Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed drew more than 100 people to the Michigan Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

The town hall, billed as "Students vs. Billionaires," took place the day before Michigan began mailing absentee ballots to voters on its permanent mail ballot list. That mailing started Thursday, Sept. 24, 40 days before the Nov. 3 election.

The event was first reported by The Michigan Daily.

El-Sayed opened by framing affordability and U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts as the central issues of his campaign. He argued that corporate money in politics allows special interests to outrank ordinary people's needs.

He took direct aim at Republican opponent Mike Rogers, saying Rogers "voted five times to block Medicare from being able to negotiate prescription drugs."

El-Sayed also alleged Rogers moved to Florida, raised his net worth from $380,000 to $14.6 million and then advised corporations he had previously overseen as chair of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The seat is open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring.

Rogers' campaign did not address the Medicare, net worth or corporate-advising claims in the sources reviewed for this article.

Michigan Public reported Rogers also campaigned in Shelby Township on Wednesday, framing the race as a choice between the "American dream" and divisive politics and calling for an end to the Iran war. "He believes that if you want to make the American dream, you should move to Canada," Rogers said of El-Sayed.

The Michigan Theater stop was El-Sayed's second visit to Ann Arbor in under a month. He has pledged to refuse donations from corporate political action committees.

During a public comment session, an audience member asked about food safety in Michigan. El-Sayed blamed funding cuts by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, for hampering the FDA and CDC response to the state's recent cyclosporiasis outbreak.

"DOGE did have a consequence, and you see it in the failure of our FDA to protect us from shit lettuce and the failure of our CDC to even count the number of people who are affected by shit lettuce," El-Sayed said.

In a separate interview with The Michigan Daily, El-Sayed tied the University of Michigan's low campus free-speech rating to donor influence in higher education.

U-M ranks 166th out of 261 schools in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression's (FIRE) most recent College Free Speech Rankings, earning an F speech climate grade after falling 61 places from the prior year. According to FIRE's data, 41% of U-M students say they self-censor on campus at least once or twice a month.

El-Sayed said the ranking reflected "a massive empowerment of a few donors at the very top, who administrations are likely to pay a lot more attention to." He added that donor influence "takes power away from students and faculty and staff."

More Perfect University, the college-centered arm of progressive journalism nonprofit More Perfect Union, hosted the event. Elise Joshi, the group's campus program manager, said the goal was to "build student power" and open the floor to questions that matter to students.

Alina Lohmeier, an LSA senior and member of Students for Abdul El-Sayed, attended.

Early in-person voting in Michigan runs from Saturday, Oct. 24, through Sunday, Nov. 1. The online and mail voter registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 19.