Three years after Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023, Michigan’s U.S. Senate candidates had very different ways of marking the anniversary.
Republican Mike Rogers remembered the victims. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed? He was apparently too busy. While Rogers was remembering victims of terrorism, El-Sayed’s campaign messaging included posts about appearances, political events and emailed fundraising appeals. He even posted about beer.
Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike. You cheerled this tariff war from the beginning and you’re flip-flopping now because your poll numbers are in free fall.
Donald is the reason we’re in a trade war. And he’s the reason you’re running.
Not a serious person.
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 7, 2026 [1]
To the Muslim candidate running to be Michigan’s next senator, Election Day seemed to take priority over commemorating the October 7 terrorist attacks or honoring the Israeli victims who lost their lives.
According to media reports including the Jewish Insider [2], El-Sayed had not publicly issued a statement commemorating the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks as of Wednesday afternoon. His campaign also failed to respond to multiple inquiries from the outlet. I checked this morning – and there is no statement from El-Sayed about October 7.
“El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries from JI about whether he planned to issue a statement on the Oct. 7 anniversary, and has not shared any such statement publicly.”
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) October 8, 2026 [3]
Rogers, meanwhile, issued a statement remembering the victims and reaffirming his support for Michigan’s Jewish community.
“Three years ago today, the world witnessed in horror the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Rogers said in a press release.
He also criticized El-Sayed’s associations with controversial streamer Hasan Piker and accused his opponent of failing Michigan’s Jewish community, saying, “At a time when we especially need to turn the temperature down and stand alongside our Jewish friends and neighbors, he only spreads antisemitism and incites more violence.”
Rogers continued, “Hate like that has no home in Michigan. We shouldn’t have to live in a world where Jewish students fear wearing a Star of David necklace on their walk to class. Or where parents are afraid to take their kids to day care. You have my word, I will always stand proudly alongside Michigan’s Jewish community, against terrorism, and for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
I guess we can be thankful that El-Sayed DIDN’T issue a statement because it most likely would have ended up being one very similar to Muslim NY Mayor Zohran Mamdani who said that this day is “profoundly painful” in a short opening paragraph on X and then went immediately into saying “The suffering did not begin nor end that day” and went into his anti-Israel rant about Palestinians being killed and “ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.
The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.
To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 7, 2026 [4]
With his support among Jewish Democrats already on shaky ground, El-Sayed risks alienating voters by saying the wrong thing. His response? Say nothing at all.
Radio silence from Abdul El-Sayed about the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks — yet this surfaces today. I wish I could say this is shocking.
When people tell you who they are, believe them.
— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) October 7, 2026 [5]
For Jewish voters still on the fence about El-Sayed (which seems crazy to most people), they should be on the fence no more. El-Sayed showed exactly who he is on October 7, 2026. In the end, his silence spoke louder than any campaign appearance or fundraising email ever could.