Rogers, El-Sayed locked in tight Michigan Senate race: Survey

The Michigan Senate race looks to be a near dead heat between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, according to a new poll.

The survey, which Detroit’s WDIV-TV and The Detroit News conducted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, found Rogers holding a slight lead over El-Sayed, with 45.8 percent support to the Democrat’s 44.4 percent.

The edge for Rogers, who represented the Wolverine State’s 8th Congressional District for 14 years, was within the margin of error of 4 percentage points.

More than 9 percent of respondents were still undecided, with early voting in Michigan starting Oct. 24.

El-Sayed and Rogers are battling to succeed outgoing two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). The race represents the GOP’s most likely pickup opportunity , as it is the only Democratic-held seat the Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up; President Trump won the state in two of his three presidential runs.

The election handicapper puts five Republican-held seats in that column , as Democrats are trying to flip a net of four seats to retake control of the upper chamber. With a 53-47 split in the Senate, Republicans can afford to see their numbers reduced by three and still maintain their majority with Vice President Vance as the tiebreaker.

As of Tuesday, Decision Desk HQ gave El-Sayed a 66 percent chance to win. That is a shift from Aug. 13, when the Democrat had a 51 percent chance to beat Rogers.

El-Sayed, a progressive former Wayne County health official, has campaigned on Medicare for All and investing more in local communities instead of on foreign wars.

“One of the things you’ll hear me talk about all the time is, I don’t want to fight stupid wars. I want to invest … in infrastructure, water infrastructure being one of those things,” El-Sayed told Michiganders last week, as captured on C-SPAN cameras.

Rogers, meanwhile, has gone after El-Sayed for campaigning with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. The former congressman has also labeled his opponent, who is Muslim, as “anti-American.”

Rogers said last week , “This guy is too extreme for … the great state of Michigan.”