Dusseldorf. Shortly after 2 a.m. local time on Wednesday night, Abdul El-Sayed appeared in front of his supporters in Detroit and explained a word to them. During the election campaign, he says, he answered every question about the outcome with “Inshallah” – the Arabic expression for “God willing”. Now you can turn it into “Alhamdulillah”: “Thank God.”
The 42-year-old won the Senate election in Michigan against Republican Mike Rogers. In January, El-Sayed will take over the seat held by Democrat Gary Peters, who is retiring after two terms in office. He becomes the first Muslim senator in US history.
There were similar allegations from Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He accused El-Sayed of wanting to impose Islamic law and said that human lives could be put at risk if El-Sayed was given access to sensitive information as a senator. There is no evidence for such allegations. During the election campaign, El-Sayed also clearly distanced himself from the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas-friendly groups with which Rogers associated him and accused strict Christians of diluting the separation between the state and the churches.
El-Sayed responded to the allegations not with theology, but with the fuel bill. “My name and my faith are not the reason you can no longer afford your gas,” he said in Detroit. For El-Sayed, like many Democrats, the high cost of living was the number one campaign issue. Trump's war on Iran is driving up fuel costs. In addition, there is the customs dispute with Canada, which is affecting companies in Michigan.
How popular El-Sayed is with many was evident on election day at a polling station at his former university in Michigan. Students welcomed him like a rock star and asked for photos. He had already spoken for the graduates at the university's graduation ceremony in 2007. Former President Bill Clinton, who also spoke at the time, then advised him to run for office sometime. According to media reports, El-Sayed laughed: "I don't know if you saw my name. It won't work for me." Almost two decades later, he will now sit in the Senate.
Obama told El-Sayed at a campaign rally in late October that opponents might have used his name or beliefs to portray him as less American. “We have already seen this film,” said the ex-president. “I played the lead in it.” Trump once attacked Obama for precisely these reasons.
Even an internal party revolt couldn't stop El-Sayed: Democrat Haley Stevens, who lost in the Democratic primary in Michigan, suddenly sided with her Republican opponent two days before the election. In response, she said El-Sayer had not done enough to address her concerns and those of the Jewish community.
El-Sayed also faced criticism from parts of the Jewish community in Michigan because of his rhetoric. Among other things, it was a statement that “hurt people cause suffering to other people,” as he said after an attack on a synagogue in Michigan this year. He later asked for forgiveness for his words.
El-Sayed represents positions critical of Israel and supports political projects that are considered far-left in the United States, such as universal health insurance and the abolition of the ICE immigration agency. He is part of the progressive part of his party. His victory is likely to give the left wing of the Democrats a boost heading into the 2028 presidential election.
El-Sayed was born in Michigan; his parents immigrated from Egypt. He was raised by his father and stepmother, a descendant of Abigail Adams, wife of the second US President John Adams.
He studied at the University of Michigan, then medicine at Columbia University in New York, and received his doctorate on scholarship at Oxford. He did not become a practicing doctor. Instead, he went into public health work, leading the Detroit and Wayne County health departments.
His Senate candidacy fell in the midterms, the general election in the middle of the president's term in office. The parliamentary election decided all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats. The Republicans started the election with a majority of 53 Senate seats. Even before all the races were counted, the Democrats were projected to have 54 seats - with a chance of more.
He will quickly have to deal with political opponents in Washington. Vice President JD Vance, who was one of his critics during the election campaign, must swear him in in January. He can then immediately apply what El-Sayed told his school newspaper in 2021: “Often you play with people you don’t really like very much, but you still have to find a way to work together to achieve a common goal – and that’s really important.”
