Black surrogates of U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed are ramping up attacks against his Republican opponent with less than a month until the Nov. 3 election.
Speakers at a press conference Tuesday criticized Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers for his role in passing the law that took away local control of Detroit’s school system as majority floor leader of the Michigan Senate.
Local lawmakers joined leaders with Detroit Action and the American Federation of Teachers to push back on Rogers’ campaign that is turning up in Detroit more than Republican campaigns of years past.
Detroit Federation of Teachers President Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins at the press conference said PA 10 stripped local control from Detroit Public Schools. Then-Gov. John Engler signed Public Act 10 of 1999, paving the way for the Detroit school board takeover, which Republican lawmakers argued was needed to improve academic performance.
There were also some Detroit Democrats that supported the move, like the late former state Sen. Virgil Smith.
The Republican governor replaced it with a seven-member “reform” panel, six of which were appointed by then-mayor Dennis Archer and the state superintendent of public instruction serving as the seventh member.
“We do not want any reoccurrence of an emergency manager, we are the people, and we rebuke any attempt to remove power from the people,” Wilson-Lumpkins said.
Black civic leaders, Detroit elected officials and union presidents met at AFT Michigan on Jefferson Avenue Tuesday morning holding signs that read, “Detroit vs. Mike Rogers.”
“When we look at someone’s track record, they can go around on the campaign trail now and speak and act like they support Detroiters or act like they support Black Michiganders, but Mike Rogers’ record speaks for itself,” Detroit council member Denzel McCampbell said at the union headquarters.
In remarks ahead of the 1999 vote, Rogers explained his vote to strip the million residents of Detroit at the time of their voting power, saying he “wanted to be sensitive to the issue of taking away the ability to vote.” He shared a story a young single mother and her son fighting for better academic opportunities, saying he would do anything to create a better life for Detroit public schools students.
Rogers spoke with members of the media last month outside Detroit’s Cody High School to promote the Beyond Basics reading remediation program that he says is a model to getting kids to proficient reading levels.
On Wednesday, his wife, Kristi Rogers, passed out $10 gas cards to customers at a Trump-themed discount gas station on Detroit’s eastside. While shooting a video for her husband’s campaign, Rogers acknowledged the war in Iran’s effect on high gas prices, saying the war must come to an end.
“I really don’t know what to believe anymore because I look at both sides,” said gas station customer Yolanda Coleman, who doesn’t blame high gas prices on the war in Iran. “Nobody is really upholding what they’re saying and the people are suffering from all of this.”
Coleman was one of many customers who put on a Mike Rogers for U.S. Senate sticker in exchange for a gas card at the station on Harper and Cadieux. Another resident, Dennis Ester said, “it takes a lot of courage to come out here to the hood and do this.”
Ester said he already planned to vote for Rogers because he hasn’t seen El-Sayed in his neighborhood.
State Rep. Tonya Myers Phillips, D-Detroit, at the press conference Tuesday said Michigan needs representation in D.C. that will stand up to President Donald Trump’s education policies that have downsized the Department of Education and its role in overseeing federal education programs.
“We need a senator who recognizes the value and the necessity of teachers adequately compensating teachers in our classroom,” Myers Phillips said. “We need a senator who’s going to stand up to Donald Trump and reverse the gutting of the resources for our federal education programs… We need a senator who recognizes the value and the necessity of teachers adequately compensating teachers in our classroom. Because next to parents, they are the ones who are spending the most time and influence with our babies.”
The press conference on Tuesday comes as the Democratic Party tries to rally Black voters to support El-Sayed. Former President Barack Obama visits Detroit on Saturday, Oct. 24 to rally voters on the first day of early voting.
African American voters have received more attention this election cycle because of the dynamics within the party and El-Sayed’s razor-close primary victory over U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who won the Black vote. Supporters of Stevens criticized El-Sayed for supporting the Uncommitted movement, a protest against former President Joe Biden’s pro-Israel stance, despite the former health director endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris once she became the nominee.
Racial tensions between Black and Arab communities in Metro Detroit have also contributed to some skepticism of El-Sayed from voters.
“It is based on a lot of misinformation, but also based on some history that many Detroiters have experienced unfortunately due to some poor race relations between some of our convenient store and gas station owners,” Wilson-Lumpkins said. “However, we do not want to generalize that poor relationship and heap that onto Abdul El-Sayed.”
He would be the first Muslim U.S. Senator ever elected if he defeats Rogers in November.
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters is retiring at the end of the term, which left the seat open for Republicans to try and take for the first time since 1992. Outside groups are spending millions in attack ads against El-Sayed that have highlighted his faith and his connections to controversial media figures and organizations.
A new ad featuring “Democrats for Mike Rogers” claims El-Sayed, “cares more about the West Bank than West Detroit.”
“I feel like he cares about Palestine more than Michigan,” a person says in the ad posted to social media.
That’s been a familiar line of criticism pointed at U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who El-Sayed has said was instrumental in motivating him to run for Senate after news broke that Peters plans to retire.
Tlaib won her primary in August by 69%, defeating Inkster Mayor Byron Nolen and former state lawmaker Shanelle Jackson. Jackson, who received 22% of the vote, accused Tlaib of not caring about Black constituents.
Both Tlaib and El-Sayed are outspoken critics of Israel’s government and its war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the military organization which controls the Gaza strip.
Rogers spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet called the Tuesday press conference, “fourth quarter theatrics” that doesn’t “change the fact that he was a base problem,” Michigan Advance reports.
“Detroiters are tired of Democrats taking them for granted. And while Abdul gives them slogans, Mike Rogers is showing up in Detroit with real solutions,” Brouillet told Michigan Advance. “He will put phonics and shop class back in schools to set students up for success — after Democrat failures dropped us to 45th in the nation for education.”