Republican Senate Candidate Tells Pro-Israel Group He Doesn’t Want Their Help Defeating Abdul El-Sayed: Report

(Photo via: @MikeRogersForMI on X)

Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and his campaign have reportedly asked the pro-Israel organization AIPAC “not to advertise on his behalf” as he’s set to face off against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel’s government.

Axios reported on the scoop about Rogers’s campaign on Saturday. According to the report, Rogers, who has the backing of President Donald Trump, spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin last week in Los Angeles. Following the meeting, AIPAC scrapped an-already completed ad for Rogers, which reportedly took aim at Al-Sayed.

People familiar with the situation told Axios that AIPAC officials were “angered” by Rogers’s request.

AIPAC is a highly-influential pro-Israel group with ties to numerous politicians. The group, however, has come under more scrutiny and criticism from some politicians and pundits upset by Israel’s strikes on Gaza, which have led to thousands of deaths. AIPAC spent $30 million trying to stop El-Sayed from winning his Democratic Party primary. El-Sayed defeated moderate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).

Other outside groups also pumped more than $60 million into El-Sayed’s primary race.

El-Sayed is among the vocal critics of AIPAC. Before his primary victory, he told the group, “AIPAC, if you’re listening, come back and burn it again.”

At a July debate, he said about the group, “For too long, our foreign policy has been handed to us by the likes of the state of Israel and AIPAC, who has made sure that Democrats and Republicans are doing their bidding,” and he accused Stevens of being “bought” by corporate interests.

The progressive Democrat has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading a “genocide” in Gaza where the Israeli military has targeted members of the terror group Hamas after the October 7 attack.

Rogers’s team reportedly warned AIPAC that they expected El-Sayed to win his primary. They shut down AIPAC’s plan to continue airing ads critical of El-Sayed, fearing they would only backfire and boost the progressive Democrat.

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