Michigan Senate race controversy erupts over campaign video

A political controversy has emerged in Michigan following a social media post by an aide to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Mason Pressler, a political manager for El-Sayed in northern Michigan, compared a campaign video released by Republican candidate Mike Rogers to “a 1960s white flight suburb and a KKK cross burning.”

The video in question features Rogers riding in an antique red Ford pickup truck with American flags on the tailgate during the Woodward Dream Cruise, set to the song “American Ride” by Toby Keith.

The Rogers campaign responded by accusing Pressler of suggesting that driving a Michigan-made Ford truck is equivalent to KKK activity. El-Sayed’s communications director, Roxie Richner, stated that Pressler’s comments do not represent the campaign, noting that his social media biography specifies his posts are personal opinions.