After winning Michigan’s Democratic primary contest for US Senate, Abdul El-Sayed wasted no time on Wednesday, challenging the Republican nominee, former Congressman Mike Rogers, to five debates before the November general election.

“Mike,” El-Sayed said at a podium while speaking with reporters on Wednesday morning, “I know you’re gonna say no 'cause you’re a coward: Five debates, all right?”

“If you’re willing to stand with me and have a conversation—you and I both know that you will wither in front of your own crimes. But Imma make sure Michiganders know about them,” he continued. “By the time we’re done, you are not gonna have safe quarter from people holding you accountable to what you’ve done for them here in Michigan. We will send you back to Florida where you belong.”

Ripping Rogers as a “corporate sellout,” El-Sayed said that he is “a guy who spent 14 years in Congress with one goal: to figure out how to cash out the day he left. And guess what he did: As soon as he left Congress, after having taken corporate check after corporate check after corporate check, to empower the corporations to pick your pockets, he went and he cashed out.”

“Not in Michigan—no, winters are too cold for him,” he added, eliciting chuckles from the crowd. “He’s got thin skin, after all. He went to Florida. So, Mike, if you wanna be a Florida man, go be a Florida man.”

Rogers‚ who was unopposed in Tuesday’s GOP primary, worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation before entering politics, first at the state level and then representing Michigan’s 8th District in Congress from 2001-15. In comments to Fox News late Tuesday, the Republican cited his time fighting “terrorism” in the FBI and falsely claimed that El-Sayed believes “America deserved 9/11.”

“This is really about the heart and soul of our country,” Rogers said of the race just minutes after El-Sayed, a son of Egyptian immigrants, declared victory over Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens. “I have never seen someone so radical, so extreme, get nominated by a political party… The Democrat party is lost to this hardcore socialist attitude.”

The Democratic Socialists of America did not endorse El-Sayed, but his victory is part of a wave of recent primary wins by progressive congressional candidates, from New York and Pennsylvania to Colorado. The trend continued in other closely watched Michigan races on Tuesday, with William Lawrence winning in the 7th Congressional District and Donavan McKinney in the 13th District.

Like other victorious progressives, El-Sayed ran on a platform prioritizing working-class people; a former public health official, he especially focused on the fight for Medicare for All. Bridge Michigan reported Wednesday that “El-Sayed has said he doesn’t consider himself a democratic socialist and rejects the notion that his views are extreme in today’s political climate.”

“In an era where our premiums are quickly pricing people out, I think being for Medicare for All is… the moderate position,” El-Sayed previously told the outlet. In an era where President Donald Trump “is weaponizing” US immigration and Customs Enforcement “against the Constitution itself,” he added, “I think abolishing ICE is a moderate position.”

While key party leaders nationwide have often backed establishment candidates over progressives in recent primaries, including El-Sayed v. Stevens, Democrats in Michigan and across the country are already rallying behind the victor, with even the congresswoman he defeated showing her support on Wednesday.

“Mike Rogers represents everything people hate about politics: He sold Michiganders out to the corporate special interests cutting him checks, abandoned Michigan for a Florida mansion, and got rich advising the industries he regulated in Congress,” Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Joey Hannum said in a statement after the primary election.

“As Trump’s approval rating plummets to record lows, Rogers is still pledging to rubber stamp his toxic agenda, mocking Michiganders’ concerns about rising costs, and saying he would focus on ‘shielding’ the Trump administration and billionaires like Elon Musk from accountability, rather than stand up for working families,” Hannum said. “Michigan Democrats will hold Rogers accountable for his corruption, expose his price-hiking agenda, and defeat him a second time this November.”

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