“Since you’re too afraid to debate me, how about you ‘hold me accountable’ on a football field instead,” El-Sayed said.
Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has issued an extraordinary challenge to his Republican opponent Mike Rogers: ditch the debate stage, and meet him on a football field to play tackle football with no pads.
El-Sayed made the bizarre proposal on Wednesday after Rogers appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and accused the Democratic nominee of having spent years attacking some of the most popular traditions and pastimes in Michigan. “Since you’re too afraid to debate me, how about you ‘hold me accountable’ on a football field instead,” El-Sayed said. “Tackle, no pads like we used to play when we were kids. I’d be happy to show you how much I love football.” El-Sayed also told Rogers, “If you can’t say the name, keep the name out your damn mouth.”
The challenge comes just one day after Rogers blasted his Democratic opponent over a series of old videos uncovered by CNN’s KFile, many of which El-Sayed has since removed or made private. Rogers said El-Sayed had spent hours “hating on” fireworks, football and the Fourth of July. “This guy spent hours hating on what most Michiganders would enjoy in their pastimes and he should be held to account for that,” Rogers told Hannity. “These are views that he held and he was pretty strong about but he knew that he had to delete them all, for if people really knew who he was they wouldn’t vote for him.”
The Michigan contest is for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, with El-Sayed emerging from a bruising Democratic primary victory over Rep. Haley Stevens earlier this month. Rogers, a former longtime congressman and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is seeking a political comeback after narrowly losing his 2024 Senate race.
El Sayed also previously dismissed concerns over the southern border and floated replacing the Second Amendment's right to bear arms with a constitutional right to health care. “Abdul is the former captain of his high school football team, loves Michigan football on Saturdays, and celebrates the Fourth of July with fireworks like the next Michigander,” an El-Sayed spokeswoman said. After winning the Democratic nomination, El-Sayed challenged Rogers to participate in five debates. Rogers has yet to accept El-Sayed's proposed series of debates, pointing to his opponent's left-field positions on health care, criminal justice, immigration, Israel and Gaza, guns and other issues.
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