MARQUETTE, Mich. — Abdul El-Sayed likes to say that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance “can’t seem to keep my name out of their mouth.”

And the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan is more than happy to return the favor.

Rolling through the Upper Peninsula last week on his “It shouldn’t be this hard” bus tour alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., El-Sayed carried his progressive message into traditionally conservative territory.

At all three stops, he leaned into taunting the president and vice president. Hard.

In Escanaba, El-Sayed called Trump “the worst symptom of the disease of our politics.” In Iron Mountain, he called the president “a punk” and “a good old billionaire who has never cared about people in his life.” When he asked the crowd what else Trump is, they yelled back: “A pedophile.”

“I was just gonna say he has very small hands,” El-Sayed responded.

El-Sayed saved some of his sharpest jabs for Vance, an Ohio native, who had campaigned earlier that day in Monroe with former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee. At that rally, Vance called El-Sayed “a little weasel.”

Within hours, El-Sayed fired back from his own stage in Marquette.

“You know it’s funny, he called me a — JD Vance called me a ‘little weasel’ today,” he remarked on stage. “I’m like ‘No, no, no. What you’re talking about is a fucking wolverine.’”

He mocked Vance for holding a “cute little rally” with the “five people who like him” — and reached for the storied rivalry between Ohio State and the University of Michigan.

“Imagine being the candidate from Michigan and having to invite somebody from Ohio to campaign for you,” El-Sayed said. “I was like, Ohio? Bottom of the barrel, bro.”

The trolling, to be sure, is not unprompted. Trump has taken a particular interest in El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim elected to the Senate. The president has referred to him by his middle name, Mohamed, labeled him “a Jihadist lunatic” and, earlier this month, released a video from the Oval Office calling him “bad news.”

“We cannot take a chance of having this guy be in the United States Senate,” Trump said.

But it is set to come to a head Wednesday night, when El-Sayed and Rogers meet for the second, and final, debate in Michigan’s marquee Senate race. In their first meeting on stage, sparks flew. Their second go-around is certain to showcase more.

The escalating rhetoric reflects the stakes. Michigan’s Senate race is rated a toss-up, and the winner could help determine which party controls the chamber for the final two years of Trump’s presidency. El-Sayed and Rogers are set to meet for their final debate. And the name-calling is only intensifying ahead of Trump’s planned Oct. 25 rally in Michigan — a visit Rogers himself has been noticeably reluctant to embrace.

Asked by MS NOW after the candidates’ first debate on Oct. 8 in Grand Rapids whether he wanted Trump to come to Michigan, Rogers was noncommittal.

“Yes, he’d be welcome — I’d love to have him talk to those people and get them fired up,” Rogers said, after commending Trump’s no-tax-on-tips policy and touting the positive effects the tariffs have had on cherry farmers and automakers in the state.

Pressed on whether he would appear alongside Trump, Rogers moved on without answering. He shared a stage with the president at a rally in July.

Rogers’ caution reflects how closely divided Michigan is. Trump carried the state by 1.4 percentage points in 2024. That same year, Rogers lost his Senate bid to Democrat Elissa Slotkin by about a third of a percentage point.

And the president’s standing there has slipped. A Marist poll in September found that 41% of Michigan voters approve of the job Trump is doing, while 57% disapprove.

El-Sayed is trying to capitalize on both Trump’s poor numbers and Rogers’ ambivalence. In Escanaba, he dared the president to come to Michigan and cast the election as a referendum on Trump’s agenda — turning one of the president’s own lines against him.

Expletives flew. Again.

“Donald is thinking about coming to Michigan,” he said, drawing boos from the crowd. “But it’s OK, actually, you know what? Donald is going to come and remind everybody that Donald is on the ballot.”

“Donald, come,” he continued. “Tell everybody in Michigan that you are on the ballot. Your shit tariff war is on the ballot. Your dumbass war with Iran is on the ballot. Your Medicaid cuts are on the ballot. Your ballroom’s on the ballot. So come tell everybody about it. And if you won’t, I will.”

The back-and-forth is also a window into what politics has become in the Trump era. Since Trump burst onto the national political scene in 2015, his brash, insult-first style has seeped into politics more broadly. El-Sayed — a former college athlete who is fluent in social media, takes questions from reporters at nearly every turn, relishes the back-and-forth of a Fox News interview and rarely backs off a position under criticism — is in many ways a product of that shift.

