‘Mike Rogers Is Watching You’: El-Sayed Launches Ad Blitz Over Surveillance Record

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed launched a new advertising campaign on Tuesday targeting his Michigan race opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, over his past support for expanding government surveillance powers.

The paid digital video ads and billboards represent a late-campaign push ahead of the midterm elections, aiming to connect bipartisan voter unease about privacy — heightened recently by controversy over Flock surveillance cameras — directly to Rogers.

The video pulls together clips of Rogers praising the 2001 Patriot Act, legislation that expanded law enforcement authority and permitted the collection of Americans' phone records without a warrant following the September 11 attacks. It also references a 2011 bill Rogers introduced that would have let companies share emails with the National Security Agency, and quotes him from 2013 saying privacy cannot be violated if a person is unaware of it. The ad notes that in 2014 Rogers introduced a bill meant to end bulk collection of metadata, though it never reached a vote.

A spokesperson for Rogers has said he strongly opposes unchecked use of Flock cameras against law-abiding citizens, noting he left Congress before the technology existed, in 2017.

The Senate contest between El-Sayed and Rogers remains tight and is seen as pivotal to Democrats' chances of holding their Senate majority. El-Sayed, who faced antisemitism accusations during the primary after describing the Gaza war as genocide, announced Monday he will hold a rally with former president Barack Obama in late October. He is also expected to campaign across the state with progressive allies in the campaign's closing weeks.