U.S. Senate is the top of the ticket in Michigan 

Mike Rogers told Republicans this past weekend, “(Abdul) El-Sayed wants to represent Palestine. I want to represent Michigan.” 

Monday night, El-Sayed got wide national exposure for equating youth gender transition operations to circumcisions in a match of wits with Fox News host Jesse Watters. 

It’s another news cycle in Michigan’s exploding U.S. Senate race. National reporters are feasting on the news nuggets both Rogers and El-Sayed are feeding.  

There’s no active presidential race to cover, so this fills that void nicely. 

We have a traditional Republican who has adopted MAGA talking points by political necessity going against a charismatic Bernie Sanders-style progressive who happens to be Muslim and believes Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack is genocide. 

If you’re a national political reporter, what’s not to love? 

For Rogers, anything to distract the world from Trump bumbling around in Iran is a net positive. For El-Sayed . . . well, he just can’t help himself. 

Michigan Democrats just wanted a normal mid-term campaign cycle where they could blame every social ill of the day on the incumbent president. Health care costs are through the roof. Blame it on the One Big Beautiful Bill.  

Gas was at $5 a gallon not so recently. Blame it on the Iran war. Nobody is affording anything anymore. Blame it on the tariffs. 

The playbook writes itself. And now, Democrats have no choice but to buckle up and enjoy the ride to God knows where, the pages of the playbook flying away in the wind. 

They have no choice. Like it or not, the U.S. Senate race is, for the first time in my 25 years covering this stuff, the top of the ticket. 

El-Sayed v. Rogers is what everyone is talking about. Data centers. Flock cameras. Palestine. Hate crimes.  

Why push your fork around recycled generalities coming out of the boring governor’s race on the economy and housing when you can dig into Rogers calling El-Sayed a “con-man” and a “fraud” or El-Sayed lecturing Rogers that if he’s not going to pronounce his name correctly, “keep the name out your damn mouth.” 

Do we really care about which legislator the gubernatorial candidates picked as their running mate when right-wing agitator Jake Lang is drawing a couple thousand to cause a commotion in Dearborn? 

We try to parse through the thick rhetoric on how, exactly, Jocelyn Benson or John James plans to nibble around the edges on lowering health care costs. 

Or we can dig into the real debate of our time. Is it time to offer Medicare for all?  

Would our health care system collapse? Would we be waiting in the emergency room for weeks for care? Every other industrialized country has figured out some version of universal health care, right? 

That’s the debate El-Sayed and Rogers are having right now.  

Sure, a U.S. Senator would be in a position to push for or enact a nationalized health care system while a governor could not, but that only proves the point. Federal issues are consuming the political debate. 

And with control of the U.S. Senate possibly coming down to who wins Michigan, millions and millions of more TV and streaming advertisements are coming our way.  

Forget about staying away from the news or social media. If your cell phone picks up that you’re remotely interested in politics, an ad will pop up, eventually, on a Google search. 

The volume will be intense. The Rogers campaign is turning down AIPAC money that fueled Haley Stevens’s primary effort. They don’t need the strings attached to that money when they’ll have more than enough from their traditional supporters. 

Meanwhile, El-Sayed could be spending more time in Detroit churches or finding new ways to get his stepmother’s parents into more ads. 

Or he could be holding press conferences that indirectly connect Republicans to Islamophobia, which he did Tuesday, or finding new ways to attract far-right Republicans who fear Big Brother is right around the corner. 

Is your hair blown back yet? If not, we have two full months until Election Day. 

John James and Jocelyn Benson may occupy the first line of Michigan’s ballot. But politically, they’re no longer at the top of the ticket.