'Delicious irony': Abdul El-Sayed taunts 'habibi' Vance after winning Michigan's Senate seat to become America's first Muslim senator
"MICHIGAN, WE DID IT!" Abdul El-Sayed celebrates his projected U.S, in a picture posted on X by Fox News.
Abdul El-Sayed, the 42-year-old son of Egyptian immigrants, defeated Trump-backed Republican Mike Rogers with 51.8% of the vote, becoming the first Muslim ever elected to the US Senate. El-Sayed declared victory before the Associated Press made its official call, addressing a packed, jubilant crowd in downtown Detroit. His win came on a night Democrats retook control of both the House and Senate in a devastating blow to Trump's final two years.
Trump repeatedly called El-Sayed 'a jihadist' during the campaign; Rogers and his backers all but painted him as a terrorist.
Democrat Haley Stevens — El-Sayed's defeated primary rival — switched to endorse Rogers just days before polling, a move strategists savaged as a backfiring betrayal.
'Donald, I know you struggle with my name — so after JD swears me in in January, you can just call me Senator,' El-Sayed told the cheering crowd.
