Rogers El-Sayed auto industry

By Grant Schwab
The Detroit News

(The Detroit News) — Hours before notching a narrow win in Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary contest, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed was already ripping his GOP rival over policies governing the state’s critical automotive industry.

“He demonizes EVs but drives one,” El-Sayed said of former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, his Republican foe in the November general election. “He’s a walking hypocrisy.”

The comment to reporters on Aug. 3, the night before Democratic voters turned out in record numbers to choose El-Sayed as their nominee, was an early sign of how the former Wayne County public health official will seek to define his opponent — both as a person and as a steward of an industry responsible for 20% of Michigan’s private-sector workforce, per data from the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Autos likely will not be the defining topic of the matchup between El-Sayed and Rogers, but the industry is ever-important to getting elected statewide. The business of making cars and trucks remains fundamental to the culture, economy and stature of southeast Michigan on the national and even international stage.

In 2024, stringent Biden-era emissions policies aimed at promoting electric vehicles were popular fodder for GOP attacks on Democratic candidates in Michigan. Then-U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, eked out a victory over Rogers in that year’s Senate race in part thanks to careful navigation of the electrification conversation.

In 2026, other automotive topics will likely take center stage amid a new political and economic landscape driven by President Donald Trump. EVs remain important for many in the industry, though the last two years have brought a mix of regulatory relief and tariff tensions that raise different questions for voters concerned about the autos sector.

Rogers El-Sayed auto industry

Rogers, a former seven-term congressman from White Lake Township, has moved beyond EVs as a central talking point and has since focused on other automotive issues — namely China and trade.

“The biggest existential threat we have to the American automobile business is Chinese-made cars built here in the United States, or imported here to the United States,” he told The Detroit News in a recent interview.

El-Sayed, meanwhile, has signaled that one of his top priorities is shifting financial regulations so automakers make decisions geared toward longer-term performance rather than juicing shareholder value.

The two will likely flesh out their public stances on current automotive issues more fully over the 12-week sprint to Election Day, but past comments from the candidates shed light on how they view the auto industry.

Rogers sounds alarm on China, El-Sayed urges EV fitness

Rogers’ comments on China came after Canada’s recent decision to allow the limited sale of Chinese-made electric vehicles. That move — a response by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Trump administration tariffs and pullbacks on environmental policies — has caused bipartisan concern in Washington and anxiety in Detroit.

Rogers El-Sayed auto industry

Before the Gordie Howe International Bridge opened in late July, Rogers said Trump should use the border crossing as leverage to get Canada and Carney to retreat from their agreement with China.

“The one that it hurts first is American content providers, so people who are building, putting nuts and bolts in things and widgets together,” Rogers said in June. “Those Chinese cars are going to start competing against that content, so the content that we sell, both to Canada and America, is at risk.”

“I don’t know if they don’t understand it or do, but it’s also going to hurt the Canadians as much as it’s going to hurt us, and we ought to do something about it,” he added. A change to Canada’s plans was not part of an eventual deal to open the bridge.

Rogers has fiercely opposed the entry of Chinese vehicles into the United States, even as Trump has repeatedly signaled his openness to allowing brands like BYD Auto Co. to produce cars and trucks here.

“That’s where he and I disagree,” Rogers said. “That is the one place that having somebody that can actually have a constructive conversation with him, I think, is also going to be important for the future of building cars in Michigan.”

El-Sayed’s most recent comments about China and the U.S. auto industry came during a televised debate against his Democratic primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham. He said the United States must compete with China by pushing the Detroit Three automakers to make significant progress on EVs.

“I don’t believe in a mandate, but what I do believe is that you should be able to buy a $25,000, 300-mile-range car brought to you by the Big Three. Why? Because that’s the way that we’re going to be able to create a product line that can compete all over the world with the kinds of cars that China is now manufacturing and eating our lunch,” El-Sayed said.

Rogers El-Sayed auto industry

“But that means we have to invest in workers, and that really is the most important piece here. The UAW has built the American automotive industry,” he added, referring to the United Auto Workers union. “We need to be invested in them. We need to make sure that we continue to have the best manufacturing and engineering talent in the world.”

Rogers, when he does talk about EVs, focuses on choice for consumers and automakers.

