Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers will not appear at Tuesday night’s scheduled debate against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on FOX 2 Detroit, after his campaign accused moderator Roop Raj of favoring El-Sayed.
Rogers’ communications director, Alyssa Brouillet, said in a statement that Raj has shown a pattern of “bias and favoritism” toward El-Sayed, citing past comments in which Raj called El-Sayed “brilliant” and was praised in return by left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who called Raj “my GOAT.”
“Michiganders deserve to see their candidates engage in a healthy, fair debate — not one compromised by media bias,” Brouillet said. “Mike looks forward to making his case to working families and to making Abdul answer to voters for the conman he is.”
The Rogers campaign also pointed to Raj’s handling of a Republican gubernatorial primary debate as further evidence of what it called a pattern of favoring Democratic candidates.
Skipping the FOX 2 debate does not mean Rogers is avoiding El-Sayed altogether. The two are still scheduled to meet on Oct. 8 at WOOD TV8 and again on Oct. 21 at WXYZ.
Raj responded on X, writing that “curating social media ads and then appearing on network cable channels of their political leaning for easy interviews does nothing for the electorate back here in Michigan.”
He also defended his record with Rogers directly, saying the two had “had a very good, fair and productive conversation on many occasions,” recalling a past forum with Rogers and Sen. Elissa Slotkin at the Motor City Casino. “I respect his experience and leadership,” Raj wrote. “I hope he is able to make time for this debate. I’ll do my job with integrity and responsibility as I always strive to do.”
The dispute is the latest example of a recurring friction point in campaign season, as candidates increasingly weigh whether to participate in debates moderated by journalists they view as unsympathetic, rather than accept the forum as offered.
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