Abdul El-Sayed becomes first Muslim elected to US Senate

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s open Senate seat, becoming the first Muslim elected to the US Senate while holding a crucial seat for his party.

DETROIT: Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s open US Senate seat on Tuesday, according to media projections, becoming the first Muslim elected to ⁠the chamber while preserving a crucial Democratic seat in the party’s fight for Senate control.

El-Sayed’s victory in ​the closely contested election marked a breakthrough for the Democratic ‌Party’s progressive wing and denied Republicans a ​chance to flip the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters.

El-Sayed, 42, a former public health official, focused on lowering costs for working families and ​reducing corporate influence in politics. His platform included Medicare for All, a government-funded universal ⁠healthcare ‌program championed ​by progressives in his party.

Republicans held ​a 53-47 Senate majority going into Tuesday’s midterm elections, with ​Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control.

His opponent Mike Rogers, 63, a former congressman and FBI agent, entered the race with strong backing from Trump and national Republicans and had ‌sought to cast El-Sayed as a radical candidate sympathetic to Islamic extremism through alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, claims that El-Sayed denies and that remain unsupported by evidence. Democrats said the attacks on El-Sayed relied on Islamophobic ⁠tropes.

Rogers also devoted ‌significant effort to courting Jewish voters who may have been uneasy with El-Sayed’s opposition to US military aid for Israel and his ​characterization of Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

But Rogers struggled to overcome ​voter ​concerns about the economy and Trump’s low ratings. In the ‌closing weeks ​of the race, he broke with the president on the war in Iran and the US trade dispute with Canada, arguing that ending both was necessary to help bring ​down costs for businesses and consumers.