Abdul El-Sayed Becomes First Muslim Senator as Democrats Rout GOP Across the U.S. in Rebuke to Trump

In a stunning repudiation of President Trump, Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, flipping seven Senate seats: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. Meanwhile, progressive Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed defeated former Republican Congressmember Mike Rogers for an open Senate seat in Michigan with over 52% of the vote. El-Sayed campaigned on a platform of Medicare for All, tackling economic inequality and getting big money out of politics — as well as ending military aid to Israel. He is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. El-Sayed faced vitriolic, Islamaphobic attacks by top Republicans throughout the campaign.

“Last night wasn’t just about Dr. Abdulrahman being a Muslim, winning and going to the United States Senate,” says Palestinian American organizer and author Linda Sarsour, who has been campaigning for El-Sayed. “It demonstrated that progressives can win in states like Michigan” and that “we can win on standing up for the human rights of the Palestinian people.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

ANJALI KAMAT: In a stunning rebuke of President Trump and his MAGA movement, Democrats regained control of the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Democrats have picked up at least seven Senate seats, winning Republican seats in Texas, Maine, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa and Kansas.

We begin today’s show in Michigan, where progressive Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed has defeated Republican former Congressmember Mike Rogers. El-Sayed campaigned on a platform of Medicare for All, ending military aid to Israel, and getting money out of politics. He becomes the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. Throughout the campaign, El-Sayed faced racist, Islamophobic and vitriolic attacks by top Republicans, led by President Trump, who mocked El-Sayed’s name and Muslim faith.

During the Democratic primary, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spent over $30 million to help El-Sayed’s rival, Haley Stevens. On Sunday, Haley Stevens shocked many by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers over El-Sayed.

Early this morning, Dr. El-Sayed addressed supporters in Detroit.

SEN.-ELECT ABDUL EL-SAYED: My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, and I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator-elect from the great state of Michigan. … You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates. So, thank you. This is all yours. Michigan, I cannot wait to serve you with the same big-heartedness, open-mindedness, grit and earnestness that you’ve shown me. …

They might have been pointing to my name and my faith, but we all know that my name and my faith aren’t the reason you can’t afford your gas, not the reason you can’t afford your groceries, not the reason you can’t see a doctor. …

They try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers without being murdered by our tax dollars. If you believe in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination, that’s not hate, it’s love. Michiganders, we want our taxes spent here, for schools here and healthcare here and infrastructure here. We don’t want our money sent to do apartheid or genocide or war.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Michigan, where we’re joined by Linda Sarsour, who’s been campaigning with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. She is a Palestinian American Muslim organizer, author of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, co-founder of MPower Action Fund.

Linda, thanks so much for joining us again. We spoke to you last night in the middle of the watch party. It had not been announced yet that the doctor had won. Can you talk about the significance of his victory amidst this enormous onslaught against him, beginning with the president of the United States, who kept calling him Mohamed, saying he could call him that because he’s president of the United States?

LINDA SARSOUR: It’s incredible. You could hear it in my voice, Amy. It was a long night, but incredibly worth it. To elect the first Muslim American to the United States Senate is no easy feat in a country that has the most powerful people spewing anti-Muslim hate. We watched this in the last couple of months against Abdul, against his family and against our communities, against organizers, because we are participating in democracy, because we are organizing and building power for things that are going to help our neighbors. We are organizing for our immigrant neighbors, to protect our immigrant neighbors, to abolish ICE, for Medicare for All and to end all military aid to Israel.

So, last night wasn’t just about Dr. Abdulrahman being a Muslim, winning and going to the United States Senate, although that in itself is very significant and a rebuke of the bigotry and the racism, and a message to our children that you, too, can grow up and have a name like Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed and go to the United States Senate, and maybe even one day being the president of the United States of America. But more so, it demonstrated that progressives can win in states like Michigan. Michigan is a swing state. And as you remember, Amy, during the 2024 election, people said that Palestine was a losing issue, that Gaza was a losing issue. And now we are demonstrating in this past cycle across the country, from New York City to Colorado to Fresno, California, to Dallas, Texas, that we can win on standing up for the human rights of the Palestinian people.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Linda, you’ve been on the ground campaigning in Michigan with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for his campaign. What were you hearing from voters, I mean, amidst all of this hate? When we spoke a few days ago, you talked about how the mood was quite dark because there were all these negative flyers everywhere. Can you talk about how voters rejected this hate?

LINDA SARSOUR: It was outstanding just to see how Dr. Abdul kind of emerged out of this darkness, this kind of cloud of hate, divisiveness, propaganda. If you turned on the television here in Michigan, literally — and I’m not exaggerating — there would be at least 10 ads back to back that were anti-Abdul El-Sayed. It was just horrific, mailers calling him a communist, calling him a radical, doing guilt by association with organizations, political parties around the world, with people. I mean, it was just outrageous on so many levels.

And I think what happened here in Michigan is that the voters were sick and tired. It’s not — like Dr. Abdul El-Sayed said, it’s not because his name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed that their gas prices are high or that their electric bills are high or that they’re struggling here. They resonated with this idea that our taxpayer dollars should be going to public schools, should be going to hospitals, and not going to bomb children in Gaza.

