President Donald Trump urged Republicans to support GOP candidates even when they have reservations about individual nominees, pointing to Michigan’s closely contested Senate race as he warned that Democratic victories in November would reverse his administration’s immigration policies.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump urged Republican voters Wednesday to put policy priorities ahead of their feelings about individual candidates as he sought to boost GOP turnout ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, warning that Democratic victories would lead to looser immigration enforcement and reverse policies enacted during his second term.
Speaking with reporters, Trump specifically invoked Michigan, where Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers is running against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
“Even if you don’t like somebody so much, it doesn’t matter. It’s a vote for good things,” Trump told reporters. “Like in Michigan, you’re gonna vote for a guy who’s a communist? It’s ridiculous.”
Trump appeared to be referring to El-Sayed.
The president’s description of the Democratic nominee as a “communist” is a political characterization, not El-Sayed’s description of himself. El-Sayed has run on a progressive platform that includes Medicare for All, higher taxes on billionaire wealth, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other policies associated with the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.
El-Sayed’s campaign describes its central agenda as “Money Out of Politics, Money in Your Pocket, Medicare for All” and lists immigration, economic policy, housing, health care and foreign policy among its priorities. His campaign has specifically promoted his support for abolishing ICE, a position he says he has held since 2018.
Trump used the Michigan contest to make a broader argument that voters dissatisfied with individual Republican candidates should nevertheless support the party because control of Congress will determine whether his administration can continue pursuing its agenda.
Immigration has been one of the administration’s defining issues.
Trump has repeatedly accused Democrats of supporting “open borders,” while Democrats have disputed that characterization and criticized elements of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
El-Sayed has sharply opposed the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. In February, amid an increased ICE presence in Michigan, he said the agency should leave the state and argued that immigration enforcement had moved beyond conventional border security.
The Michigan race has become a prominent example of the ideological contrast Republicans are attempting to draw ahead of the midterms.
Republican organizations have sought to portray El-Sayed as representative of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, while his campaign has emphasized health care costs, wages, housing affordability, opposition to corporate political spending and an end to U.S. involvement in overseas wars.
Reuters reported this week that Republican organizers in Michigan have increasingly focused their campaign on portraying El-Sayed and other Democrats as ideological extremists, while Democrats have emphasized affordability and other economic issues in their turnout efforts.
Rogers, meanwhile, has positioned himself as an ally of Trump while campaigning as a conservative focused on affordability, border enforcement and economic issues.
The former congressman previously represented Michigan in the House and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.
His campaign has framed the 2026 contest as an opportunity to give Trump additional support in the Senate, saying when Rogers launched his campaign that Michigan voters could provide the president with “the backup he needs in the U.S. Senate.”
The seat is currently held by Peters, who has served in the Senate since 2015 and announced that he would not seek reelection in 2026.
That retirement produced an open-seat contest between Rogers and El-Sayed after both secured their parties’ nominations.
Recent surveys show the race competitive, although polls are snapshots of voter opinion rather than predictions of the final result.
An Emerson College Polling survey conducted Sept. 12-14 found El-Sayed at 48% and Rogers at 46%, with 4% undecided and 2% selecting someone else.
The RealClearPolitics polling average covering surveys conducted from Aug. 6 through Sept. 17 stood at 46.9% for El-Sayed and 44.8% for Rogers, a 2.1-point difference. Individual surveys during that period produced results ranging from a Rogers advantage to an El-Sayed advantage.
Trump carried Michigan in the 2024 presidential election, while Rogers narrowly lost that year’s U.S. Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.
The state is therefore again receiving national attention as both parties compete for an open Senate seat in a closely divided electorate.
Trump’s Wednesday remarks were aimed in part at voters who may support his administration but have reservations about individual Republican nominees.
“Even if you don’t like somebody so much,” Trump said, Republicans should view their vote in terms of the policies that would follow from control of Congress.
The president has been making a similar argument elsewhere as Republicans attempt to motivate their 2024 coalition to return to the polls in a midterm election in which Trump himself is not on the ballot.
Republican messaging has emphasized immigration, taxes, energy policy, crime and opposition to progressive economic policies, while Democrats have focused heavily on affordability, health care, the Iran war and opposition to the administration.
Michigan illustrates several of those divisions.
El-Sayed supports Medicare for All and has called for abolishing ICE, taxing billionaire wealth and reducing U.S. military involvement abroad. His campaign says the federal government should devote more resources to domestic priorities and describes his economic message as an effort to make government work for working families.
Rogers has campaigned on stronger immigration enforcement and a more conservative economic agenda while arguing that El-Sayed’s policies would move Michigan substantially to the left.
Trump’s use of the word “communist” goes beyond those documented policy differences and reflects the president’s political rhetoric about progressive Democrats.
Republicans have increasingly used socialism and communism as campaign themes against progressive candidates nationally. Reuters reported last week that concerns about democratic socialist candidates have become one of the messages GOP organizers are using to encourage turnout among some voters who backed Trump in 2024 but are less enthusiastic about participating this year.
The president tied that argument Wednesday directly to immigration, warning voters that Republican defeats could undo changes his administration has implemented at the southern border and throughout the immigration system.
Trump has made tighter border controls, expanded deportations and increased interior immigration enforcement central policies of his second term.
El-Sayed and other Democratic candidates have challenged significant portions of that agenda, although Democratic candidates hold varying positions on border security and immigration policy.
With the midterm elections approaching, Trump’s message was straightforward: Republicans who want his administration’s policies to continue should vote for GOP congressional candidates even when those candidates are not their preferred choices.
In Michigan, he made that appeal through one of the country’s most closely watched Senate contests, using Rogers’ race
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