(AFP) – Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s US Senate race over former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers, US networks said early Wednesday, making him the first Muslim elected to the upper chamber of Congress.
“Michigan, we did it!” El-Sayed said in a speech attended by hundreds of supporters who screamed and hugged each other 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 curve ball in his campaign when congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed, came out in support of Rogers at the 11th hour. The Michigan medical administrator rallied voters on leftist campaign promises, including universal health care, to win a key US Senate seat for Democrats, taking over from the retiring Gary Peters. El-Sayed held a nearly six-point lead on Rogers when networks called the race.
“We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I’m so proud of all the work. It was boots on the ground. We were always out, but we were never outworked,” said party-goer entrepreneur Trunetta Roach, 75, who attended El-Sayed’s victory party in downtown Detroit wearing US flag-design diamante high-heels. “I’m feeling elated. The kids are all right. I was concerned about them. They didn’t seem very engaged, but I was wrong. They showed up.”
Republicans ran a scorched-earth campaign to paint Democrats as communists and branded El-Sayed a terrorist who would endanger Americans. But the straight-talking 42-year-old El-Sayed pledged to help cash-strapped voters navigate America’s fractured, for-profit health care system. “You deserve to be able to see a doctor without getting a huge bill,” he told Michiganders on the eve of the vote, vowing to upend America’s divisive multi-billion-dollar for-profit medical system.
During the race, El-Sayed drew huge campaign crowds across the state, even in deeply conservative Republican areas. El-Sayed also vowed to get “money out of politics” and address the harsh economic woes that have voters yearning for a political newcomer to shake up the status quo. The victory made El-Sayed the first Democratic doctor in the Senate since 1969.
“Everybody in politics is so trash. So to see ethical Muslims be at the forefront representing us and showing everybody what we’re actually about… it means everything,” said micro-influencer Maryam Bozai, 28.
At the victory party, crowds gathered around TVs tuned to left-leaning cable news channel MS NOW, cheering jubilantly each time the Democrat’s trademark blue flashed on screen to announce another race won by the party. “Tsunami! Tsunami!” chanted Ondine Fortune, 64, a Democratic Party media planner.
El-Sayed supporters rubbed shoulders with left-leaning influencers and union activists, a group that lent El-Sayed their formidable campaign infrastructure to reach Michigan’s large organized labor community. Eboni Taylor, a vice-president at Higher Heights which promotes Black women seeking office, said El-Sayed had “gone places where I just would not expect to see him.”
“What’s most remarkable is that he’s showing up in places that are not the usual prescription for the Democratic Party. He’s going wherever the people want him to be,” Taylor said between social media livestreams and celebratory dancing.
El-Sayed faced Islamophobic attacks and mockery for his Arabic name from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. But El-Sayed may yet have the last laugh. Addressing the vice president, El-Sayed said in his victory speech, “you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”
– Gregory WALTON
© 2024 AFP