So, again, the propaganda, the mailers, the digital ads, your algorithms — even when you are not from Michigan, you’re in the state, the algorithm for your digital ads come up as anti-Abdul. But I believed in the voters. I truly believed in them. And they made us all proud, sending Dr. Abdul El-Sayed to the United States Senate. And it’s a message that being anti-Muslim, targeting a minority community in this country, being pro-genocide, pro-apartheid, is not a winning strategy. And they lost handedly across the country, not just here in Michigan.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Linda, AIPAC poured so much money into defeating Dr. Abdul El-Sayed into this race. We also had yesterday morning President Trump suddenly telling Fox News that he wants to end $4 billion to Israel, and bringing up Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s name.

LINDA SARSOUR: It was — you know, it’s just so ludicrous and ridiculous. And something that Dr. Abdul said during his victory speech was something that I thought was incredibly clever, where he said, “Thank you, AIPAC, for letting me beat you twice.” He beat them in the primaries. He beat them in the general election. You all know and heard that AIPAC has come out publicly saying that they will no longer endorse candidates or support candidates directly with resources. Now, people will say, “Well, of course they’re saying that now,” but they’ll find other ways to do that,” which is probably true. But the fact that they know that they are a liability, that they are toxic in politics, that nobody wants their name on them, is something — is a testament to the work that we have done in this movement to expose AIPAC’s influence in U.S. politics.

And when it comes to Donald Trump, you know, Donald Trump says a lot of things. I gotta — I have to see it to believe it. But let’s just say that he is going to end the $4 billion in aid to Israel — again, a testament to the work. I don’t care how we end military aid to Israel, to be quite honest with you, as long as we end military aid to Israel. And we know that AIPAC has been lobbying against the calls to end military aid to Israel. So, either way, whether Donald Trump ends it because he doesn’t want to give someone like Abdul El-Sayed the win, I guess you can say, that’s OK with me. We just need to make sure that this apartheid, genocidal regime does not have resources, that we as Americans are not complicit in the genocide, in the violence that we’re seeing in the West Bank. I just don’t want that to be on my dime. I don’t want to be complicit in it, and neither do the American people.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, though we’re talking to you in Michigan, where you were at the watch party last night and you also campaigned with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, we wanted to talk about Florida, as well. We have seen an extremely close race between Angie Nixon and Senator Ashley Moody. Nixon has gone down, but it was so close, and she got so little support from the Democratic Party. She was with the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. Can you talk about the significance of that race, where you also spent time and campaigned with Angie Nixon?

LINDA SARSOUR: I had such an incredible experience multiple times over the course of the many months going to Florida, both in the primaries and in the general election. Angie Nixon is the best amongst us. She’s fearless. She’s a hustler. She was up and down the state of Florida. She was going into communities, into red communities. You name it, she was going there, and she was bringing people together.

Shame on the Democratic Party. Shame on the Democratic Party, who saw a woman literally do the impossible during the primaries, had absolutely no money and was able to win by 150,000 votes against a competitor in the primary who had over $16 million. She proved it. And then she came out in the general election, and she continued to work just as hard. And the Democratic Party didn’t believe in her. If the Democratic Party would have just gave her even a tiny little fraction of what they gave to a Jon Ossoff or to a Talarico in Texas, Angie Nixon right now would be the United States senator-elect of the state of Florida. I’m so tired of the Democratic Party, who continues to say that Black voters are the foundation of the Democratic Party, and when they saw an incredibly talented, wonderful, brilliant, committed Black woman, they turned their backs on her.

And so, just so you know, Amy, it’s sad, it’s outrageous, it’s frustrating, but remember this was a special election. This is only for two years. And so, we are welcoming Angie Nixon back in 2028. We got her back. And we hope that at that time the party provides her with the resources necessary for her to become the first Black woman United States senator from the great state of Florida.

AMY GOODMAN: The words of Angie Nixon — now, remember, she was in a race against Ashley Moody, who was the Florida secretary of state, named to the Florida Senate seat vacated when Republican Senator Marco Rubio joined the Trump administration as U.S. secretary of state. This is Angie Nixon speaking last night.

ANGIE NIXON: I am so incredibly proud of what we built together. Tonight, tonight, the results are not what we worked for. They are not what we hoped for. And I know there are a lot of people in this room and across the state that are hurting right now. But I’m an organizer, not a politician. And organizers don’t quit on the mission because one option closes.

So, I want y’all to hear me when I say this: We may not have won this election, but that outcome will not stop us from getting up, from getting up tomorrow to continue the fight to deliver what everyday, hard-working Floridians need and deserve. They need a government that works for them and not the greedy corporations. I’m going to wake up tomorrow and keep fighting.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Angie Nixon in her concession speech last night in Florida, losing the race for the U.S. Senate. We want to thank Linda Sarsour for joining us from Dearborn, Michigan, but also spent time in Florida with Angie Nixon. Linda Sarsour, Palestinian American Muslim organizer, author of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, co-founder of MPower Action Fund.