“I think every consumer should be able to make that choice,” he told Automotive News in a September 2025 podcast interview. “And the government EV mandates, which you know the Biden administration has just rammed down our throats … it screwed up our companies’ ability to plan in a five-year, or even shorter, business cycle and what cars to build. That was a mess.”

Rogers added in the interview that he “loves” EV technology and noted that his family has two plug-in hybrids. He drove a Lincoln Aviator plug-in SUV as recently as 2024, but his campaign declined to comment on what he drives now.

Responding to El-Sayed’s “hypocrisy” remark about opposing EVs but driving one anyway, Rogers campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet emphasized the former congressman’s position.

“Mike Rogers believes Michiganders should have the freedom to choose what vehicle best suits them and their family — not radical EV mandates that kill tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, wreak havoc on our auto industry, and force families to pay more for an electric vehicle that may not work for them.”

El-Sayed’s campaign said he and his wife both drive American-made, non-electric vehicles but did not disclose specific models, citing security reasons.
Both support tariffs but want different approaches

Rogers El-Sayed auto industry

El-Sayed and Rogers have both expressed support for import taxes, known as tariffs, as a tool to push automakers and parts suppliers to perform more of their manufacturing in the United States.

The progressive El-Sayed, however, advocated for a more methodical approach to tariffs during his debate with Stevens.

“There’s a pathway, unlike the stupid tariffs of Donald Trump, which is around-the-clock tariffs for everyone,” he said. “There’s a place for targeted tariffs. If you think about free trade like cancer, I think we need some chemo. And the way that would work is if they were transparent, specific, directed to particular product lines.”

Rogers has avoided criticizing the president’s multifront trade war, even as industry groups plead for stability and Detroit companies in particular complain that Trump’s current trade policies set duty rates for regional allies, like Mexico, on par with farther-flung trade partners, like Japan and South Korea.

“The most important thing about tariffs is getting back to made-in-America, and so what we’ve seen is General Motors announces … a $4 billion in investment, expanding the Orion facility right here in Michigan. Ford is coming back. Whirlpool announced it’s coming back to the United States,” Rogers told Automotive News.

He continued: “We have other foreign companies realigning their production facilities back here to the United States, and so why is that important? We’ve lost 30,000 manufacturing jobs since 2019 … That tells you we have a problem, and China has been eating our lunch on supply chains on critical minerals, and so all of this helps realign to make sure that Michigan working families and American working families are manufacturing again.”

Despite the investments Rogers mentioned, the jobs decline has continued. Michigan’s manufacturing employment has gone from 624,500 in January 2019 to 583,000 in May 2026, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a decrease of more than 41,000 jobs.

Rogers El-Sayed auto industry

Those figures have not rebounded close to pre-pandemic levels, or close to their Biden-era peak, since Trump took office.
Rogers touts experience; El-Sayed calls for financial reforms

Rogers has said many times in interviews and campaign ads that he worked as a young man on automotive assembly lines that made Chrysler vehicles and parts for dashboards.

“And by the way, why these jobs matter? I worked at a car factory. That money helped me go to school. It helped me take care of a brother who had a disability. These are important times and these are important jobs,” he said at an August 2024 Trump rally in Potterville.

El-Sayed, a doctor by training, has no work experience in the automotive industry, though his parents do. His father is an engineer who worked at General Motors Co., and his stepmother previously served as president of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

“Automotive engineering is something that runs in my blood. I was, you know, a bit of an outcast. I went into medicine,” he told Automotive News in his own 2025 podcast interview with the publication. El-Sayed added that his father’s experience with GM helped shape his views on the industry.

“I think too often the fact that you’ve got stockbrokers on Wall Street who are making decisions that are shaping the future of the automotive industry. I think that’s been a real problem. It’s been a real problem since the ’90s when my dad watched as GM pulled down a lot of their engineering workforce and invested in their financial workforce,” he said.

El-Sayed continued: “When a car company does that, it spells bad news. And we saw the consequences of that in the late 2000s, and so I think we also need some real investment in the kind of regulation that recognizes that auto is a huge, important industry for the future.”

“You cannot make decisions focused on a quarterly bottom line and what it’s going to do your stock price. You are a mission-critical industry for our future, and you have to invest with the long term in mind. And I think that means some real financial regulation at the very top.”

Washington Bureau Chief Melissa Nann Burke contributed.