‘I didn’t expect to be a main character’: Abdul El-Sayed heads to the Senate with a mandate – and a spotlight

The Guardian · Joseph Gedeon · 2026-11-06 12:46 UTC

The successful Democratic contender for a Michigan Senate seat parried the many insinuations lobbed by Republicans

Abdul El-Sayed said he did not expect to be “a main character of this midterms”, but the first Muslim elected to the US Senate in history will take his seat in January after a vitriolic campaign that cast him as the central villain of the president and his party.

By October he told the Associated Press he was “not shying away” from those rightwing fixations. “What are you implying?” El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, replied when a town hall attender asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, in a now-viral exchange.

On Tuesday, Michigan voters helped the pugnacious progressive cap off a transcendental blue wave nationwide, defeating his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, by about seven points, 52.5% to 45.5%.

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