Politics of Fear Failed to Stop El-Sayed's Historic US Senate Win

Abdul El-Sayed made history on Tuesday, November 4, when voters in Michigan elected him to the United States Senate. He became the first Muslim American ever to win a seat in the Senate. During the campaign, El-Sayed faced harsh and unfair attacks about his religion. Even so, Michigan voters chose him over his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.

El-Sayed, 42, was born in Michigan and is of Egyptian American heritage. He holds a medical degree and once served as the city of Detroit's health director. He ran his campaign focused on healthcare and the cost of living — issues that matter to everyday families. At his victory celebration, he spoke directly about the attacks he had faced. 'You chose hate, and Michigan chose hope,' he told the crowd.

President Donald Trump repeatedly called El-Sayed a terrorist and compared him to the hijackers from the September 11, 2001, attacks. Republican Senator Ted Cruz called him a 'jihadist leprechaun' and claimed Americans would die if El-Sayed won. Senator John Kennedy said El-Sayed sleeps 'in a bin Laden jersey.' These statements shocked many people and were widely condemned as deeply unfair and rooted in religious prejudice.

Campaign mailers — flyers sent to voters' homes — suggested El-Sayed had ties to terrorist groups and warned he would bring sharia law to Michigan. Neither claim was supported by evidence. Republicans also tried to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, partly by pointing to decade-old writings and social media posts by his half-sister. El-Sayed rejected any connection to the group, and no proof was ever found linking him to it.

Nazita Lajevardi is a professor at the University of Michigan who studies politics, race, and religion. She said this was 'the most egregious and most bigoted Islamophobic campaign I have seen.' She noted that, unlike after the September 11 attacks, very few Republican leaders pushed back against the hateful language this time. That silence, she said, made the attacks even more troubling.

Rogers said his concerns about El-Sayed were about ideas and policies, not religion. But he still appeared at events alongside Trump and the other senators who made the anti-Muslim remarks. His campaign also held a press conference the night before the election featuring a large sign accusing El-Sayed of offering 'SAFE HARBOR TO TERRORISTS.' When Reuters asked the Michigan Republican Party to back up that claim, a spokesperson pointed only to a comment El-Sayed made after a synagogue was attacked in Michigan.

After a violent attack on a Jewish synagogue in Michigan in March, El-Sayed released a statement condemning the violence. In it, he said 'hurt people hurt people,' meaning that people who are suffering sometimes cause harm to others. Some Jewish leaders criticized the remark, saying it seemed to make excuses for the attack. El-Sayed later apologized and said his words may have been misunderstood.

Most voters interviewed by Reuters said the attacks felt desperate and had little to do with the real issues they cared about. Five out of about 30 people Reuters spoke with in the Detroit area said El-Sayed's faith or his perceived ties to extremism influenced their vote for Rogers. One voter, Robin Cook, 73, said, 'I don't think he's a true American.' But many others pushed back against that view strongly.

In Dearborn — a city home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country — residents said the hateful campaign language had real consequences. Imad Soofi, a business owner who moved from Yemen 20 years ago, said he had seen a rise in anti-Muslim hostility since Trump began targeting El-Sayed. He even noticed people making rude remarks to women wearing hijabs in public places. Soofi had voted for Trump three times before, but this time, he voted for El-Sayed.

Michigan state Representative Alabas Farhat, who represents parts of Dearborn and Detroit, said these kinds of attacks were nothing new for Arab Americans in the region. 'There has been this constant questioning of how American can you be as a Muslim? How American can you be as an Arab American?' he said. But he added that Arab Americans continue to prove their place in this country time and again. El-Sayed's historic win, many in Dearborn hoped, would help put those questions to rest for good.