Trump likes to spar with his opponents. El-Sayed is meeting him in the ring.

Asked about his jabs at Trump in an interview with MS NOW, El-Sayed smiled slightly as he addressed the crowd’s answer in Iron Mountain.

“When it comes to Trump, like, I didn’t say anything about his proclivities, that was the crowd,” he said.

“They know,” he added. “They understand.”

El-Sayed has also shown a knack for turning Trump’s insults around — and, in some cases, back on the president.

At the Iron Mountain town hall, he said Trump used to mispronounce his first name, Abdul. After El-Sayed called him out for it, the president switched to his middle name.

“Now that I called it out, he likes to call me by my middle name, which is Mohamed. And the funny thing about it is, Abdul means servant. Abdul El-Sayed means servant leader,” El-Sayed said. “Mohamed means the praised one. So he took me from servant to praised one.”

The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers.

“Whatever you want to call me,” he continued, “I’m going to make sure you’re going to have to use the word senator in front of it in November.”

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For the second time in two months, President Donald Trump is heading to South Carolina to try to save a Senate seat Republicans considered safe until recently.

The reliably red bastion hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1998. But Republican Sen. Darline Graham is locked in an unexpectedly close race with Democrat Annie Andrews, and the GOP is pouring money and manpower into South Carolina in the campaign’s final stretch.

They have their work cut out.

Trump’s rally Wednesday in Clemson comes at a precarious moment for the party. On Tuesday, the Cook Political Report shifted the race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.” It was the outlet’s second downgrade of Republicans’ grip on the seat in recent weeks, and comes as recent polls show a close contest.

The race has been a rollercoaster from the start. After the shocking death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republicans scrambled to coalesce around his sister, Darline, who was appointed to the seat. Then, during a high-stakes debate on Aug. 18, she said she was “not that informed on national security,” setting off a frenzied effort to pick up the pieces.

Republicans in the state are clear-eyed about where the problem lies.

“There’s no question that there’s a drag at the top of the ticket,” one South Carolina GOP official told MS NOW, referring to Graham.

The official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the race, said Republicans aren’t as united behind Graham as they should be this late in the campaign.

“There are voters who are voting third party, there are the voters who are voting elsewhere, and there doesn’t seem to be as much cohesion amongst the Republican electorate around her,” the official said.

The polls suggest it’s not a South Carolina problem, but rather a Graham problem. An October survey from Trafalgar Group, a Republican polling firm, found Graham leading by just three percentage points, 49 percent to 46 percent. That same month, Trafalgar found Alan Wilson, the GOP nominee for governor, ahead of Democrat Jermaine Johnson by 16 points, 52.5 percent to 36.5 percent.

Republicans are spending accordingly. Earlier this month, the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put a last-minute $5 million into the race as nerves hit overdrive. Since the Aug. 18 debate, Republicans have spent more than $22.5 million on the race, compared with $17.1 million from Democrats, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

To some Republicans, spending a single dollar in South Carolina is a waste in a year when control of both chambers of Congress is up for grabs.

“It’s political malpractice that we’re even having to spend money in the state,” the GOP official said.

That money, the official argued, belongs in battleground states, not a ruby-red one.

“South Carolina should not be a state where we have to spend money to shore up a Republican nominee,” the official said. “That money is better used in other states, but we are here, and this is the cards that we have to play right now.”

Trump is the party’s other big investment. Clemson sits in the state’s Upstate region, territory Republican Rep. Ralph Norman dominated in the August primary. Norman carried Pickens and Anderson, the two counties that include Clemson, by 16 and 15 percentage points, respectively.

There is some evidence the approach works. In this summer’s special primary, Graham finished second in Horry County, home to Myrtle Beach, with 35 percent to 42 percent for GOP Rep. Russell Fry, who represents the area. After Trump rallied there and Fry endorsed her, Graham won 73 percent of the vote in the runoff.

A source in South Carolina Republican politics said Trump’s visit to the northern part of the state this week is “wise,” pointing to the Horry County turnout.

“It’s gonna help fire up the most conservative part of the state right before the election,” the source said. “I think it’ll help a lot.”

But Trump’s backing only goes so far. Despite his endorsement, Graham couldn’t lock down the nomination early and was forced into a runoff.

There’s also an awkward subplot to Wednesday’s trip.

When she arrived in Washington, Graham became the face of a bill imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran, picking up where her brother left off. Congress passed it, and Trump signed it into law. It was a major achievement for the new senator, and one she frequently cited as proof she could get things done, especially as she fielded questions about her qualifications after the debate.

But earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order exempting Russia from the sanctions, gutting her signature achievement.

Asked about the move, Graham said the legislation is “one of the tools he can use to do that,” adding: “It’s up to him whether or not he chooses to use it.”

She also made clear she disagreed.

“Personally, I would choose to keep the pressure on Russia … because I don’t trust Putin, and I don’t trust Russia,” Graham said.

Meanwhile, the campaign has reached a fever pitch. Earlier this month, Trump attacked Andrews on Truth Social, using an anti-transgender slur against her and writing that she does not represent the “values of the great people of South Carolina” and “is not for South Carolina.”

Andrews told WYFF, a Greenville TV station, that she saw the attacks from Trump “coming at some point.”

“I think they want it to be a distraction for me, but it’s not going to be a distraction,” she said. “I am a disciplined, hard-working candidate who is outhustling and out-fundraising my opponent. That’s why national figures like the President are getting involved.”

Trump is likely to keep up those attacks on Wednesday and to make clear how much he sees riding on the race.

At a tele-rally for Graham last week, he repeated his favorite refrain of the cycle: “Just pretend I’m on the ballot.”

In South Carolina, that’s closer to the truth than usual. After Lindsey Graham’s death, Trump lobbied Gov. Henry McMaster (R) to appoint Darline Graham to the seat, publicly encouraged her to run for the full six-year term and endorsed her once she entered the race.

Her bid is on the line. So is Trump’s credibility.

“Essentially,” Trump said at the tele-rally, “I am on the ballot.”

Hunter Woodall contributed to this report.

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MARQUETTE, Mich. — Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan, signaled Thursday that he would question Israel’s status as an ally of the United States no matter who wins Israel’s elections later this month.

Asked during an interview with MS NOW whether his objections were to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government or to the state of Israel itself, El-Sayed suggested his opposition went further than current leadership.

“I mean, I think we’ve got to get serious, right?” he responded. “Netanyahu is one part of it, but the Israeli military has done heinous things, like heinous things, full war crimes, genocide. So I think we got to just get serious about whether or not we as a country should be subsidizing that government.”

He said he supports “equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination” for both “Jewish Israelis and Palestinians,” before pointing to Israel’s lobbying of the U.S. to join the war with Iran.

“But right now, that government has done terrible things with our money in their name, they pulled us into a war we had no business fighting,” he added. “So, to me, an ally is somebody who cares about you and you care about them. I don’t think they care about us. That’s what I’ve seen.”

When pressed on the matter — whether the ouster of Netanyahu would change his views — El-Sayed deferred to after the Israelis selected their next leader.

“Let’s see who the next prime minister is,” he said in an interview with MS NOW, before arguing that “structurally, there are a lot of issues with that ostensible allyship.”

Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of the Israeli military, leads a centrist party called Yashar, which translates to “Straight” in English. He has indicated a greater willingness than Netanyahu to more fully engage with the Trump administration on its various regional diplomatic initiatives in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Like most other Israeli opposition leaders, Eisenkot has said he would continue an aggressive military posture against militant groups all across the Middle East.

He has positioned his party as a home for voters who are concerned about the direction Netanyahu and his far right and religious coalition is leading Israel. His platform attacks issues where Netanyahu is vulnerable, such as calling for an official investigation into the Oct. 7 attacks, which Netanyahu has resisted. Eisenkot has rejected a Palestinian state in the near term but has pledged to curb settler violence and restrain some settlement expansion in the West Bank.

The International Court of Justice is currently hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israeli forces of genocide. Israel vehemently has rejected the accusation, saying it is based on “biased and false claims.” Israel has said it does what it can to protect civilians and has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

El-Sayed made the remarks after the third stop of his “It shouldn’t be this hard” bus tour — during which he was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — with less than three weeks until Election Day in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races. He faces former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, and the outcome could help determine which party controls the Senate for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.

El-Sayed’s views on Israel have become a flashpoint in the race, and he has struggled to win over some Jewish Democrats who are wary of his positions and rhetoric. El-Sayed has said he doesn’t support additional U.S. aid to Israel and doesn’t believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state. During last week’s debate, he wouldn’t say whether Israel or Iran posed the larger threat to the U.S., calling it a “ridiculous question.”

