Less than two weeks before Election Day, Michigan’s two Senate candidates met for the last time in a Southfield television studio just outside Detroit. It’s a race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate, and the contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become one of the most personal of the year.
On Wednesday night it came down to two questions: whether El-Sayed, a Michigan-born Muslim, can be trusted, and whether Rogers can keep Donald Trump’s voters while stepping carefully out of the president’s shadow.
For El-Sayed, the first question cuts deep. At the debate’s hottest moment, the child of Egyptian immigrants turned from the moderators to face Rogers directly.
“I am proud of America. I’m proud to be an American,” he said, adding that the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to pray as they choose.
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