Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate race in early projections, first Muslim senator

Michigan result

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Senate race against Republican Mike Rogers in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November, according to early projections. Speaking at a rally in Detroit nearly five hours after polls closed, he declared victory and said voters had shown that majorities can prevail over money. He succeeds retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters, and no Republican has won a Senate seat in Michigan since 1994. The 42-year-old epidemiologist and public health administrator, who holds clearly progressive positions, will be the first Muslim member of the US Senate.

Campaign and attacks on his name and faith

Donald Trump and his allies attacked El-Sayed for months over his faith and his name. After winning, he answered with humour, telling Vance and Trump that once Vance swears him in during January, they could simply call him 'Senator'. He told Rogers to enjoy his retirement in Florida and said Rogers had chosen hate while Michigan chose hope. Rogers repeatedly tied him to the commentator Hasan Piker, and El-Sayed's reaction to an attack on a synagogue in Michigan drew wide condemnation before he retracted remarks that appeared to justify it, ABC reported. On Sunday, 1 November, he told reporters that Michigan's 10 million residents deserve far more from their government, and said his focus was on the other 9,999,998 people.

Background and career

El-Sayed was born in 1984 in Rochester Hills, a Detroit suburb, to an Egyptian immigrant father, and was raised by his father and stepmother after his parents divorced when he was three. He studied medicine at the University of Michigan and Columbia University, specialising in epidemiology. In 2015 he was named executive director of the Detroit Health Department, and he later led the Wayne County health, human services and veterans department, which serves 1.8 million residents. In that work he secured free glasses for children, removed lead from schools, widened access to Narcan and promoted a programme to cancel up to $700 million in medical debt. In October 2018 he was arrested while protesting peacefully with McDonald's workers and the Fight for $15 campaign. That year he finished second in the Democratic primary for governor, losing to Gretchen Whitmer by more than 20 percentage points, and Whitmer later won two terms. Whitmer had backed Haley Stevens in the Senate primary but publicly supported El-Sayed after he won the nomination.

Wider midterm results

Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress from Republicans, a result La Razón linked to voter dissatisfaction with the management of President Donald Trump. Progressive senators Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backed El-Sayed, and moderate Democrats including Barack Obama also supported him, since a Michigan win was key to the party's plans to take control. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governorship and became the first Black woman to win such a post in the United States, returning the office to Democrats after more than two decades of Republican control. The former Atlanta mayor defeated healthcare executive Rick Jackson. In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas won a Senate race and will be the first openly gay man in the US Senate. El-Sayed is due to take office in January.