Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s US Senate seat, US networks called early Wednesday, making the Democrat the first Muslim elected to the upper chamber of Congress. He defeated former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers with a lead of nearly six points when the race was called.
“Michigan, we did it!” El-Sayed told hundreds of supporters at his election headquarters in Detroit. “I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator-elect from the great state of Michigan.”
El-Sayed, 42, was born in Rochester Hills to Egyptian immigrant parents and grew up in the Detroit area. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2007 before earning a doctorate in public health from Oxford’s Oriel College as a Rhodes Scholar, then a medical degree from Columbia University in 2014. He became Detroit’s health director in 2015 at age 30 and later led Wayne County’s health department from 2023 to 2025. He had previously run for governor in 2018, losing the Democratic primary to Gretchen Whitmer with about 30% of the vote.
His Senate campaign, launched in April 2025, ran on Medicare for All, rejected PAC money, and drew an outsized online following. He won the August 4 primary with 48.5 per cent of the vote after a late field-clearing departure by rival Mallory McMorrow. The race carried a late complication when congresswoman Haley Stevens, whom El-Sayed had defeated in the primary, endorsed Rogers in the final days. Rogers and allied groups also outspent El-Sayed’s campaign by roughly 3-to-2.
The Michigan seat takes on broader significance beyond the historic milestone. El-Sayed takes over from retiring senator Gary Peters, and his win contributed to the Democrats’ push for Senate control following reported gains in Georgia and New Hampshire. Michigan had been a genuine battleground, a state Donald Trump carried in 2024, making El-Sayed’s victory a test of whether a progressive outsider could build a winning coalition there.
The win drew an emotional response from supporters on the ground. “We are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” said Trunetta Roach, 75, an entrepreneur at El-Sayed’s victory party in downtown Detroit. “They showed up.”
