Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race, and used his victory speech Tuesday night to directly confront President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance over the tone of the campaign.
El-Sayed said his opponents had “went all-in on one of the ugliest campaigns we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”
“They might have been pointing at my name and my faith, but we all know my name and my faith aren’t the reason you can’t afford your gas, or afford your groceries,” El-Sayed said.
He said attacks tied to the president grew “uglier and coarser” as the race wore on, and spoke directly to parents of children who may have heard the rhetoric.
“To all the parents who struggle to explain why the president openly mocked someone for their name or how they pray, let them know tomorrow that the bad guys lost,” he said.
He added: “They want an America that is too small for some of us, but we know America is big enough for all of us.”
El-Sayed also took aim at Vance, noting that as vice president, Vance will be constitutionally required to swear him into office in January.
“There is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January. So you know what that means. Wolverine one. Buckeye zero,” El-Sayed said.
On foreign policy, El-Sayed argued Americans want federal money kept at home rather than sent abroad, specifically referencing Israel.
“We don’t want our money spent on apartheid or genocidal war,” he said.
Turning to his defeated opponent, El-Sayed had a pointed message for Rogers: “Enjoy your retirement. May we never have to see the likes of you in the state again.”
A Bruising Campaign
El-Sayed spent the race fending off allegations tying him to the Muslim Brotherhood, criticism over his rhetoric on Israel from Jewish voters in Michigan, and pushback from within his own party over his association with political streamer Hasan Piker.
Rogers, meanwhile, struggled against broader headwinds facing Republicans this cycle — including affordability concerns, Trump’s trade war with Canada launched in the middle of the midterms, and the war with Iran — despite efforts to put distance between himself and some of those issues.
El-Sayed’s win follows his earlier primary upset over Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., after which Republicans spent much of the campaign branding him as the face of socialism and communism within the Democratic Party.
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