El-Sayed defeats Rogers to win Michigan Senate race

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is projected to win the Michigan Senate race, with El-Sayed defeating Republican Mike Rogers and becoming the first Muslim American elected to the upper chamber, according to Decision Desk HQ.

El-Sayed, a doctor and former head of health departments in Detroit and Wayne County, prevailed against Rogers, a former congressman backed by President Trump, in the swing state that Trump narrowly carried in 2024.

He notched just over 50 percent of the vote while Rogers garned more than 47 percent, with 52 percent tallied as of early Wednesday morning.

His progressive campaign centered on healthcare and cost-of-living issues for Michiganders, amid attacks on his Muslim faith and debate over Israel and the Gaza war.

Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens (Mich.), who lost to El-Sayed in this summer’s Democratic primary, roiled the race and enraged fellow Democrats when she dropped a surprise Rogers endorsement just days before the election for retiring Sen. Gary Peters’s (D) Senate seat.

Top Democrats blasted the “betrayal,” and staffers for Stevens resigned . The House Democrat said her move was a response to “hate” and El-Sayed’s ties to political left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. She’d previously called Rogers a “rubber stamp” for the president’s “dangerous agenda.”

El-Sayed shrugged off Stevens’s bombshell announcement and reported raising $1.2 million in just four hours after the endorsement.

Rogers, who narrowly lost the 2024 Senate election to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) even as Trump flipped the state, sought to paint the Democrat as an extremist, prompting El-Sayed to parry allegations about ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group.

Trump and Vice President Vance both visited Michigan in the days before the midterm elections as part of a final blitz through key states.

Trump lobbed anti-Muslin attacks against El-Sayed, labeling the Democrat a “violent terrorist” — remarks that Rogers later declined to agree with — and calling him by his middle name, “Mohamed.”

“I don’t care how he pronounces my name,” El-Sayed said in response . “I don’t even care that he remembers my whole name. Because he can just go on and call me ‘senator’ after November. I will be Senator Mohamed to you, bro.”

El-Sayed had notably taken steps to distance his campaign from Piker amid backlash.

Meanwhile, the progressive snapped up support from former President Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic heavy hitters in the battleground race.

Polls ahead of Election Day showed him leading Rogers in the white-knuckle race, with a New York Times/Siena University poll over the weekend showing El-Sayed up by 11 points. Some major forecasters also shifted the race toward Democrats, fueling Democratic hopes of a blue wave in the midterms.

Born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, El-Sayed is now set to become the first Muslim American to serve in the Senate.