Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) celebrated Democrat Abdulrahman El-Sayed's victory over Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan's U.S. Senate race, writing that eight Muslims will serve in the next Congress, according to Breitbart.
The Associated Press called the Michigan Senate race at 2:27 a.m. ET Wednesday. By 5:23 p.m. ET, El-Sayed held 52.5 percent to Rogers' 45.5 percent with about 98 percent of the vote counted, per AP results cited by Breitbart.
What Happened in Michigan
El-Sayed, 42, a former Wayne County health director and epidemiologist, defeated Rogers, a former congressman endorsed by President Donald Trump. He will succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters and become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, according to projections from NBC News and PBS News.
The Guardian reported that El-Sayed upset establishment favorite Rep. Haley Stevens in the August Democratic primary with backing from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). NBC News reported that Stevens later reneged on her primary pledge to support him and endorsed Rogers after attending church with him the Sunday before the election.
El-Sayed ran on a government-run health insurance system and called for ending U.S. military aid to Israel, describing Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide — positions that drew heavy opposition spending. The Guardian reported the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, through its Super PAC United Democracy Project, spent about $30 million in the primary trying to stop him. In his victory speech, El-Sayed said AIPAC spent $42 million against him and thanked the group "for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice," CBS Detroit reported.
The Campaign Fight Over Faith
The race was among the most contentious of the midterms. CBS News reported that Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called El-Sayed a "jihadist" and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood before Election Day; El-Sayed has said he has never been a member of the group. The Guardian reported Trump also called him a "communist" and alleged he was a "jihadist" who would need to walk through a metal detector to enter the Senate.
In his victory speech, El-Sayed said his opponents pointed to his name and faith, then "went all in on one of the ugliest campaigns we've seen in our lifetimes." He added: "They want an America that is too small for some of us."
Turning to Trump, he said, "I know you struggled with my name," and suggested the president could simply call him senator after the swearing-in.
NBC News noted that a Republican has not won a Senate seat in Michigan since 1994. The Guardian reported that El-Sayed's win adds to a Democratic Senate majority after the party took the upper chamber with victories in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.
Rogers previously lost the 2024 Senate race to Elissa Slotkin by roughly 0.3 percentage points, per The Guardian. This cycle he ran as a close ally of Trump, backing the president's tariff policy and the war with Iran.
It is not yet known which eight Muslim members Omar was counting in the next Congress; her post did not name them.
Our Take
Michigan voters just handed a Senate seat to a candidate who campaigned on government-run health care and ending military aid to Israel — and the first thing his most prominent supporter in Congress did was frame the win as a religious milestone. Patriots should pay attention to what El-Sayed actually said Tuesday night, because it was a preview of how the Left plans to govern from the Senate: attack AIPAC by name, describe Israel's defensive war as genocide, and treat $350 million in opposition spending as proof of virtue rather than a warning sign.
This is a state Trump carried in 2024, and Republicans just lost a Senate seat there to the most left-wing candidate on the ballot. Rogers had the president's endorsement and still couldn't close it. That is a Republican turnout problem and a messaging problem, and the consultants who ran this race should be answering for it today.
El-Sayed says his election means America isn't "too small" for anyone. But the agenda he ran on — open-ended spending, hostility to our closest ally in the Middle East, and a health care plan that would put Washington in charge of your doctor — is a big-government wish list dressed up as a moral crusade. The Senate is about to find out exactly how much of it he can actually pass. So should the voters who sent him there.
