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View all search resultsDemocrat Abdul El-Sayed claims victory in Michigan Senate battle
"Michigan, we did it!" El-Sayed said in a speech at his election headquarters in Detroit. "I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator-elect from the great state of Michigan."
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Former US President Barack Obama (center), Democrat Michigan senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed (left) and Michigan Secretary of State and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson (right) raise joined hands as they campaign together with other Michigan Democratics at a rally in Detroit, Michigan on October 24, 2026. (AFP/Bill Pugliano)
D
emocrat Abdul El-Sayed said early Wednesday that he had won a US Senate seat in Michigan over former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers, which would make him the first Muslim elected to the upper chamber of Congress.
"Michigan, we did it!" El-Sayed said in a speech at his election headquarters in Detroit. "I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator-elect from the great state of Michigan."
El-Sayed won despite a last-minute hiccup in his campaign when congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the primary to El-Sayed, came out in support of Rogers at the 11th hour.
The loss came as President Donald Trump's popularity was lower heading into Tuesday’s vote than in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to Reuters/Ipsos polls. That helped fuel concerns among Republicans that the president had become a drag on the party he remade around himself.
“This is a Trump Quake,” said Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist, pointing to voter frustration over high prices caused by tariffs and the war in Iran. "Trump spent the year telling voters what was important to him, not to them."
Trump struck a defiant tone as election returns arrived.
"I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" Trump wrote in a Tuesday night social media post.
One White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump “did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”
A senior White House official, also speaking anonymously, told Reuters the administration had polling data as far back as six weeks ago showing Republicans would lose both the House of Representatives and Senate, and Trump embarked on a month-long nationwide campaign to try to salvage Republicans' prospects.
