El-Sayed becomes first Muslim elected to US Senate

WASHINGTON (MNTV) – Abdul El-Sayed has become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, defeating former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan and holding onto a crucial Democratic-held seat, according to projections by US media.

With about 80% of the vote counted early Wednesday, El-Sayed led with 51.73% — 2,051,991 votes — to Rogers’s 46.28%, or 1,835,801 votes, a margin of more than 216,000, according to unofficial returns. Libertarian Lydia Christensen (1.04%) and the US Taxpayers Party’s Tim Long (0.55%) trailed far behind.

El-Sayed, a medical doctor and former Detroit health director, emerged from a competitive Democratic primary to contest the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters.

He will become the first Muslim to serve in the Senate when the new Congress convenes in January. The win came in a state Trump narrowly carried in the 2024 presidential election.

His historic victory followed a contentious campaign in which his Muslim faith became a central issue, with President Donald Trump and other Republicans repeatedly attacking him over his religious background.

Trump branded him a “jihadist” and misnamed him at rallies; El-Sayed rejected allegations linking him to extremism.

‘The bad guys lost … We won!’

El-Sayed celebrated his projected victory at an election-night watch party early Wednesday, delivering an emotional message to supporters and taking direct aim at Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

“Michigan, I cannot wait to serve you with the same big-heartedness, open-mindedness, grit, and earnestness that you’ve shown me,” he told the crowd. Framing the result as a collective win, he added: “Let them know tomorrow that the bad guys lost. Let them know that we together, fighting for something bigger, we won. We won! So Mike, enjoy your retirement.”

He turned to Vance, who as vice president presides over the Senate: “There is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”

And to Trump, who had mocked his name at rallies, El-Sayed said: “Donald, look, I know you struggled with my name. So after JD swears me in in January, you can just go on and call me senator.”

Landmark campaign

A democratic socialist backed by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, El-Sayed ran on Medicare for All, labor rights and curbing the influence of corporate and outside money — an agenda that, in the Democratic primary, made him a target of record spending by pro-Israel groups, including super PACs affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

His win survived a turbulent final stretch after Rep. Haley Stevens, whom he narrowly defeated in the August primary, crossed party lines to endorse Rogers days before the vote.

The result is a landmark for Muslim and Arab Americans, and for Michigan, home to one of the largest such communities in the country. It capped a historic night for Muslim and Palestinian American candidates, alongside the reelection of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Aber Kawas’s win for the New York State Senate, Darializa Avila Chevalier’s election to the US House in New York, and Nabeela Syed’s flip of a Republican-held Illinois state Senate seat.

MNTV has identified at least 51 Muslim Americans on the ballot nationwide this cycle.

This is a developing story and will be updated with official vote totals.