WARREN, Oct 21 — Retired Michigan autoworkers Mike and Rich live seconds apart, but the neighbours could not be more politically divided ahead of midterm elections dominated by the soaring cost of living and Donald Trump’s war in Iran.

The November 3 vote will decide which party controls the US Senate, and Michigan’s race pits insurgent leftist Democrat doctor Abdul El-Sayed against the president’s pick, Republican ex-Congressman Mike Rogers. Polls put them neck and neck.

Mike, a 67-year-old retired carmaker at Chrysler whose plants dot the area around his neat, single-story home, is alarmed at Trump’s war against Iran, and its cost to taxpayers.

“(If) the Republicans get control of (the Senate) — this man’s gonna go wild,” said Mike standing in front of his gold Dodge pick-up truck in the driveway of his Warren home. “He’s a wannabe gangster.”

But for Mike’s neighbour opposite Rich Dimichele, it is the opposition Democrat’s weakness on Iran that has persuaded him to back the Republican candidate for the Michigan Senate seat.

“I’m praying that Abdul (El-Sayed) doesn’t get in. That’s one person that I definitely would not vote for,” he said, sporting an Italian flag hat.

“To me, he’s a Muslim, and he hates America, and to put them in there would be the dumbest thing that people can do,” he said suggesting that El-Sayed, a fervent critic of Israel, had failed to say that Iran was a worse threat to the United States.

“I hope it costs him the election.”

But for Mike, the war in Iran hits close to home.

“My son’s over there. Every day it’s on my mind,” Mike said of his son serving in the military in the Middle East, along with tens of thousands of US personnel, where more than 20 Americans have been killed in the on-off regional conflict.

“I would rather see (my taxes) go to some family that needs medical care than go in some ass*ole’s pocket, and that’s where my money’s going right now. Who pays that? I pay it every time I go to the grocery store. I pay it every time I go to the gas pump,” he told AFP.

Highlighting inflamed passions around the election, Mike, who says he has not answered the telephone for years, declined to give his surname.

‘Not a Trump person’ 

Dimichele, 78, is also a retired Chrysler employee, and accused the Democrats of neglecting older voters like him and favouring younger, migrant-heritage electors.

“They want illegals to come over to vote,” he said.

The race has led to enormous spending by both parties. Increasingly aggressive television attack ads are airing on local TV channels across the swing state that narrowly backed Trump in 2024 after voting for Democratic former president Joe Biden in 2020.

Maurice Starr, 32, listened patiently while Warren’s voters aired their political grievances as he made his way between homes to sell his union’s preferred candidates while Amazon delivery drones hovered overhead and homeowners tended their yards in the neat suburb.

“I think what we heard in that last door, or even at the previous door, is that people feel the country’s not going in the right direction,” said Starr, an insurance worker who is part of the United Auto Workers union.

“They question ‘why should I vote?’... That’s why we’re out here. That’s why we’re hoping that we can get these districts flipped,” he added holding a pamphlet outlining the union’s preferred candidates in several key Michigan races, including the all-important Senate competition.

Starr’s canvassing buddy, Rob Banks, 45, a body shop team leader at nearby General Motors, checked off a list of members active and retired to be called on to promote the union’s preferred candidates — all Democrats.

Alongside Iran, the soaring cost of living was a recurring theme for the households visited by Banks and Starr.

“I see my little pittance of money I get every month shrinking, while groceries are going up and gas is going up,” said Sue Adamski, 85, clutching the election pamphlet she had just been handed by Banks.

“No, it’s hard. Put it this way: I’m not a Trump person. I didn’t like him 15 years ago, and I don’t like him now.” — AFP