Abdul El-Sayed has beaten Republican Mike Rogers in a hard-fought race for Michigan’s senate seat, handing the left wing of the Democratic Party a breakthrough win in one of the country’s most crucial swing states.
El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, is set to become the first Muslim senator in the nation’s history.
A former public health official who has never held elected office, he went from a double-digit loss in Michigan’s Democratic gubernatorial primary eight years ago to winning a seat in the US Senate.
El-Sayed overcame enormous outside spending in both the Democratic primary and the general election with a grassroots campaign centered on universal health care, removing outside money from elections, and sharp criticism of Israel.
With backing from progressive leaders such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, his victory will strengthen the movement ahead of the 2028 presidential election, showing that candidates who embrace its agenda can win in key battleground states.
Republicans had cleared the field for Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost a Senate race to then-representative Elissa Slotkin two years ago.
Yet Rogers found it difficult to reconcile his loyalty to President Donald Trump with concerns over rising prices tied to the war in Iran and the economic turmoil caused by the president’s tariffs.
The campaign also saw bitter attacks over El-Sayed’s criticism of Israel.
Trump and other Republicans repeatedly tried to link him to terrorist organizations, despite the absence of any evidence of such ties, and questioned his loyalty to the United States.
El-Sayed faced questions about whether he could unite Democrats after a contentious primary, especially among Black voters in Detroit and Jewish voters in its suburbs.
El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Representative Haley Stevens, stunned Democrats by endorsing Rogers on November 1, saying the Democratic candidate had not done enough to address the concerns of her and the Jewish community.
El-Sayed came through a bruising August primary against the establishment-backed Stevens that attracted nearly $60 million in outside spending.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent nearly $30 million opposing El-Sayed, its largest investment in any single race. El-Sayed has been a firm critic of Israel.
The contentious primary laid bare divisions within the Democratic coalition. El-Sayed drew criticism from some in Michigan’s Jewish community over his rhetoric, including his statement that “hurt people hurt people” after an attack on a Michigan synagogue earlier this year.
He later apologized, saying he was “sorry” to “anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful.”
His campaign appearances with Hasan Piker, a popular political streamer who has made inflammatory comments about Israel, Jews and the September 11 attacks, also came under criticism.
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Some Democrats were worried about Black voter turnout in Detroit after Stevens carried Wayne County in the primary.
Former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris were among the prominent Democrats who campaigned with El-Sayed in the city to help get out the vote.
El-Sayed ran on a staunchly progressive platform that left some moderate Democrats feeling uncomfortable.
A centerpiece of his campaign was Medicare for All, which would substitute a government-run, single-payer system for the current blend of private and public health insurance.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders helped generate early momentum for El-Sayed during the campaign, and Ocasio-Cortez later joined him for a final stretch of campaigning across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the Detroit area.
The win will hand progressives a strong argument as the 2028 presidential election approaches: that their agenda can prevail even in the country’s most competitive battleground states.
Republicans chose to run Rogers again after his razor-thin loss in 2024, when Slotkin won even as Trump carried Michigan by more than a percentage point. A former CNN contributor who once criticized Trump, Rogers has moved closer to the president in recent years.
Rogers sought to broaden his appeal among Democrats and independents, especially Black and Jewish voters. Yet the political climate presented a new challenge for the Republican nominee.
Rogers, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee and centered much of his career on national security, had to contend with high fuel prices and an unpopular war with Iran while staying aligned with Trump.
“The war with Iran needs to end, and end quickly,” Rogers wrote on social media in September.
