Had It Podcast." Host Jennifer Welch raised questions about members of Rogers' campaign faith coalition and their connection to Living Word Church. El-Sayed seized the opening to challenge the sincerity of Rogers' Christianity, as Fox News Digital reported.
The two candidates will face each other in November for the open Michigan Senate seat vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. El-Sayed's decision to make his opponent's faith a campaign issue, while invoking Christ's teachings as a Muslim candidate, handed Republicans a ready-made contrast heading into a general election fight that both parties view as competitive.
On the podcast, El-Sayed did not simply disagree with Rogers on policy. He went after the man's relationship with God. El-Sayed told the host:
"He's going to hide behind this simulacrum of faith, which clearly, you know, if you followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, it was about upending the system against the richest and most powerful in the ways that they used their power and their money to subjugate other people. Like, that was the essential teaching."
The word "simulacrum", meaning a shallow imitation of the real thing, was the sharpest edge. El-Sayed was not arguing that Rogers misapplied Scripture on a policy question. He was asserting that Rogers' entire public faith is a performance.
That is a bold claim from any politician. It is an especially provocative one from a candidate who has already faced scrutiny over his own associations with controversial religious figures.
Rogers fired back on Fox News' "Hannity," framing the race as a clash between Michigan values and El-Sayed's progressive worldview. He told host Sean Hannity:
"When I go back, I want to, you know, make sure we're protecting our faith, and our families, and our factories, while he's advocating... doing away with our fireworks, football, the 4th of July."
Rogers added a direct shot at El-Sayed's record of public statements: "This guy spent hours hating on what most Michiganders would enjoy in their pastimes, and he should be held into account for that."
Republican officials did not wait long. Michigan Republican Party spokesperson Ted Goodman issued a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday challenging El-Sayed's standing to lecture Christians on their own faith.
"It's quite something for Mr. El-Sayed to lecture Christians on the teachings of Jesus while dismissing a man's sincere faith as somehow, 'simulacrum.'"
Goodman went further, tying Rogers' faith to the broader American tradition. "Whether one is a practicing Christian or not, no serious person can minimize the profound contributions of Christian teaching, morality, and philosophy to the founding principles and enduring greatness of America, or to the character of public servants like Mike Rogers who live them out," he said.
The RNC's national spokesperson, Natalie Baldassarre, was blunter. "He's fundamentally incompatible with Western values and invoking Jesus' name isn't going to change that," she told Fox News Digital.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, took to X, formerly Twitter, to challenge Rogers to a no-pads football game. "Since you're too afraid to debate me, how about you 'hold me accountable' on a football field instead," El-Sayed posted. "Tackle, no pads like we used to play when we were kids. I'd be happy to show you how much I love football."
The football challenge appeared to be a response to Rogers' accusation that El-Sayed had disparaged the sport and other American traditions. Fox News Digital reached out to both campaigns for additional comment and did not immediately receive a response.
El-Sayed's faith broadside lands at a moment when his candidacy already faces questions about the company he keeps. He has refused to cut ties with controversial commentator Hasan Piker despite alarm from Jewish voters in Michigan, a constituency Democrats cannot afford to lose in a swing state.
Those concerns have grown loud enough that some Jewish Democrats in Michigan have signaled potential defections from El-Sayed's campaign, a development that could reshape the general election math.
El-Sayed won the primary against Stevens, who had establishment support, but unifying the party for November has proved difficult. He has already reached out to Barack Obama for help bridging divisions left by a bruising primary fight.
On policy, El-Sayed carries vulnerabilities beyond coalition politics. He has conceded that his Medicare for All plan would mean higher taxes for middle-class workers, an admission Rogers and Republicans will not let Michigan voters forget.
Michigan is a state where church attendance, hunting weekends, and high-school football still define community life across large stretches of the map. Telling voters that a candidate's Christianity is fake, and doing so by positioning yourself as the more faithful interpreter of Jesus' message, is a gamble that assumes the electorate shares your theology rather than your opponent's.
El-Sayed's argument, stripped to its core, is that Rogers' conservatism disqualifies him from claiming Christian faith because Christ's teachings were about "upending the system" against the wealthy and powerful. That is a theological interpretation. It is also a political one, and it maps neatly onto a progressive economic framework that many Michigan churchgoers would reject.
Rogers, for his part, chose not to engage on theology at all. He pivoted to cultural identity: faith, families, factories, fireworks, football, the Fourth of July. Whether that list sounds like a bumper sticker or a creed depends on the listener. But in a Michigan general election, it is a list that resonates in the counties that decide close races.
Goodman's statement framed the contrast plainly. El-Sayed chose to question another man's faith. Rogers chose to defend the traditions that faith sustains. Republican officials clearly believe Michigan voters will notice who did which.
When a candidate decides to tell voters that his opponent's religion is a fraud, he is not making an argument about policy. He is making a claim about another person's soul. Michigan voters will decide in November whether that kind of claim belongs in a Senate race, or whether it tells them more about the man who made it.
