El-Sayed takes Michigan Senate seat, a first for Muslim Americans

Networks called it early Wednesday: Abdul El-Sayed is heading to the US Senate. The Democrat beat former Republican congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan, and in doing so becomes the first Muslim ever elected to the chamber. He held a lead of nearly six points when the race was called.

The 42-year-old medical administrator takes the seat of retiring Democrat Gary Peters. That makes him the first Democratic doctor in the Senate since 1969. He ran on leftist promises — universal health care, getting money out of politics — and told Michiganders the night before the vote, "You deserve to be able to see a doctor without getting a huge bill."

It wasn't a clean glide. Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed, threw her support behind Rogers at the 11th hour. El-Sayed shrugged it off, drawing big crowds even in deep red corners of the state and leaning on union activists who handed him their campaign muscle to reach Michigan's organized labor ranks.

Republicans went scorched-earth, painting Democrats as communists and branding El-Sayed a terrorist who would put Americans at risk. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance piled on with Islamophobic attacks and mockery of his Arabic name. El-Sayed got the last word in his victory speech, telling Vance he is "constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January."

In Detroit, the party was loud. "Michigan, we did it!" El-Sayed told hundreds of supporters who screamed and hugged at his headquarters. Entrepreneur Trunetta Roach, 75, showed up in US-flag diamante heels and said she was wrong to worry the kids wouldn't engage: "They showed up."

Eboni Taylor of Higher Heights, which promotes Black women in office, said El-Sayed "gone places where I just would not expect to see him" — not the usual Democratic prescription. The win lands as Democrats take the upper chamber with victories in Texas and Iowa, and Trump congratulated them on the midterms. When El-Sayed's trademark blue flashed across the TVs at the party, the chant was simple: "Tsunami!"