Michigan progressive Abdul El-Sayed says ‘ogre’ remark not directed at rival

El-Sayed says in TV debate ‘ogre on a pike’ Zoom comment was in reference to John Fetterman, not Haley Stevens

The Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said his comments that progressives need to put the head of an “ogre” on a pike was in reference to the US senator John Fetterman – not his opponent, representative Haley Stevens.

In a televised debate on Monday, the final head-to-head before the state’s 4 August primary, the moderator asked El-Sayed whether he regretted his comments made in a Zoom meeting, in which, according to leaked audio published by Politico, he suggested that if “you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message”.

The comments drew immediate backlash from several high-profile Democrats and charges of sexism by those who believed the remark was a reference to Stevens. “Many people took offense to that,” the debate moderator, Roop Raj, noted. “Do you regret any of the comments that you’ve made?”

El-Sayed did not reply directly, but said he had been speaking of supporting a primary challenge to Fetterman, the towering Pennsylvania Democrat who campaigned as a progressive but has moved to the right since taking office. “I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman, who’s a senator from Pennsylvania who has done terrible things, got elected on a set of values, and is now completely throwing those values in the mud,” El-Sayed said in the debate.

Fetterman and El-Sayed have clashed mightily over the senator’s increasingly robust support for Israel, and in recent weeks Fetterman has said he would consider leaving the Democratic party if it became “anti-Israel” .

During the hour-long debate, El-Sayed pushed back on criticism that he had failed to foster a spirit of political civility as candidate, noting that he recently chided his supporters for mocking Stevens’ accent.

“Look, I took to Twitter last week and said that the tone in which people talk about my opponent is unkind, and I asked anybody who supported me to not talk about her that way,” he said.

Before the moderator moved on, Stevens quipped: “Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre.”

The expensive and increasingly bitter Democratic primary to replace retiring senator Gary Peters has evolved into a proxy fight over the party’s future, pitting the establishment-backed moderate Stevens against El-Sayed, a progressive former Detroit health director.

The candidates have split sharply on the issue of Israel, with Stevens identifying as a “proud pro-Israel Democrat” and accepting substantial support from American Israel Public Affairs Committee. By contrast, El-Sayed has called Israel’s campaign in Gaza a “genocide” and has denounced US arms support for Israel.

Last week, Stevens picked up the endorsement of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, who El-Sayed challenged unsuccessfully in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. El-Sayed has rallied the party’s left flank, and has been endorsed by the independent senator Bernie Sanders and New York congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The dueling coalitions have turned Michigan’s closely watched Senate contest into a clear test of whether the twin forces of anti-Washington sentiment and progressive energy can overcome broad institutional support in a presidential battleground state.

Asked about whether he would call himself a progressive or a democratic socialist, El-Sayed replied: “I’m not a socialist. I’m just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works. The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation. It was always monopoly.”

The contest – one of the few open-seat races this cycle – is widely viewed as central to the battle for Senate control. Donald Trump won Michigan in 2024, making it among Republicans’ most promising pick-up opportunities. Former congressman Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost Michigan’s 2024 Senate race to Elissa Slotkin, cleared the Republican field early and has spent months preparing for the general election.

Earlier on Monday, Rogers appeared on stage with Trump at a rally in Milford, Michigan, where he promised to help the president enact his agenda, if elected.