A former Democratic official from the Senate campaigns of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said he is voting for former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, in Michigan’s 2026 Senate race.
David Kramer, an alumnus of several Michigan Democratic campaigns and a board member of the Democratic Majority for Israel, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that he would vote for Rogers over Democrat Abdul el Sayed in Michigan’s Senate race. Kramer’s defection from the Democratic candidate in favor of Rogers comes as el Sayed has struggled to shore up the Jewish Democratic vote throughout much of the race.
“As we get closer and closer to the general [election], it’s become clearer to me that Abdul is certainly not moderating at all, and I think really becoming more extreme and more dangerous and less responsive to the Jewish community,” Kramer told the outlet.
El Sayed has maintained his criticism throughout his campaign of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the prime minister’s government’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide” and rebuking the American Israel Public Affairs Committee‘s involvement in American elections. At the same time, however, el Sayed has condemned and vowed to fight antisemitism throughout his campaign, railing against accusations of antisemitism made against him by Republicans.
But el Sayed’s connections to the pro-Palestinian commentator Hasan Piker and his comments against Israel and Netanyahu have been a large conversation during his race against Rogers.
Kramer said that although he has “deep disagreements” with Rogers on many issues, he believes Rogers is “committed to keeping Jews safe in Michigan and in the United States,” according to a statement from CNN.
“I have lots of issues with Mike Rogers, and I’m not even willing to use words like ‘support,’” Kramer said. “But I’ve made peace with voting for him because I do think that he at least does care about Jews being safe and participating in public life, and he seems to know the difference between an enemy of ours in Iran and an ally of ours” in Israel.
Kramer told the outlet that his tipping point was el Sayed saying “Israel is not actually our friend” in a recent interview with ABC News.
“If your kid has a friend who keeps bumming off their money and then talks about them behind their back and then gets them into fights with other friends, what would you tell your kid to do with that friend? You’d probably tell them maybe it’s not actually a friend,” el Sayed said in the interview. “I think it’s time for us to realize that Israel is not actually our friend.”
Both Slotkin and Stevens have endorsed el Sayed for the Senate seat against Rogers.
EL SAYED TURNS TO JEWISH DEMOCRATS TO SWAY PRO-ISRAEL VOTE IN MICHIGAN
Michigan’s Senate race is rated as a toss-up by major election forecasters, including the Cook Political Report, as Rogers and el Sayed vie to fill retiring Sen. Gary Peters’s (D-MI) seat in the upper chamber in a state President Donald Trump won in 2024 by 1.4 percentage points.
El Sayed leads Rogers in the polling by an average of 2.5 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average. El Sayed is also leading Rogers in the Polymarket prediction market odds on the race.