El-Sayed beats Trump-backed Rogers to become first Muslim in US Senate
Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s US Senate race, defeating Republican Mike Rogers to become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate.
The 42-year-old physician and former Wayne County health director declared victory early on Wednesday at the Michigan Democratic Party’s headquarters in Detroit, capping a campaign that began as an insurgent challenge and ended with a landmark national result.
“You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates,” El-Sayed told supporters, crediting a movement built through months of campaigning across Michigan’s largest cities and smallest towns. He also thanked voters who welcomed him into their homes, churches and synagogues.
His win adds to a strong Democratic performance in the Senate, with the party securing control of the upper chamber after surprise victories in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.
El-Sayed defeated Rogers, a former congressman and Trump-endorsed candidate who had previously lost the 2024 Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin by a narrow margin. The seat is being vacated by outgoing Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who has held it since 2015.
The campaign was among the most expensive and combative of the cycle. Republicans sought to frame El-Sayed as too far left for a swing state, while President Donald Trump and allied figures repeatedly targeted his Muslim faith and Egyptian-American background, with Trump calling him a “jihadist” and accusing him of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed rejected the attacks, saying his opponents chose division over addressing everyday concerns such as the cost of gas and groceries. “They want an America that is too small for some of us,” he said. “We know that America is big enough for all of us.”
A progressive who upset establishment-backed Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary, El-Sayed campaigned on Medicare for All and called for an end to US military aid to Israel. In his victory speech, he said public money should be spent on schools, healthcare and infrastructure at home rather than on war abroad.
The race drew heavy outside spending, with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC’s super PAC reportedly spending about $30 million to block El-Sayed in the primary — a record for a single race. Total advertising spending in the general election had crossed $220 million by mid-October.
Rogers, who initially backed Trump’s tariff and Iran policies before distancing himself from both late in the campaign, had also faced criticism for his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, support for Trump’s immigration enforcement and repetition of false claims about the 2020 election.
El-Sayed’s victory is being seen as a major test of the appeal of progressive politics in a competitive state — and, with his election, a historic moment for Muslim Americans in US politics.