Abdul El-Sayed, a 42-year-old Democrat who has never held elected office, has won Michigan’s open US Senate seat. The Associated Press called his race against Republican Mike Rogers at 2:27 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, according to PBS NewsHour’s AP results page.
Once sworn in, the son of Egyptian immigrants will be the first Muslim to serve in the Senate, NPR reported. That milestone checks out. Keith Ellison of Minnesota was the first Muslim elected to Congress, in 2006, and André Carson of Indiana the second, JTA reported in 2008. Both won House seats, not Senate seats.
The seat belonged to retiring Democrat Gary Peters, so the Senate’s balance does not change. What changes is the profile of the person holding it. Democrats have held this seat since 1979, per NPR, and it now goes to a Medicare for All supporter who beat his party’s leadership in the primary.
A seven-point win after an ugly campaign
As of 11:27 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, El-Sayed led 52.5% to 45.5%, NBC News’s results page showed. About 96.9% of the expected vote had been counted. President Trump carried Michigan by two points in 2024, as TIME noted.
Rogers, a former congressman, narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race to Elissa Slotkin. This time he struggled to square his loyalty to Trump with worries about prices tied to the Iran war and tariffs. That was the AP’s assessment, in a report by Joey Cappelletti carried by Mid-Michigan NOW.
The closing weeks turned on El-Sayed’s religion. Trump falsely called him a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to TIME. Rogers raised unfounded allegations about his family ties, TIME reported, and the AP found no evidence for Republican claims linking him to terrorist groups.
El-Sayed answered all of it in his victory speech in Detroit. Republicans “went all in on one of the ugliest campaigns that we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” he said, according to the AP. “We all know my name and my faith are not why you can’t afford your gas.”
He thanked supporters for taking “a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates.” To Rogers, he said: “You chose hate and Michigan chose hope.”
Epidemiologist, Detroit health chief, failed governor bid
El-Sayed was raised in suburban Detroit and studied at the University of Michigan, TIME reported. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, where he earned a doctorate in population health. He also holds a medical degree from Columbia, according to Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, though TIME notes he never practised medicine.
He was teaching epidemiology at Columbia in 2015 when Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan hired him to run the city’s health department. He was 30. “Now is an amazing time to go home and do something good with my fellow Detroiters,” he said then, per Columbia.
He left to run for governor in 2018 and lost the Democratic primary by double digits, the AP reported. From 2023 to 2025 he ran Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services, WDIV reported. His campaign site puts it this way: he “studied to be a doctor, but realized it was our broken politics that was making people sick.”
A one-point primary and a defection
His path to the nomination was narrow. State Senator Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign in July but stayed on the ballot. On August 4, El-Sayed beat Representative Haley Stevens 48.5% to 47.5%, with McMorrow at 4%, per AP figures cited by Bloomberg Government.
He won without the party’s leaders. Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Peters backed Stevens, NPR reported. Senator Bernie Sanders helped build his early momentum, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigned with him at the end, according to the AP account published by PBS NewsHour.
The primary drew nearly $60 million in outside spending, the AP reported. Almost $30 million of it came from AIPAC, against him. “You’re not supposed to be able to beat $70 million of outside spending,” El-Sayed said the next morning, using his own figure, Gray News reported.
Stevens conceded and endorsed him in August. Two days before the election, she endorsed Rogers instead, after a feud over Israel and the streamer Hasan Piker. El-Sayed said “none of this matters,” according to TIME, and on the vote count the defection did not cost him the seat.
Medicare for All, Israel and the criticism he carries in
His campaign site lists three priorities: “Money out of politics,” “Money in your pocket” and “Medicare for All.” In practice that means a single-payer health system run by the government, according to the AP. TIME adds higher taxes on the wealthy and limits on corporate money in politics.
He rejects the socialist label, TIME reported, and NPR noted he is not a democratic socialist. He is a sharp critic of Israel. He has called the war in Gaza a genocide and wants US aid redirected to schools and health care, TIME reported.
Those positions are where his critics focus. Some Jewish voters accused him of antisemitic rhetoric, which he denies, according to TIME. He also apologised for remarks after a March attack on a West Bloomfield synagogue, the AP and TIME reported.
Stevens cited his ties to Piker when she crossed the aisle. On primary night, the Michigan Republican Party called the November choice “common sense or communist crazy,” per WDIV. His rise, in four sourced figures:
- Age: 42 (NPR, TIME)
- Elected offices held before Tuesday: none (AP)
- Primary, August 4: 48.5% to Stevens’s 47.5% (AP via Bloomberg Government)
- General election: 52.5% to Rogers’s 45.5%, at 11:27 a.m. ET Wednesday (NBC News)
Sworn in January 3, with 2028 already in view
The new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027. In his speech, El-Sayed told Trump he could call him “Senator” once he is sworn in, Al Jazeera reported. He has not named a first bill, though his platform points to Medicare for All and campaign-finance limits.
His win was part of a night in which Democrats took both the House and Senate. Michigan was one of the contests in our guide to the Senate seats to watch. Our final look at the polls had it close.
He arrives in a party still split over Israel. NPR reported that he has signalled he wants to be a prominent voice on where Democrats go next. Michigan also holds a prime spot in the 2028 presidential nominating process, which gives him a stage from his first day.