Asked by MS NOW on Thursday whether he would consider Israel to be a U.S. ally and whether the ousting of Netanyahu would change his position on the U.S.-Israel relationship, El-Sayed questioned how much of a friend Israel is, citing the impacts of the Iran war.

“They use us to go and fight a war we have no business fighting,” he said. “We’re paying more in gas. We’re paying more in groceries so that they could help to clear the air to try and annex southern Lebanon. How is that helping? What kind of allies? I’m just saying, like, what kind of ally is that?”

During another part of the interview, El-Sayed said Israeli leadership “just use” the U.S.

“Allies are supposed to care about you implicitly, not just use you. The government of Israel has done nothing but use us,” he said. “They use us for our tax dollars. They use us to run cover at the United Nations. They use us to run cover at the [International Criminal Court] and [International Court of Justice] for their war crimes.”

The Oct. 27 vote will be Israel’s first national election since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7. Netanyahu, who has served as prime minister for more than 18 years across three stints, is seeking another term.

El-Sayed said he would wait to see who wins, but he sounded skeptical.

“I’m not hearing any commitment to Palestinian self-determination from anybody. I’m not hearing any commitment to ending the, like, the policy when it comes to settlements. I’m not hearing any remorse for the utter, like, annihilation of Gaza. So let’s see, right? Let’s see,” he said.

“I think right now, structurally, there are a lot of issues with that ostensible allyship. And I think the American public needs to have a conversation about it,” he added. “Like — and here’s the problem, right — too often the American public thinks one thing, right? You look at poll and poll, poll after poll after poll after poll. You all have reported on it, and then American politicians say something else. Why? And I think we should be asking, like, why?”

He continued, “Why is it that American politicians aren’t having the same conversation as the American public? I’m trying to have the conversation with the American public.”

Asked what his message is to Jewish Democrats who are on the fence about supporting him, El-Sayed turned the question back on the Rogers campaign.

“If you are committed to religious pluralism, take a look at the race that they’re running, and ask yourself if that helps anybody who is a religious minority in this country,” he said.

“If you’re committed to reproductive rights, if you’re committed to democracy itself, there is one candidate on the ballot who’s committed to those things,” he added. “Now, we may have differences when it comes to Israel, but the things that you notice are a lot bigger. I’m committed to the safety and security of the Jewish community like I’m committed to the safety and security of all of our communities.”

If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim senator in American history. He said he is “committed to making sure that no matter how you pray, you’ve got a place here in America.”

“Nobody can tell you what you can or can’t do because of your faith. I know what it’s like to be discriminated against for how I pray, just turn on the TV,” he added. “And so I think the things that unite us are so much bigger than the things that divide us. But when it comes to a conversation about foreign policy, we might disagree. But I hope that the things that bring us  together are bigger than the things that divide us.”

Rogers has tried to capitalize on the hesitancy of some Jewish Democrats who are wary of El-Sayed.

“What the polls aren’t picking up is our effort in the Democrat Jewish community,” Rogers said last week at a campaign stop in Sterling Heights, a Detroit suburb. “There’s about 100,000. Those numbers are swelling up. It’s huge for us. The numbers are growing every day, even after last night, lots of calls, they want to get in and be a part of it. You’re never going to see that in a poll.”

Felicia Schwartz contributed to this report.

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STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — On the eve of the first debate in Michigan’s marquee Senate race, Mike Rogers released an ad saying “we need to end this tariff war now.”

Two days later, he toured a manufacturing facility to tout the benefits it had seen from President Donald Trump’s tariff policy. That night, at a barn party in Highland, he was asked whether the tariffs on Canada had been a net positive or a net negative for Michigan.

“I think overall positive,” he responded.

The mixed messages capture the tightrope that Rogers, the Republican nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, has walked when it comes to Trump. In this battleground state, the president is a complicated figure, and some of his policies have proved unpopular.

Rogers, for his part, has argued that his approach to Trump is determined on a case-by-case basis. “If it’s good for Michigan, I’ll be fighting for it. If it’s bad for Michigan, I’ll be working with the president and my friends in the Senate to say we’ve got to change whatever that might be,” he told reporters outside the barn party.

It’s an approach shaped by Michigan’s purple politics. In 2024, Trump carried the state by 1.4 percentage points. That same year, Rogers lost his Senate race to then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin by 0.34 percentage points.

Trump’s standing in the state has been underwater since then. The president’s approval rating among likely Michigan voters is about 42%, according to a poll conducted by Mitchell Research & Communications for local television stations.

