Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers, projections show

The result

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has been projected to win the Michigan Senate race over former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers, according to Decision Desk HQ and US media projections reported early on 4 November. The coverage rests on those projections, and none of the seven articles gives a vote count or margin. Rogers, a former FBI agent and US Army officer, was the Republican candidate. The seat stays in Democratic hands, and if the projection holds El-Sayed would become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. Several outlets framed the result as a test for the progressive wing of the party in a critical industrial state.

Campaign and attacks

Donald Trump made his opponent's Muslim faith a central theme of his attacks, linking El-Sayed to extremism, according to iefimerida. Days after El-Sayed won the August primary, Trump began claiming that jihadists were gaining influence in American politics and government. At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, he urged the crowd to chant for the candidate to be deported. Trump also called him by his middle name, Mohammed. At a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on 25 October, he said he was there to stop a Muslim Brotherhood member and jihadist from becoming a US senator. At an event the same day, attended by Bernie Sanders, El-Sayed replied ironically that voters would know him as Senator Mohammed.

Primary and party divisions

Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed in August, endorsed Rogers at the last minute, according to NewsIT. Kathimerini reported that the party establishment had backed Stevens, so the outcome was read as a defeat for the establishment and a win for progressives. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren supported El-Sayed, Naftemporiki reported. El-Sayed has accused the Israeli government of genocide, and his positions on Israel drew strong reactions during the campaign.

Victory speech and background

In his victory speech El-Sayed said tax money should pay for schools, health care and infrastructure in Michigan, not for apartheid, genocide or war. He also said he had been saying Inshallah but could change it to Alhamdulillah that night. He sent a teasing message to Vice President JD Vance, calling it an ironic twist that Vance must swear him in next January, according to NewsIT. He is the son of Egyptian immigrants, according to NEWS 24/7, and he studied at Oxford, according to SKAI.

Public health career

El-Sayed first chose medicine, but he later concluded that many illnesses citizens face are linked to failures in political systems and public services, according to SKAI. He took charge of the Detroit Health Department during its rebuilding after the city's bankruptcy. He then restructured the health, human services and veterans affairs department of Wayne County, which has about 1.8 million residents. He secured free eyeglasses for children, helped remove lead from Detroit schools and promoted wider access to naloxone, the overdose drug. His medical debt initiative would cancel debts totalling up to $700 million for about 300,000 Michigan residents.

Other results in the coverage

NEWS 24/7 reported that Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives. The same outlet said Chris Pappas, a Greek-American, is set to become the first openly gay man in the Senate. It also reported a win for James Talarico in Texas, a state it described as traditionally deep red. The outlet presented these results as blows to the MAGA movement, which it said took several hits that evening.