Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers faced off in a Michigan Senate debate on Wednesday. Mr. Rogers questioned his opponent’s loyalty, asking, "Are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?" Dr. El-Sayed said Mr. Rogers got too much support from corporate donors and President Trump.

Abdul El-Sayed accused Mike Rogers of being overly devoted to President Trump. Mr. Rogers accused Dr. El-Sayed of not enough loyalty to the country. It was still more cordial than their last debate.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and former Representative Mike Rogers do not like each other.

The two Senate candidates in Michigan have spent months trying to tear each other down. During their debate on Wednesday, Mr. Rogers questioned Dr. El-Sayed's loyalty to the country and sought to tie him to overseas Islamist groups. Dr. El-Sayed characterized Mr. Rogers as bought and paid for by corporate donors and in thrall to President Trump.

And somehow this debate was more civil and substantive than the last time they met, two weeks ago.

Polls show a tight race in a contest that could decide control of the chamber, with Dr. El-Sayed seeking to defend the Michigan seat for Democrats and Mr. Rogers hoping to give Republicans a lift by flipping it.

Here are five takeaways from their second and final debate:

Rogers went after El-Sayed's background, but not quite as hard.

After pushing during the first debate to place Dr. El-Sayed's Muslim faith and family history at the center of the campaign, Mr. Rogers laid off just a little. He did not mention his opponent's mother this time around.

Instead, he sought to tie Dr. El-Sayed, an Egyptian American, to the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement founded in Egypt nearly a century ago.

"If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know: Are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?" Mr. Rogers asked.

Mr. Rogers somewhat clumsily suggested that Dr. El-Sayed wanted to defund the police not only in the United States, but also in Egypt -- because of an open letter he signed in 2012. The letter called on Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who won Egypt's first competitive presidential election, to "purge" police officials who had been loyal to the previous autocratic government.

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