Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s open US Senate seat on Tuesday, according to media projections, becoming the first Muslim elected to the chamber. His victory held a seat Democrats needed in their fight for Senate control.
El-Sayed, 42, is a Michigan-born Egyptian American and a former Detroit health director. He beat Republican Mike Rogers, 63, a former congressman, for the seat held by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters.
El-Sayed campaigned as a progressive focused on health care and the cost of living. Reuters reported that he also ran on reducing corporate influence in politics.
The race drew national attention for the attacks El-Sayed faced during the campaign. President Donald Trump repeatedly branded him a jihadist, Reuters reported, and Rogers questioned his loyalty to America. Campaign mailers suggested ties to terrorists and warned he would bring sharia law to Michigan, claims El-Sayed denies and that remain unsupported by evidence.
In his victory speech, El-Sayed cast the result as a rebuke to that rhetoric. “You chose hate, and Michigan chose hope,” he said, according to Reuters.
Source: Reuters
