Summary El-Sayed’s victory in the closely contested election marked a breakthrough for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing
DETROIT (AFP) - 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 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.
First Democrat elected senator in 94 years
Adam Hamilton won the US Senate race in Kansas, according to media projections, ousting Trump-backed Republican Roger Marshall to become the state’s first Democrat elected senator in 94 years and helping Democrats cement control of the chamber.
It was a striking Democratic gain in a state President Donald Trump carried by more than 16 percentage points in 2024 and where the race had initially been expected to be safely Republican.
Hamilton, pastor of the country’s largest United Methodist congregation, campaigned on affordability and bipartisanship, calling himself an “independent-minded Democrat” and rejecting Republican portrayals of him as far left.
Wearing a pin that said "love one another," Hamilton spoke in his victory speech of the need for unity between Democrats and Republicans, and for curbing cost of living increases caused by Trump policies like tariffs and cuts to food assistance.
In electing him, "the people in Kansas, Republicans, Democrats and independents, were saying, what's happening in Washington is not okay," Hamilton said.
The race tightened in its final weeks, drawing Trump and Vice President JD Vance to Kansas to campaign for Marshall.
At a Wichita-area campaign rally on October 19, Trump said the US Department of Agriculture would launch a "harvest fuel relief program" to provide farmers with $8 billion to offset diesel costs during the harvest season.
