Abdul El-Sayed takes Michigan US Senate seat as first Muslim senator-elect over Mike Rogers
Physician and former Detroit health director Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s US Senate race, with Wayne County results sealing the outcome on Tuesday. He will be the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate. An Al Jazeera English commentary by a Muslim American from Michigan presents the win as evidence that Muslim Americans need not abandon their identity, or Palestine, to succeed in politics.
The author had known El-Sayed well before national coverage, from his 2018 gubernatorial campaign and Friday sermons in local mosques. During Ramadan this year, El-Sayed told a town hall of Muslim constituents he would fight for all Michiganders. He attended community funerals, answered personal messages late in the campaign, and once helped lead the Muslim Students’ Association at the University of Michigan, which both men attended. Days before the vote he joined a Muslim alumni football tailgate. The piece stresses he was not an outsider courting the community at election time but someone who belonged to it.
The author, who two years ago wrote about voting against genocide in the 2024 presidential election after work with Palestinian healthcare workers and outrage at the Biden-Harris administration’s role regarding Gaza, says this ballot offered more than a protest: a candidate who opposed Israel’s genocide against Palestinians from the outset while also addressing issues facing Michiganders. President Donald Trump repeatedly mocked El-Sayed’s name, treating his middle name Muhammad as an insult; opponents recycled unsubstantiated allegations tying him to groups he did not belong to. El-Sayed answered by talking about groceries, housing, healthcare and affordability, and by rejecting the idea that wanting children free of bombs was hateful or that a Muslim must disown community or Palestine to hold office.
His victory speech opened with the name opponents had weaponised: “My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.” He said he had answered questions about winning with “inshallah” and that it was now time for “alhamdulillah.” Messages of excitement, the author writes, arrived from New York, Gaza, Pakistan and Australia.
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