Abdul El-Sayed beat Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat and will be the first Muslim U.S. senator, CBS News projected. Unofficial results had him at about 52.5% to Rogers’ 45.5%, the Detroit News reported.
He won after top Republicans spent the final weeks calling him a “jihadist.” In his victory speech he had a message for the president: “Donald, I know you struggled with my name. So after JD swears me in in January, you can just go on to call me ‘Senator,'” Al Jazeera reported.
How did attacks on El-Sayed’s faith play out?
They didn’t work. Trump, invoking 9/11, said Michigan needed to “stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said “there is a very real risk that Americans will die” if El-Sayed was a Muslim Brotherhood supporter, which El-Sayed flatly denied: “I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, I never will be.” Earlier, Trump called him ‘Mohammed’, and CBS’s Jan Crawford apologized for cheering a heckler who pressed him on the Brotherhood.
“To all the parents who struggled to explain why the president openly mocks someone for their name or how they pray, let them know tomorrow that the bad guys lost,” El-Sayed said.
Was the Michigan Senate race close?
About 7 points. It wasn’t without Democratic drama: Rep. Haley Stevens, whom El-Sayed beat in the August primary, endorsed Rogers two days before the election, citing “hate” and his ties to streamer Hasan Piker. Rogers attacked El-Sayed’s past comments on Israel and Iran. The race drew well over $100 million in ads. In the end, Michigan kept its streak: no Republican has won a Senate race there since 1994.
The BeezLoop Take
El-Sayed’s faith was never the real question. Voters were told for weeks he was dangerous because he’s Muslim, and they elected him anyway by 7 points. That’s a rebuke of the people who tried it, from the president down.
He’ll be judged now on what he does, the way every senator should be. His speech hit the right note on that: “It shouldn’t be this hard to pay your taxes and know that money is going to be spent on you and your kids.” That’s the job.
The open question: will Republicans who called him a jihadist work with him as a colleague, or keep running on fear?
Sources: CBS News · Al Jazeera · The Detroit News · NBC News (video)
