Some Michigan Democrats Urge Blank Senate Vote as El-Sayed Courts Base

The blank-ballot call

Lon Johnson, who chaired the Michigan Democratic Party from 2013 to 2015, and David Kramer, a longtime Democratic strategist, made the case in an op-ed published in The Detroit News in mid-October, according to Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley and Detroit Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer. Both men backed Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary that El-Sayed won.

Finley wrote that the op-ed argued El-Sayed had failed to unite the party and pointed to what the authors described as his associations with figures who excused or minimized terrorism, his reluctance to condemn dangerous rhetoric and policy positions they called extreme. Finley also wrote that the effort is aimed mainly at Jewish voters.

In an interview with NewsNation's Leland Vittert on Oct. 21, Johnson said the effort is not meant to discourage anyone from voting and that leaving a race blank can be a dignified choice. He said he and many other Democrats have problems with El-Sayed but also see extremism in Rogers and will not vote for the Republican. Johnson told the Free Press he is not supporting Rogers, is not part of the Democrats for Mike Rogers effort and is not connected to or paid by the Rogers campaign. He has also discussed the effort on Fox News and on Detroit radio station WJR.

The Rogers campaign's outreach

The Rogers campaign launched a coalition called Democrats for Mike Rogers on Aug. 20 at a Detroit home, according to a campaign news release. Speakers listed in the release included Karen Whitsett, who has served in the Michigan House, Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Huntington Woods and Chelsea Rebeck of West Bloomfield, who described herself as a lifelong Democrat who voted for Barack Obama and later backed Stevens in the primary.

In a statement to Fox News Digital earlier this month, Rogers said lifelong Democrats who do not see their values reflected in their party's nominee have a home in his campaign. In an Oct. 19 appearance on Fox News' Hannity, Rogers said he had been meeting with dozens of Black pastors and that his campaign hoped to win about half of what he estimated to be roughly 70,000 Jewish Democratic voters in Michigan, Fox News reported. Those figures are the campaign's own estimates and projections.

Asked on NBC's Meet the Press on Oct. 25 whether he considers himself a MAGA Republican, Rogers instead pointed to the former Democratic Party chair's statement that he cannot vote for El-Sayed and said Jewish Democrats and Black voters in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint were telling his campaign the same, according to NBC's transcript. Johnson has said he will not vote for Rogers either.

A Rogers spokesperson told MS NOW it was the first Republican campaign to open an office in Detroit, has visited a dozen Black churches and has campaigned repeatedly in Flint and Pontiac. MS NOW reported that a Rogers ad features Black voters saying El-Sayed cares more about Palestine than about Detroit.

What El-Sayed and his allies say

MS NOW reported on Oct. 24 that Tashawna Gill, who chairs the Michigan Democratic Party's grassroots caucus and was an early El-Sayed endorser, said some Black seniors in Wayne County retirement communities told canvassers they had returned absentee ballots without marking the Senate race. Gill also told MS NOW she has seen fewer El-Sayed yard signs than she expected in Detroit's North Rosedale Park neighborhood.

El-Sayed told MS NOW he hopes more voters fill out that part of the ballot and said the reports were painful to hear. He blamed outside political action committee spending for eroding trust, said he was not sure how widespread the problem is and argued that young, first-time Black voters could offset seniors who skip the race.

According to MS NOW, El-Sayed's campaign and the Democratic Party have spent about 14.3 million dollars on paid media aimed at Detroit and Flint, and El-Sayed has visited 45 Black churches and held more than 125 meetings, with visits from Kamala Harris, Sen. Raphael Warnock, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Obama, who rallied with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24.

Sources quoted by MS NOW, including Gill and Portia Roberson of the Detroit nonprofit Focus: HOPE, pointed to several reasons for hesitation among some Black voters: long-standing tensions between Black and Arab American communities in the Detroit area, El-Sayed's vote for uncommitted in the 2024 presidential primary and his support for Medicare for All. El-Sayed endorsed Harris the day after she became the Democratic nominee in 2024, MS NOW reported, and he has described himself as a capitalist.

On the same Meet the Press broadcast, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who backed Stevens in the primary, was asked about Democrats still on the fence about El-Sayed. She said it is important to support the Democratic ticket, citing tariffs and the cost of living, and advised statewide candidates to build bridges with all of Michigan's communities.

NewsCubby did not find a public response from the El-Sayed campaign or the Michigan Democratic Party specifically addressing Johnson and Kramer's op-ed. Fox News reported earlier this month that El-Sayed's campaign did not respond to its request for comment on its coverage of wary Democratic voters.

What Fox News' interviews found

Fox News Digital reported on Oct. 16 that it interviewed more than a dozen Black voters in Detroit and that most said they plan to vote for El-Sayed. Several undecided voters told Fox that Obama's endorsement did not change their minds, while about half of those interviewed said it improved their view of the candidate. Fox described the interviews as limited in number.

On Oct. 7, Fox News recapped focus groups held by MS NOW's Morning Joe with Democrats who had backed Stevens in the primary, including Black voters in Wayne County and Jewish Democrats in Oakland County. In that segment, one Black participant said she might vote uncommitted, one Jewish participant said she may vote for Rogers and another Jewish participant said he could not vote for Rogers.

The interviews and focus groups are anecdotes, not a measurement. No public data shows how many Michigan Democrats intend to leave the Senate race blank. That will not be clear until results are tallied and compared with votes in other races on the ballot.

What the polls show

A Fox News poll of Michigan likely voters taken Sept. 24 to 28 found El-Sayed at 50% and Rogers at 49%. El-Sayed had 93% of Democrats and 77% of Black voters in that survey, and fewer than 1% of respondents said they would not vote in the race.

A Marist poll taken Oct. 15 to 18 showed El-Sayed at 50% and Rogers at 48% among likely voters. An InsiderAdvantage survey taken Oct. 21 and 22 found El-Sayed at 47% and Rogers at 46%, within the margin of error.

A Washington Post-Schar School poll released in early October found that 83% of Black likely voters wanted Democrats to control the Senate, while 67% said they backed El-Sayed. For comparison, MS NOW reported that Democrat Elissa Slotkin won 86% of Black voters against Rogers in the 2024 Senate race.

Turnout so far

More than 1 million absentee ballots had been returned and about 139,000 people had voted early in person as of Monday, about 16.4% of Michigan's roughly 7.4 million active voters, CBS Detroit reported, citing state election data. Detroit recorded 2,305 early in-person voters on its first day of early voting on Oct. 24, up from 1,897 on the first day in 2024, according to CBS Detroit.

Under Michigan's ballot design, voters can mark choices in some races and leave others blank, and the rest of their ballot still counts. A Democrat who switches to Rogers adds a vote to his total and subtracts one from El-Sayed's, while a Democrat who leaves the race blank only denies El-Sayed a vote.

What's next

Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to headline a Republican rally at CHI Aviation in Howell on Tuesday, according to the Republican National Committee's event listing and MLive. Polls close at 8 p.m. local time on Nov. 3.

*Credits: reporting from MS NOW, Fox News, NBC News, The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, NewsNation, CBS Detroit, MLive, Bridge Michigan, The Washington Post, the Marist Poll, InsiderAdvantage, the Fox News Poll and the Rogers campaign. NewsCubby articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed by humans.*

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