The results of the midterm elections held yesterday in the USA have begun to become clear. Michigan state candidate Abdul El Sayed, of Egyptian origin, was elected to the Senate. El Sayed made history as the first Muslim to become a member of the Senate in the USA. So, who is Abdul El Sayed? How old is Abdul El Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, and where is he originally from?
WHO IS ABDUL EL SAYED?
El-Sayed was born on October 31, 1984, in Rochester Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, to Egyptian immigrant parents. His father, Mohamed El-Sayed, grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and immigrated to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Wayne State University. Both his father and stepmother are mechanical engineers, and his father is a professor of mechanical engineering and also an imam at Kettering University in Flint.
LIFE AND POLITICAL CAREER OF ABDUL EL SAYED
In 2003, El-Sayed graduated from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he was an athlete and captain in three sports (wrestling, football and lacrosse). He later attended the University of Michigan, where he studied biology and political science and played on the men's club lacrosse team. He received his bachelor's degree with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 2007 and delivered that year's commencement speech.
El-Sayed attended the University of Michigan Medical School on a full scholarship, where he completed the first two years of the combined MD-PhD program. As a second-year medical student, El-Sayed received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oriel College, Oxford, and earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in public health in 2011. In 2014, he completed his Doctor of Medicine degree at Columbia University School of Medicine with support from the Paul & Daisy Soros New Americans Fellowship and the Medical Scientist Training Program.
In 2014, El-Sayed joined the faculty at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health as an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology. In August 2015, Mayor Mike Duggan appointed El-Sayed as the Health Officer and Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department.
In December 2022, El-Sayed was appointed director of the Wayne County Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. During his tenure, El-Sayed oversaw the installation of air quality monitors throughout Wayne County to identify pollution hotspots and launched a program to buy and erase up to $700 million in medical debt for nearly 300,000 county residents.
POLITICAL CAREER
On February 9, 2017, the Detroit News reported that El-Sayed would resign as health director to run for governor of Michigan in the 2018 Democratic primary election. He officially announced his candidacy on February 25, 2017, saying that he decided to run for governor in the wake of the Flint water crisis. He lost the midterm elections held on August 7, 2017, receiving 30 percent of the votes. In September 2018, El-Sayed founded a political action committee called Southpaw Michigan to help elect progressive candidates in Michigan and support referendum initiatives.
THE FIRST MUSLIM MEMBER OF THE SENATE WAS ELECTED
Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed from Michigan won the midterm elections in the USA, where reactions against the policies of the Donald Trump administration and economic problems came to the fore. Leaving Republican Mike Rogers behind, El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected senator in US history.
El-Sayed, 42, the child of a family that emigrated from Egypt to the USA, highlighted topics such as making healthcare public, reducing economic inequalities, limiting the political influence of large companies and imposing an arms embargo on Israel in his election campaign.
El-Sayed's victory is also considered an important result for progressive politics within the Democratic Party in the USA. El-Sayed, supported by names such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ran his campaign largely on grassroots organization and economic issues.
Addressing Trump after the election results, El-Sayed responded to the attacks targeting him and also drew attention to what is happening in Palestine and the US support for Israel.
