Michigan Elects the First Muslim Senator. His Message to Vance: ‘JD, Habibi … You’re Constitutionally Obligated to Swear Me In’

Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat early Wednesday, beating Republican Mike Rogers and becoming the first Muslim ever elected to the Senate. The Associated Press projected the race at about 2:30 a.m. Eastern. An hour earlier, with 67% of the vote counted, the AP count had El-Sayed ahead 51.8% to 46.2%, MLive reported.

He didn’t give a gracious speech. He took the stage in Detroit and went after Rogers, Vice President JD Vance and President Trump by name, all on WXYZ-TV’s live feed.

“Mike, enjoy your retirement,” he told Rogers. “I know you’ve got a house in Florida and two yachts. See, you chose hate, and Michigan chose hope. May we never have to see the likes of you in this state again.”

Then he turned to Vance, who campaigned against him in Michigan. “JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January,” he said. “So you know what that means? Wolverine 1, Buckeye 0.”

Habibi is Arabic for “my dear.” And he’s right about the swearing-in. The vice president presides over the Senate and traditionally administers the oath to new senators when the new Congress opens in January.

His line for Trump, who had called him a “jihadist” at a Michigan rally last month, Fox News reported: “Donald, look, I know you struggle with my name. So after JD swears me in in January, you can just go on and call me Senator.”

Then came AIPAC and ‘genocide’

El-Sayed saved his sharpest words for Israel’s supporters. “To AIPAC, you spent $42 million against us,” he said. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice.” That’s the August primary and Tuesday.

“They try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers,” he said. “If you believe in equal rights, peace, dignity and self-determination, that’s not hate, it’s love.”

“Michiganders, we want our taxes spent here, for schools here and health care here and infrastructure here,” he went on. “We don’t want our money sent to apartheid or genocide or war.”

That was his first speech as senator-elect. It’s the same Israel message that split Michigan Democrats in the campaign’s last weeks, when his primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, endorsed Rogers two days before the election.

Rogers told his crowd they’d wake up winners

About 75 minutes before El-Sayed spoke, Rogers sent his own supporters home. The hotel needed them out, organizers told the Detroit News, according to Fox News. On Detroit Free Press video, he insisted the uncounted votes were his.

“There is a path for us to win this thing right here,” Rogers said. “A lot of what’s come in is favorable to one camp, but guess what’s left? It’s coming our way.” He added, “Michigan has got a voting problem. We’re going to fix that when we’re your next United States senator, so you can actually count the votes in a reasonable amount of time.”

His last words to the room: “Go home and get some sleep. So when you wake up, we’re going to be a winner.”

They woke up to a projected loss. As of 7 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, Rogers had not conceded publicly, and his campaign’s 𝕏 account hadn’t posted since 10:16 a.m. Tuesday, when it wrote, “Michigan — let’s get this done.”

What happens next

Michigan’s counties finish canvassing the vote, and the state Board of Canvassers certifies the results. El-Sayed takes the seat in January, replacing retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, and Democrats will hold it in a Senate they now control.

On 𝕏 a few minutes after the race was called, he posted: “Michigan, we did what they said couldn’t be done. We won. Together. Now the real work begins.”