Mike Rogers campaign asks AIPAC to stand down in Michigan Senate race, Axios reports

Allies of Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee in Michigan, asked the American Israel Public Affairs Committee not to run ads on his behalf, according to Axios reporting cited by Middle East Eye.

The request followed a meeting between Rogers and AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The day after that meeting, AIPAC shelved an already-prepared video ad targeting Rogers' Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, a vocal critic of US aid to Israel, Axios reported.

AIPAC had already spent more than $30 million trying to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primary and was preparing to spend millions more to help elect Rogers in the general election, according to people familiar with the talks cited by Axios. El-Sayed won that primary against Haley Stevens on August 4, a result Rogers' own team had reportedly warned AIPAC to expect even as the group kept backing Stevens.

The tension underscores how far AIPAC's political standing has fallen amid voters' anger over the war in Gaza, according to Axios reporting cited by Middle East Eye, adding that even a staunchly pro-Israel Republican like Rogers fears the group's public support could now be a liability.

During the primary, El-Sayed made AIPAC's spending a central campaign target, arguing the money proved Stevens was beholden to the pro-Israel lobby. Rogers' campaign has concluded that line of attack worked, and believes AIPAC's involvement could hand El-Sayed the same weapon again in November if the group stays visible in the race.

Michigan has one of the largest Arab American populations in the country. A Fox News poll cited in the Axios reporting found 55 percent of Michigan voters oppose continued US aid to Israel, a number that helps explain why a candidate who has never hidden his support for Israel is now asking its most powerful lobbying arm to keep its checkbook out of sight.

Neither AIPAC nor the Rogers campaign has publicly confirmed the details of the Tuchin meeting or the shelved ad. The reporting rests on Axios sources described as people familiar with the talks, and Occupation Watch is relying on that attribution chain, as it was not independently able to verify the private conversation. The underlying facts that are matters of public record, El-Sayed's primary win and AIPAC's role as one of the largest outside spenders in American elections on Israel policy, are not in dispute.

The episode is a data point in a broader shift: a Republican in a swing state now treats association with AIPAC's ad spending as a potential general-election liability, in a cycle shaped by the war in Gaza.