Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s US Senate race, NBC News projects, retaining a closely watched seat for Democrats and becoming the first Muslim elected to the chamber.
The 42-year-old epidemiologist and former public-health official will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, according to NBC News’s election report. His victory is a Democratic hold, rather than a seat taken from Republicans.
CBS News also projected El-Sayed as the winner. It described a race that tested whether a progressive candidate could prevail in a state that had twice voted for President Donald Trump. Peters’ decision not to seek reelection had opened a contest with national significance.
Rogers, a former Republican congressman, Army veteran and former FBI agent, was making another attempt to reach the Senate. He lost his 2024 bid to Democrat Elissa Slotkin by about 20,000 votes, CBS reported. Michigan Republicans have not won a US Senate race since 1994, according to NBC.
El-Sayed entered the general election after defeating Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary. NBC reported that Stevens reversed her earlier commitment to support him and endorsed Rogers in the campaign’s closing days. Her defection did not prevent El-Sayed from holding the seat for his party.
The result also carries a representation milestone. The Detroit News reported that El-Sayed, of Ann Arbor, is the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. He and Rogers were competing for the seat Peters has held since 2015.
The result reported here is a news organisation’s race projection, not a certified final vote count. Vote percentages and the final margin are omitted because counting was continuing in the election-night reports. That distinction leaves the projected winner clear without presenting an unfinished tally as the official result.
