Midterms: How Abdul El-Sayed used 'humour and hope' to rebuff racism
What happened
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's open Senate seat, becoming the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, according to media projections.
El-Sayed, 42, beat Trump-backed Republican Mike Rogers and kept the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters in his party's hands.
Rogers cast him as a communist and attacked his Muslim faith and stance on Israel, the BBC reported.
Republican politicians also tied him to the Muslim Brotherhood late in the race, according to Folha, while the BBC called the terrorism links baseless.
El-Sayed, a former public health official and son of Egyptian immigrants, ran on universal health care, a billionaire wealth tax and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.
Days before the vote, his primary rival Haley Stevens endorsed Rogers; Aipac had spent millions backing her campaign, the BBC said.
“They went all in on one of the ugliest campaigns we've seen in a long time”
BBC
Summary written by AI from 3 independent sources (Folha, BBC, The Hindu) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-11-04 07:37 UTCEuronews · euronews.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 08:12 UTCFolha · redir.folha.com.br ↗
- 2026-11-04 08:21 UTCKhaama Press · khaama.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 10:03 UTCBBC · bbc.co.uk ↗
- 2026-11-04 11:03 UTCBalkan Insight · balkaninsight.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 12:18 UTCThe Hindu · thehindu.com ↗
- 2026-11-04 14:25 UTCFrance 24 · france24.com ↗
- 2026-11-05 01:51 UTCSeneweb · seneweb.com ↗
- 2026-11-05 06:29 UTCIOL · iol.co.za ↗
- 2026-11-05 06:40 UTCTSA Algérie · tsa-algerie.com ↗
- 2026-11-05 10:46 UTCYle · yle.fi ↗
- 2026-11-05 11:43 UTCEgypt Independent · egyptindependent.com ↗
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