Two polls ahead of Michigan’s Nov. 3 Senate election show Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed leading Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, as their campaigns set out different priorities on health care and household costs.
The Michigan Secretary of State lists four additional candidates on the ballot: Libertarian Lydia Christensen, U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate Tim Long, Green Party candidate Douglas P. Marsh and Natural Law Party candidate Walter P. Kristy. The opening followed Sen. Gary Peters’ decision not to seek another term. The winner will serve six years.
El-Sayed’s campaign platform proposes making Medicare available to everyone, with vision, dental and hearing care and no premiums, copays or deductibles. It also calls for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and ending hostilities in Iran. These are positions he says he would pursue if elected. Rogers’ campaign says he would support President Donald Trump and focus on manufacturing jobs, fuel and prescription prices, Social Security and Medicare. In an Oct. 6 interview transcript posted by his campaign, Rogers praised U.S. strikes on Iran and said the conflict should begin winding down.
Michigan State University’s survey recorded 48% support for El-Sayed and 45.5% for Rogers during Oct. 2-19 fieldwork, with 1,000 interviews in each wave. A separate WDIV/Detroit News poll of 600 likely voters, conducted Oct. 19-22, put El-Sayed at 51.4% and Rogers at 45.1%; its margin of error was 4 percentage points. The leads were 2.5 and 6.3 percentage points, respectively, across surveys with different field periods and methods.
The university’s release also said about 38% of respondents would be less likely to support a Muslim candidate, and that those respondents were less likely to support El-Sayed.
Federal Election Commission records list $51.1 million in disbursements by El-Sayed’s authorized committees from Jan. 1, 2025, through Oct. 14, 2026, and $19.4 million by Rogers’ committees from Jan. 1, 2025, through Oct. 22, 2026. The periods differ, and the totals do not include all spending by outside groups.
Campaign biographies say El-Sayed led Detroit’s Health Department and later restructured Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services. Rogers’ biography describes his service as an Army officer, FBI special agent, Michigan state senator and member of Congress. Early voting ends Sunday, Nov. 1, ahead of Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 3.
