Washington — Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race, CBS News projects, becoming the nation’s first Muslim to be elected senator and retaining the seat for Democrats after one of the most contentious contests of the midterm elections.
El-Sayed, 42, is a former Michigan health official who ran on a leftist platform and became a target of the right in the Great Lakes State and beyond. He defeated a more moderate opponent in the Democratic primary, after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters opted not to seek reelection, spurring scrutiny as national Democrats questioned the electability of a progressive candidate in a state that voted for President Trump twice.
Late in the race, El-Sayed’s appeal to Jewish and Black voters was in question over his opposition to U.S. support for Israel and his progressive platform. At the same time, top Republicans, including President Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called El-Sayed a “jihadist” and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and implied that electing him could even be deadly to Americans.
“If I am correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result,” Cruz said a few days before Election Day.
Mr. Trump invoked the 9/11 terror attacks and Flight 93 in urging Michiganders to oppose El-Sayed, saying, “Twenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight, just like Todd Beamer did, to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol.”
El-Sayed told Fox News, “I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Days before the election, a rift with his former primary opponent, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, spilled into public view. Stevens endorsed Rogers on Sunday.
Stevens had called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside group’s ad linking U.S. military aid to Israel to rising grocery prices, which she characterized as antisemitic. El-Sayed noted that the ad “was not made by me” and said he disagrees with its contents. And although Stevens was expected to appear with El-Sayed at a unity event Sunday alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, El-Sayed told reporters a day earlier, “I would rather not distract from the key issues of this campaign.”
On Sunday, Stevens appeared alongside Rogers at a church in Detroit. She announced her endorsement after the service, where she insisted that she wasn’t “turning her back on Democrats.”
“It is this one vote,” she said. “And I will tell you why: Because when you see hate, when you see us standing with Hasan Piker, and repeated hate, it’s not acceptable.”
El-Sayed faced off against Rogers, an Army veteran and former FBI agent who sought the seat after losing his 2024 Senate bid against Elissa Slotkin by 20,000 votes.
Rogers, 63, billed himself as a common-sense leader for Michigan, while he criticized El-Sayed for his previous comments and views on Israel and Iran, 9/11 and his connection to controversial streamer Hasan Piker. But as Republicans faced a difficult political environment amid the unpopular war in Iran and high gas prices, El-Sayed painted Rogers as a rubber stamp for the president, despite Rogers’ attempts to distance himself from the White House in the leadup to Election Day.
The projected victory comes after a slew of Democratic wins in states the president won comfortably in 2024.
