A Democrat, Abdul El-Sayed, has become the first Muslim to win election into the United States Senate after defeating former Republican congressman, Mike Rogers, in Michigan’s closely contested midterm election.
The victory, projected by US media on Tuesday, will see the 42-year-old Egyptian-American succeed retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters when the new Congress begins sitting in January.
El-Sayed’s emergence followed a fiercely contested Democratic primary in August, where he defeated Representative Haley Stevens to secure his party’s ticket for the November 3 general election.
His campaign received backing from prominent progressive figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
During the campaign, he promised to push for wider healthcare coverage through Medicare for All, affordable housing, reduced political influence of wealthy donors and improved economic conditions for working-class Americans.
His position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also became a major issue in the race, with El-Sayed criticising US military assistance to Israel and describing its military operations in Gaza as genocide.
He called for an end to unconditional American military support for Israel, a position that reportedly deepened divisions within the Democratic Party.
The controversy escalated when Stevens, whom he defeated in the primary, publicly endorsed Rogers two days before the election, citing concerns about El-Sayed’s campaign rhetoric and political associations. The move attracted criticism from some Democratic supporters.
El-Sayed dismissed allegations linking him to extremism, arguing that his opponents were attempting to distract voters from pressing economic concerns.
Born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, to Egyptian immigrant parents, the new senator studied at the University of Michigan, where he graduated in 2007, before obtaining a doctorate in public health from the University of Oxford in 2011 as a Rhodes Scholar. He later earned a medical degree from Columbia University in 2014.
He served as Detroit’s health director between 2015 and 2017, overseeing efforts to rebuild the city’s public health system following its financial crisis. He later headed the Wayne County Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services from 2023 to 2025.
His election represents a significant breakthrough for Muslim representation in the US Senate, where no Muslim had previously secured an elected seat. Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to the US Congress in 2006, while Tlaib and Ilhan Omar made history in 2018 as the first Muslim women elected to the House of Representatives.
