Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is demanding that his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, return hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that the Rogers campaign says are tied to terrorist organizations, according to a report by Breitbart News.
In a statement released Tuesday, Rogers, a former Army officer and House Intelligence Committee chairman, said the donations should disqualify El-Sayed from serving in the U.S. Senate. “I guess when Abdul claims he wants ‘money out of politics,’ he doesn’t count terrorist organizations,” Rogers said. “As a former Army officer and House Intelligence Chair, I spent my life fighting to defeat terrorist organizations. Abdul cashes checks from them.”
Rogers added that accepting the money is “absolutely disqualifying and an insult to the brave men and women who’ve risked their lives in service to this great country.” He closed his statement with a direct message to his opponent: “Abdul — return the money.”
The Rogers campaign has published a list on its website detailing what it describes as “the money donated to him from terrorist organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relationships (‘CAIR’) and the Muslim Brotherhood.” CAIR, which describes itself as a civil rights organization, has been designated a terrorist organization in multiple states and has been alleged to have links to Hamas.
What the Rogers Campaign Lists
According to the Rogers campaign’s accounting, El-Sayed has received nearly $130,000 from donors with identified connections to CAIR. Those contributions came from more than 41 staff or board members, the campaign says, including national board chair Manal Fakhoury, national board treasurer Eyas Abdeen, national board vice chair Emad Sabbah, and Michigan board member Muzammil Ahmed.
The campaign also points to El-Sayed’s father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, who has donated at least $300,000 to a pro-El-Sayed Super PAC. The Rogers campaign describes Jukaku as a top leader of a Muslim Brotherhood organization linked to terror funding and as the president of CAIR Michigan.
The list further cites $7,000 from Amani Barakat, identified as the chair of Al-Awda, a group the Rogers campaign says supports dismantling the U.S. military. It also highlights the Unity & Justice Fund, described as the super PAC controlled and funded by CAIR’s lobbying arm, which the campaign says claimed credit for helping El-Sayed win the Democratic primary.
In its release, the Rogers campaign framed the issue as broader than religious identity. “This is not about anyone’s faith,” the release states. “This is about judgment, transparency, and who is financing a candidate for the United States.”
Broader Political Context
El-Sayed, an Egyptian-American Muslim, is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan. His candidacy has drawn national attention from Republicans and conservatives, who argue it represents a larger political shift. Breitbart’s coverage likens the race to New York City’s mayoral contest, where Zohran Mamdani’s campaign similarly drew national scrutiny.
The report argues that El-Sayed’s campaign is about more than one Senate seat, characterizing it as an attempt to normalize what it calls anti-American and anti-Western extremism. It draws a parallel to Barack Obama, describing El-Sayed and Mamdani as “charismatic cut-outs” used to cloak a dangerous radicalism.
The article also resurfaces past statements by El-Sayed. On September 11, 2021, El-Sayed wrote in a tweet that he has since deleted: “Today, I mourn the 3K lives, 6K injuries, & infrastructural devastation in NYC, perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my faith. Tomorrow, I’ll mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, & infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my country.”
That same year, during a podcast appearance, El-Sayed said, “I think the more appropriate way to center this conversation is in telling the broader global story about the conduct of the United States and what followed.”
The controversy comes as the Michigan Senate race heats up. Rogers, who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee during his time in Congress, has made national security a central theme of his campaign. The demand for El-Sayed to return donations represents the latest flashpoint in a contest that has drawn scrutiny from both sides of the aisle.
El-Sayed’s campaign has not publicly responded to Rogers’ statement as of Tuesday. The Rogers campaign’s press release concludes by reiterating its call for transparency, stating the issue is about “who is financing a candidate for the United States.”
With the general election approaching, the exchange is likely to intensify as both candidates seek to define the other before voters head to the polls. For Rogers, the focus on donations tied to controversial groups is part of a broader argument that El-Sayed’s affiliations make him unfit for office. For El-Sayed, the challenge will be to address the allegations without ceding ground on his own campaign’s message of economic and social justice.
Breitbart News reported that the Rogers campaign is urging supporters to review the full list of donations on its website, which it says provides detailed documentation of the contributions in question. The outlet’s coverage also emphasizes the national implications of the race, suggesting that the outcome could signal broader trends in Democratic politics.
As the race continues, both campaigns are expected to ramp up their messaging. For now, Rogers’ demand that El-Sayed “return the money” stands as one of the most direct attacks in the contest so far, framing the election as a choice between national security experience and what he characterizes as dangerous associations.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/15/nolte-mike-rogers-calls-on-abdul-el-sayed-to-return-donations-from-terrorist-organizations/