Courtesy | Unsplash
Michigan is starving for a political celebrity, and it shows in this year’s Senate race.
According to a poll published by the Detroit Free Press on Oct. 12, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed leads Republican candidate Mike Rogers by 48.1% to 45%. Rogers has an impressive background as a U.S. Army veteran, former FBI agent, and seven-term congressman, but he has failed to present himself as a vibrant and entertaining choice. El-Sayed, meanwhile, has built an imposing empire on social media.
On Instagram alone, El-Sayed has amassed 1.8 million followers compared to Rogers’ 20,000. El-Sayed has harnessed the nostalgia of young voters throughout his campaign, such as in a June 25 video where he sings the famous “Mail Song” from the children’s show “Blue’s Clues” while surrounded by campaign signs. While showmanship is helpful on the campaign trail, it’s only part of the world he is fighting to enter.
The U.S. Senate, except for the occasional figure such as Louisiana’s John Kennedy, is incredibly unexciting. It is designed to be the deliberative body of an already slow-moving branch of government. Six-year terms and a higher age and citizenship threshold compared to the U.S. House create a chamber that is less susceptible to popular whims. James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 63 that the Senate is designed to prevent any decisions from being made “until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind.” The Senate is for prudent statesmen, and it rewards patient people who understand federal institutions.
In his political masterwork “To Be a Politician,” twentieth-century political scientist Stimson Bullitt argues that the good politician has two duties: do his job, and play a part. El-Sayed has successfully played the part of a scrappy man from Metro Detroit. What he lacks is experience: El-Sayed has never held elected office.
He lost in the 2018 Michigan Democratic gubernatorial primary race to Gretchen Whitmer. His narrow resume does include a two-year stint as the director of the Detroit Health Department, followed by another two years as director of the Wayne County Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services. While Wayne County is home to the city of Detroit and more than 1.7 million Michiganders, its public services have a statewide reputation for being insufficient and inefficient. Touting that you ran the Wayne County health department is like bragging that you planned the Bay of Pigs invasion: You are the proud captain of a shipwreck.
Rogers spent many years as an FBI agent fighting corruption and organized crime in Chicago. As a Michigan state senator, he authored the bill that created the Michigan 529 College Savings Program, which allows residents to invest money in a tiered-risk stock portfolio and cash out for educational expenses. As a U.S. Representative, he served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and fought attempts by China to steal trade secrets from the American auto industry. Rogers has an impressive record of service.
El-Sayed’s platform communicates that he wants to rage against the machine. Rogers’ platform communicates that he understands the machine, and he knows how to use elected office for good. The difference in their health policies demonstrates this divide. El-Sayed wrote “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide,” a 2021 book that calls for the adoption of a single-payer healthcare system similar to Canada’s. Yet Canadian health care is notorious for long wait times, doctor shortages, and price ceilings that discourage pharmaceutical companies from creating new medicines. Nobody knows exactly how much “Medicare for All” would cost, but the House Budget Committee puts the price tag at $47 trillion over 10 years. This is more than the current national debt.
Rogers recognizes that if Medicare for All were to become law, private agencies might offload the most expensive patients onto Medicare and exhaust the federal budget. Instead, Rogers proposes financial guardrails to prevent the exorbitant drug prices that lead people to seek answers through socialized medicine.
He wants hospitals and insurance companies to disclose the cost of medicines and care before patients receive them. According to his campaign website, Rogers believes that hospitals and insurance providers “don’t want you to comparison shop” because doing so would force providers to lower their prices to stay competitive. Rather than ignoring the issues with private insurance companies, he proposes achievable solutions. As his website states, “Companies with excessive denials or delays should face penalties. If you repeatedly deny care that should have been approved, there should be consequences.”
Rogers’ experience in Congress has taught him that there is a pathway through the law to improve American healthcare. It might take time and seem less exciting, but it will be more effective in the long run. You just won’t hear him sing a song about it like El-Sayed.
Jordan Nelson is a sophomore studying politics.
