- Michigan voters cast ballots in U.S. Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers
- Contentious from the start, the race has attracted record outside spending and could decide which party controls Congress.
- This story will be updated with the latest results as election officials across the state tally the votes.
DETROIT — Buoyed by national tailwinds, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed overcame party infighting to narrowly defeat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s fiercely competitive U.S. Senate race.
El-Sayed, a progressive who campaigned on universal health care and taxing the rich, is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. He will be part of a new Democratic majority, which flipped several seats in other states as part of a national rebuke of Republican President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press called the race for El-Sayed at 2:27 a.m., declaring him the winner over his Republican rival. He led by nearly 6 percentage points with 85% of all ballots counted.
Check out the latest vote count here:
El-Sayed had already declared victory an hour earlier, thanking his supporters for taking a chance on the “most unlikely candidate.”
“Michigan, we did it,” he told supporters at a Michigan Democratic Party watch party in Detroit. “I look forward to serving you with the same big heart, open-mindedness, courage and seriousness that you have shown me.”
He also had harsh words for President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and his opponent in the U.S. Senate race, who had claimed that he or his family were associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“You chose hate and Michigan chose hope,” he said. “May we never have to see people like you in the state again. »
El-Sayed’s victory is a watershed moment for the left wing of the Democratic Party, which viewed the Michigan race as a testing ground for the viability of progressives in swing, competitive states.
Addressing the outside spending that poured in during the primary and election cycle to defeat him, El-Sayed said voters “built something bigger than a bank account.”
“We have built a movement, a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” he said. “We have shown that in a battle between money and the many, the many can actually win. »
Despite a very public feud with former Democratic rival Haley Stevens, who supported Rogers two days before the election, a majority of
voters chose El-Sayed to try to address the high cost of living and put a damper on the Trump administration.
“I’m definitely voting Democratic just because the Republicans haven’t done anything to stop” Trump, said Jerrilyn Mathews, a Manton retiree and former Republican voter who left the party when the president took office.
Mathews had “doubts” about El-Sayed but ultimately voted for him and other Democrats up and down the aisle. “Considering who the opposition was, I think I would have voted for a can,” she said of Rogers after casting her vote Tuesday.
Rogers, a former congressman, also ran for Senate in 2024 and narrowly lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.
Who is Abdoul El-Sayed?
A former public health official and trained doctor, El-Sayed’s main message has become a campaign slogan and rallying cry for his supporters: “Money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all.”
Drawing on his experiences in public health, El-Sayed distinguished himself from other Democratic candidates early on by advocating for a government-backed, single-payer health care system, which he said would help reduce costs.
He also took a tough stance on artificial intelligence, calling for public ownership and strict regulation of AI companies as well as “terms of engagement” to hold data center projects accountable if they fail to meet utility and environmental requirements.
As a local government official, El-Sayed worked with a nonprofit to provide free glasses to thousands of area children and started a free Narcan distribution system to prevent overdose deaths, programs that continue today.
One of El-Sayed’s signature initiatives, a medical debt repayment program for Wayne County residents, has paid off more than $95 million in bills for more than 100,000 county residents since 2024. The totals fell well short of his $700 million goal, leading him to change early campaign messages claiming he had met the goal.
Outside of his public health duties, El-Sayed also co-authored a book on Medicare for All, hosted a podcast, and offered policy commentary in columns, speaking engagements, and in advisory roles.
El-Sayed has never held elected office, but the 41-year-old has competed in statewide elections before: In 2017, he resigned as Detroit’s health director to join the 2018 gubernatorial race, losing in the primary to current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by more than 20 points.
Progressive favorites with populist speech
El-Sayed has not been shy about touting his progressive credentials, campaigning with movement favorites U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
But in the general election, he worked to unify the Democratic base while making overtures to voters who aren’t historically inclined to his party: people who supported President Donald Trump in previous elections but still feel left behind by the government he promised to change.
“Our coalition will be made up of all those who feel excluded by their politics and who want this politics to be open to them,” El-Sayed said in October.
El-Sayed’s strategy involved spending a lot of time in rural areas and northern Michigan, which are not generally considered Democratic strongholds.
Ethan Harbin, a 21-year-old Eaton County voter, voted for Trump in his first election two years ago. This time around, he chose El-Sayed and other Democrats in top office, but selected Republicans in some local offices, such as on the school board.
“We were supposed to get out of the forever wars and move forward in the economy,” he said, noting that Trump had made “a lot of promises.”
“I’m the type to make a mistake once,” Harbin said. “You had your chance. You know, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but yeah, I feel burned.”
El-Sayed also frequently rallied in Detroit, repeatedly drawing support from key officials like former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
At a rally in Detroit last month, Obama compared El-Sayed’s trajectory to his own and said El-Sayed would “finish the work we started” with the Affordable Care Act and “ensure quality, affordable health care for all Americans.”
El-Sayed, a former public health official and longtime proponent of a single-payer “Medicare for All” health care system, called the seal of approval an honor.
Blake Dembski, a 19-year-old Lansing restaurant worker, said he supports El-Sayed and other Democrats because he closely aligns with their policies: keeping money out of politics, health care for all, harnessing artificial intelligence and “making things more accessible to underrepresented people.”
“I think El-Sayed is someone very qualified to talk about this given that he has a medical degree,” he said. “I think that’s what we should see more of in politics, which is more people with real qualifications to talk about certain issues.”
Overcoming Challenges
El-Sayed’s biggest challenge on the campaign trail was convincing independents and other swing voters, including those who supported Stevens, to support him in the general election.
Rogers’ campaign and other conservative groups relentlessly attacked El-Sayed, arguing that his progressive views on law enforcement, health care and other issues were too extreme for Michigan while exploiting divisions within the Democratic Party.
Even before Stevens defected to support Rogers, the Republican nominee had established a “Democrats for Rogers” coalition and worked to appeal to black and Jewish Democrats in metro Detroit.
During the primary cycle, the common refrain from Stevens and his high-profile supporters boiled down to general election electability, arguing that El-Sayed’s nomination could cost Democrats the Senate seat and a chance to overturn the chamber’s majority.
El-Sayed has also faced relentless attacks from Trump, Rogers and other conservatives over what they claim are ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamic organization that advocates for political systems tied to Islamic law.
Austin Haynes of Mason said he voted unequivocally Republican, motivated by his Christian religious views, opposition to policies supporting transgender youth in schools, skepticism of elected Muslims and support for Republican immigration policies.
“We believe in small, limited government. They work for us. They serve us, and then they step aside,” Haynes said.
But that rhetoric has made many prominent Arab American leaders uncomfortable, even some who supported Trump in his winning 2024 campaign, and has eaten away at Republican support among a group that has expressed frustrations with the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza war at the polls in 2024.
A national orientation
El-Sayed’s victory was good news for Democrats, even if the party ultimately did not need the complete results of Michigan’s most competitive election to take absolute control of Congress.
The National Democrats hoped to take advantage of favorable headwinds and win enough Republican seats to secure a majority. Associated Press projections show Democratic candidates across the country have done so with
Peters’ decision not to seek reelection opened a competitive Democratic primary for his replacement, and Republicans saw a rare opportunity to turn that cycle around in Rogers, who ran and narrowly lost to current U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024.
Voters’ television screens, phones and mailboxes were flooded with campaign ads about the race, funded by record spending by candidates and outside groups.
This race is by far the most expensive election in Michigan history, with more than $270 million in expenses disclosed last month, not including additional undisclosed “dark money” spending. That’s up from the $217 million in expenses disclosed during Rogers’ 2024 race against Slotkin.
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