Democrat Abdul Rahman Al-Sayyed, known as Abdul, won the US Senate seat from Michigan, defeating Republican Mike Rogers, which will make him the first Muslim elected to the upper chamber of Congress.
With Abdul Sayed winning the Michigan state Senate seat, he became the first Democratic doctor to enter the Senate since 1969. He is a doctor who made pledges during his campaign that included universal health care, in order to win a very important seat for the Democrats in the US Senate, succeeding retired Senator Gary Peters.
An epidemiologist with Egyptian origins
Abdel Rahman Al-Sayed, born in 1984 in the state of Michigan, is an American epidemiologist of Egyptian origin. He served as director of the Department of Health, Human Services and Veterans Affairs in Wayne County between 2023 and 2025, and previously ran for governor of Michigan in the 2018 elections.
Al-Sayed studied at the University of Michigan and then continued his studies at Oriel College, affiliated with the University of Oxford. He later received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Columbia University.
He worked as an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University between 2014 and 2015, and then between 2015 and 2017 he served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department and city health officer. He has three books in the field of public health and a number of articles published in academic journals.
Republicans worked in their campaign to portray Democrats as communists, and described Abdul (42 years old) as a terrorist who would endanger Americans. While he pledged to help low-income voters obtain health care.
Abdul, a former public health official, focused during his election campaign on reducing costs for working families and reducing corporate influence in politics. His campaign platform included the "Medicare for All" initiative, a government-funded universal health care program championed by progressives in his party.
Frequent attacks and questioning of loyalty
During the election campaign, Abdul Sayed attracted crowds from across the state, even from areas long considered a Republican stronghold. He pledged to separate "money from politics" and deal with the economic hardship experienced by voters.
Al-Sayyed achieved his electoral victory despite great difficulties and a sudden stumble in his election campaign after Democratic Representative Haley Stevens announced her support for the Republican candidate. US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic Party primaries for Senate in Michigan to Abdul Sayed in a bitter competition, had openly and publicly declared her support for Republican candidate Mike Rogers, and appeared with him in a Detroit church.
“There is no place for me in Abdul Sayed’s campaign,” Stevens said in a video clip posted on social media. Abdul called for the condemnation of an advertisement launched by an outside group that she said blamed Israel for the rise in food prices.
Sources reported that Abdul's campaign responded to Stevens afterward by asking her not to attend his events until Election Day so as not to divert attention from the campaign's central issues.
Abdul, an Egyptian-American Muslim born in Michigan, has been the target of attacks by Trump and other Republicans who have repeatedly questioned his loyalty to the United States and baselessly described him as a terrorist sympathizer, and that his election would lead to attacks on Americans. Abdul described his loyalty to the United States being questioned as "shameful."
Rashida Tlaib retains her seat
Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, of Palestinian origin, retained the 12th District seat in the House of Representatives from the state of Michigan, as she defeated her rival, Republican candidate James Hopper.
Tlaib, born in Detroit to immigrant parents of Palestinian origins, was elected in 2008 as the first Muslim woman in the Michigan state legislature. In 2018, she won membership in the US House of Representatives for the first time. She is known for her pro-Palestinian stances and criticism of the Gaza war.
Ilhan Omar is a Somali refugee
Like Rashida, Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar retained her seat in the US House of Representatives for the fifth district in Minnesota, after defeating her Republican rival, John Nagel.
Ilhan, a refugee of Somali origin, has held her seat in the House of Representatives since 2019. President Donald Trump has frequently targeted her in his anti-immigrant speeches, and he has called for an investigation into her. Investigators from the Department of Homeland Security searched her home in Washington as part of an investigation into immigration papers her father filed for her when she was a child, which she described as.
Adam Hamwi is a former army surgeon