That’s what makes a possible Trump visit so tricky for Rogers.

Last week, Trump told reporters, “I’m going to Michigan in about a week and a half.” Days later, asked about a presidential visit, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., said to “possibly keep the 25th open.” No visit has been formally announced.

Trump may show up. Rogers may not.

In the spin room after last week’s debate, MS NOW asked Rogers whether he wanted Trump to campaign in Michigan and whether he would appear with him. He answered only the first question.

“Yes, he’d be welcome — I’d love to have him talk to those people and get them fired up,” Rogers said, after crediting tariffs with helping cherry farmers and automakers and praising Trump’s no-tax-on-tips policy.

When he was pressed on whether he would appear alongside Trump, Rogers moved on to the next question. He attended a rally with the president in July.

Even Rogers’ supporters are split on whether Trump should come.

Bob Hoffman, the farmer who hosted the barn party on his property, said a Trump visit wouldn’t help.

“[Trump’s] approval rating is so low, Mike Rogers has to, I believe, emphasize that he represents the state of Michigan first, and maybe the Republican Party second,” Hoffman said. He wants Rogers to separate himself from the president on tariffs, fuel costs and immigration.

Linda Brandis, a 66-year-old resident of Commerce Township, sees it differently. She described Rogers as “cautious” in his relationship with the president and “his own man.” But on whether the two should campaign together, she said “it always helps.”

“There is nothing like a Trump rally. It is just pure love,” Brandis said. “So yeah, I think it can’t hurt.”

Abdul El-Sayed, Rogers’ Democratic opponent, agrees that Trump should come. He just thinks it will help him, not Rogers.

El-Sayed’s “it shouldn’t be this hard” bus tour took him to Escanaba, in the conservative Upper Peninsula, where he taunted the president at a town hall.

“Donald is thinking about coming to Michigan,” he told the crowd. “Donald is going to come and remind everybody that Donald is on the ballot. Donald, come. Tell everybody in Michigan that you are on the ballot. Your s––– tariff war is on the ballot. Your dumbass war with Iran is on the ballot. Your Medicaid cuts are on the ballot.”

Rogers, meanwhile, has picked his spots to break with Trump. At the debate, Rogers said that efforts from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota this year were “probably not appropriate.” During that crackdown, federal agents killed two civilians. A day after the debate, at the barn party, Rogers said he disagreed with Trump’s deal to obtain diesel from Russia.

But for every step away from Trump, Rogers has taken another back toward him.

The day after the debate, Trump slammed El-Sayed on Truth Social, referring to him by his middle name, Mohamed, and labeling him “a Jihadist lunatic who hates our Country.” Democrats accused the president of using Islamophobic language against El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim member of the Senate if elected.

Asked by MS NOW if the rhetoric had gone too far, Rogers stopped short of criticizing it.

“I can’t pick the guy’s middle name — that’s his legal middle name,” he said. “My argument is maybe his middle name, we should change it to ‘that big-government socialist.’”

Pressed further, he said, “I won’t speak for the president,” then pivoted to his efforts to court Muslim voters.

It wasn’t the first time Rogers had given Trump the benefit of the doubt.

This summer, after Trump gave a speech on election integrity, Rogers wrote on X that he was “thankful for President Trump’s commitment to transparency.” That was a notable statement from Rogers. He is a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he strongly pushed back on Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 election.

The change of tune reflects a basic reality for Rogers. When he left Congress in 2015, Trump had not yet launched his first presidential campaign. Now, Trump is the face of the Republican Party.

Outside the barn party, Rogers was asked by MS NOW what had changed most since he was last in Washington. He didn’t mention Trump. Instead, he cited the cybersecurity experience he had gained and the increased partisanship in Washington.

When he was pressed on Trump, he got back on the tightrope by contrasting himself with Michigan’s two Democratic senators.

“I think we can go back and have a conversation with the president about what Michigan needs — right now, we don’t have that,” Rogers said. “We have two people that get up every morning and stab them in the eye, and can’t wait to do it.”

“My argument is, why don’t we send one person back to say, ‘hey, Mr. President, this is bad for us, this is really good for us, can you do this?” he added. “We don’t have that now. We haven’t had it in over a quarter century. So my argument is, this is the chance.”

Then he looked past Trump altogether.

“We only — he’s going to be there two years, and then he’s gone,” Rogers said. “This is a six-year term.”

Peggy Helman contributed to this report.

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