A decade-old essay has become the newest flashpoint in Michigan's U.S. Senate race, with Republican nominee Mike Rogers and his campaign accusing Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed of disparaging breast cancer research and the advocates who push for it. The fight centers on a 2012 piece in which El-Sayed questioned how federal research dollars get divided among diseases, and it has now spilled into statewide advertising and dueling press statements as the campaign heads into its final stretch.
El-Sayed titled the essay “The Pink Ribbon Lobby and Everyone Else,” according to freebeacon.com, and in it he called the growth in federal breast cancer research funding a “disturbing” trend that he argued diverted money from other serious diseases. He also took aim at what he termed the “breast cancer lobby,” which he derided as the “pink ribbon lobby,” the outlet reported, and argued the funding pattern prioritized diseases affecting people with “social power and privilege.”
Per the Detroit News, El-Sayed also wrote in the same essay that breast cancer was important and that social focus on the disease was warranted — he argued specifically against what he called the disproportionate reallocation of public funds to breast cancer, not against attention to the disease itself. Rogers raised the essay during a press conference in Taylor, Michigan, on Sept. 19, and the Detroit News reports he alleged in a television advertisement that El-Sayed had blasted breast cancer patient advocates and viewed increased research funding as mainly benefiting women with social power and privilege.
Rogers Campaign Pushes Six-Figure Digital Ad Buy
On Sept. 18, the day before Rogers raised the essay at a press conference in Taylor, Michigan, his campaign announced a 30-second digital advertisement hitting El-Sayed over the remarks, a six-figure buy running statewide across digital platforms, according to Rogers's campaign website. Rogers himself, who per the original KFOX report is a cancer survivor, called El-Sayed's comment a slap in the face to the Michigan women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, as reported by KFOX.
Kristi Rogers, described by KFOX as a former senior government official and Mike Rogers's wife, amplified the attack, saying El-Sayed called breast cancer research disturbing and that the remark insulted more than 10,000 Michigan women diagnosed with the disease annually, per the same report. She called the comments wrong and disturbing, KFOX noted, and said voters would see a greater contrast between her husband and El-Sayed as the race continues.
Kristi Rogers also raised a series of additional claims about El-Sayed during her remarks, per KFOX, including her assertion that he attended medical school but was never licensed and has never been a practicing physician, and that he is associated with a radical Islamic individual. She further claimed, according to the outlet, that George Soros and the Council on American-Islamic Relations are El-Sayed's two largest funders, describing the latter as a designated terrorist organization in two or three states, and she called El-Sayed anti-American.
El-Sayed's Campaign Points to Screening Work and Rogers's Voting Record
El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak countered that El-Sayed has spent his career working to improve health outcomes by providing preventive screenings and mammograms, the Detroit News reported. The El-Sayed campaign also pushed back by noting that Rogers has voted to defund organizations that help women catch breast cancer early and has voted to repeal protections for people with pre-existing conditions, according to the same account.
The Detroit News separately reports that El-Sayed holds a doctorate in public health and a medical degree but does not hold a medical license and therefore cannot currently practice medicine in Michigan. Kristi Rogers's claim that El-Sayed was never licensed, as relayed by KFOX, lines up with that detail, though the two accounts frame it differently — one as a campaign attack, the other as a straightforward credentialing note.
Medicare for All Also Dividing the Candidates
The breast cancer fight is unfolding alongside a broader clash over health care policy. El-Sayed has proposed a universal health care system that would cover all necessary care, including vision, dental and hearing, without premiums, copays or deductibles, the Detroit News reported. He has said the average person would likely pay somewhat more in taxes than they currently pay their insurer under that plan, according to the same report.
State Rep. Jamie Thompson argued that Medicare for All would mean higher taxes alongside lower outcomes and lower-quality care, the Detroit News reported; Rogers separately criticized the plan as producing worse care and told Yahoo News that the better path is fixing the existing system rather than replacing it. His campaign describes his own health care plan as built on three pillars — affordability, accessibility and transparency — including lower prescription drug prices and greater pricing transparency, according to his campaign website.
Two Political Veterans Headed Into a Tight Race
Rogers is the Republican nominee for the Michigan Senate seat and has built his campaign on a résumé that includes service as a former FBI agent, a former Army officer, a former Michigan state senator and a former Michigan congressman who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, according to KFOX. Kristi Rogers cited his record cutting 10 percent of the budget during a time of war without cutting essential capabilities as part of her broader argument for elected officials to trim waste and fraud in government, the outlet reported.
Kristi Rogers also criticized El-Sayed as having worked three jobs over a total of six years and cited his age, 41, along with shifting positions on gas-powered cars and Medicare for All, as evidence that he does not answer questions and flip-flops, according to KFOX. Breast cancer affects about one in eight women and is the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States, KFOX reported, underscoring why the decade-old essay has resurfaced as such a pointed line of attack in the closing weeks of the campaign.
