Detroit, Michigan — Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed has defeated his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, to win the United States Senate seat in Michigan, overcoming a campaign of anti-Muslim attacks spearheaded by President Donald Trump. With the victory on Tuesday, El-Sayed is set to become the first Muslim senator in US history. He will be sworn in on January 3 .
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), said Republicans had turned anti-Arab and anti-Muslim tropes into a pointed strategy against El-Sayed — one that eventually did not work. After winning a hard-fought primary in August that saw the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spend more than $30m against him, El-Sayed, a critic of Israel’s policies, was subjected to an avalanche of unfounded accusations — including that he is a “jihadist” — by Trump and other Republicans. El-Sayed, a former public health official, campaigned on expanding government-funded healthcare to all Americans, getting money out of politics, and addressing the affordability crisis.
The Democrat has also accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and called for investing money currently spent on foreign wars to instead fix local issues. The final days of the campaign were rocked by El-Sayed’s former primary opponent, Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens — a staunch Israel supporter — endorsing Rogers. El-Sayed’s win helps Democrats regain control of the Senate, but for many of his supporters, it means far more than a single seat in the upper chamber of Congress.
Throughout Election Day on Tuesday, voters in Michigan told Al Jazeera the election could determine the direction of the state and the country for years to come. For Democrats, the vote was about rejecting Trump’s agenda and defeating the racist rhetoric from the president and his allies. Republicans not only used Islamophobia against El-Sayed, but also invoked Arab-Black tensions to try to peel off African American voters from the Democratic coalition.
Michigan is home to a large Arab American community. Trump seized on that narrative, saying that any Black or Jewish person who backs El-Sayed is “crazy”. But early election results show that El-Sayed performed well with Black voters in Detroit.
Gary Colbert, who was casting his ballot on the west side of Detroit, denounced Trump’s comment about Black voters. He says any and everything,” Colbert told Al Jazeera. Colbert — who lamented the rise in gas prices due to the Iran war — added that Trump and “his cronies” are negatively affecting people’s lives, “and they don’t care”.
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