Republicans made their pitch to Michigan voters at a Fox News town hall Monday night, with GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers arguing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is vulnerable among Black and Jewish voters as one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races enters its final two weeks.<\/p>\n
Fox News host Sean Hannity also spoke with Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. John James and House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., as the candidates sought to tie Michigan Democrats to government spending, socialism and the party’s progressive wing ahead of Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Early on in the night, Rogers argued that his opponent, El-Sayed, could underperform among a handful of key demographics that traditionally support Democratic candidates, presenting political opportunities for Republicans.<\/p>\n
EL-SAYED GRILLED ON PIKER, ISRAEL AND SOCIALIST TIES AFTER MIKE ROGERS SKIPS SENATE DEBATE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Hannity pressed Rogers about El-Sayed’s past criticism of former President Barack Obama, whom El-Sayed described as “not the right choice” to advance a progressive agenda following Obama’s 2012 re-election.<\/p>\n “He is dismissive in Detroit. We have just dozens of black pastors that we have talked to, neighborhood leaders in the city of Detroit that we\u2019ve talked to. They\u2019re looking for a change,” Rogers said.<\/p>\n Notably, Obama is scheduled to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24 and has released a video urging voters to support the Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n ROGERS WARNS MICHIGAN VOTERS AGAINST EL-SAYED\u2019S \u2018EXTREME\u2019 AGENDA AHEAD OF ELECTION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Rogers argued the Jewish community could present a unique opportunity for Republicans amid El-Sayed’s criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n Recently, El-Sayed declined to answer whether he viewed Iran or Israel as a greater threat.<\/p>\n “I think both of them have proven dangerous in their own way. One, at risk of attacking us. One, getting us into wars we have no business fighting,” El-Sayed said in a recent debate.<\/p>\n Rogers noted that if only half of Jewish Democratic voters in Michigan felt alienated by El-Sayed\u2019s remarks enough to support his campaign, it would provide a significant boost.<\/p>\n “There are about 70,000 Jewish Democrats. If we get half of them to vote for us, which we think \u2014 we had an event last night. Had over 1,000 people at it. We\u2019re fired up and excited and scared for their children, by the way. They\u2019re afraid for their children. They\u2019re with us, and they\u2019re going to vote, we think, 35,000 votes out of the Jewish Democrat \u2014 these are normally solid Democratic votes.”<\/p>\n “That\u2019s changing the dynamic,” Rogers added.<\/p>\n MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL WILL HAUNT FLANAGAN IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE RACE, TOP HOUSE REPUBLICAN WARNS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Rep. John James, R-Mich., the state\u2019s Republican candidate for governor, also appeared with Hannity, presenting his pitch to attendees on what he would do differently if elected.<\/p>\n Alongside promises to reshape education, James promised to create more scrutiny around government programs and expenses.<\/p>\n “Michigan is spending 50% more right now under Gretchen Whitmer<\/a> than we spent under Rick Snyder\u2019s administration, the last Republican, and $20 billion more per year than at the height of the pandemic.”<\/p>\n “Michigan does not have a taxation problem. Michigan has a spending problem,” James added.<\/p>\n Snyder left office in 2019.<\/p>\n James also raised concerns about potential fraud in Michigan, drawing comparisons to Minnesota’s sprawling taxpayer-funded fraud investigations.<\/p>\n “If a 19-year-old journalist named Nick Shirley can find $9 billion of fraud in Minnesota, a state with 50% of our population and 60% of our budget, what do you think he can find here?” James said, referring to a videographer who had become famous for investigating Somali fraud rings.<\/p>\n Shirley drew national attention to suspected fraud involving Minnesota childcare providers, although he did not uncover $9 billion in fraud. That figure came from former federal prosecutor Joe Thompson, who estimated last year that fraud across 14 high-risk Medicaid programs could total $9 billion or more. Minnesota officials have disputed the estimate. Federal and state investigators in Minnesota have uncovered fraud<\/a> involving taxpayer-funded childcare, food assistance and healthcare programs, including schemes in which defendants allegedly billed the government for services they never provided.<\/p>\n OBAMA’S STAR POWER GETS A REALITY CHECK FROM BLACK VOTERS IN CRUCIAL SENATE RACE: ‘IT’S A TURNOFF’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n At the close of Hannity\u2019s town hall, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the House GOP conference chair, accused Democrats of hiding their true character.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t even call them Democrats anymore; it\u2019s the Communist Party,” McClain said.<\/p>\n “They want to pack the Supreme Court, they want to abolish the police, they want to let people out of prisons.”<\/p>\n With primaries in the rearview mirror, Michigan heads to the polls<\/a> alongside the rest of the country on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Republicans made their pitch to Michigan voters at a Fox News town hall Monday night, with GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers arguing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is vulnerable among Black and Jewish voters as one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races enters its final two weeks. Fox News host Sean Hannity also spoke with … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}