By Bo Erickson
DETROIT, Oct 25 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump will rally Republicans in eastern Michigan on Sunday, a day after former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democrats in the state, underscoring its importance in next week’s midterm elections.
Michigan has one of the nation’s most competitive US Senate contests, an open-seat race between former Republican Representative Mike Rogers and Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed that will help decide control of the chamber.
Despite repeatedly attacking El-Sayed from the Oval Office and at rallies across the country, the Republican president had not yet campaigned in Michigan this year.
If he wins, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. Trump has sought to paint El-Sayed as a Muslim extremist and repeatedly mocked his middle name, Mohamed, a common Muslim name.
El-Sayed has dismissed the accusation and, in a recent advertisement, defended his religion, saying, “Faith is a thing there’s just too little of in Washington.”
Rogers has alleged without evidence that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist groups.
“If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know: Are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?” Rogers said at a debate last week.
El-Sayed has denied affiliation with the group and says it is “shameful” for Rogers to question his allegiance to the United States.
At Saturday’s rally in Detroit, Obama framed the attacks on El-Sayed as an attempt by opponents to make him look “less patriotic and less American than they are.”
The former president compared it to his experience as the target of false claims that he was born in Kenya.
“We have seen this movie before,” Obama said. “I starred in it … This stuff didn’t work on me. Not in Michigan. It’s not going to work on Abdul.”
Trump’s rally in Port Huron, part of an area of Michigan that he won in the 2024 presidential election with more than 66% of the vote, will also highlight the US-Canada tariff standoff.
The trade fight has affected the Detroit-based US auto industry, prompting Rogers to distance himself from the president’s policy.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats in both the US Senate and US House of Representatives to overturn Republicans’ narrow 53-47 and 218-214 majorities.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Ross Colvin, Rod Nickel and William Mallard)
