How a Radical Islamist Tied to Terrorists Wins a Senate Seat

Abdul El‑Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s 2026 U.S. Senate race resulted from high turnout, strong Democratic shifts, and targeted wins in college towns and progressive strongholds, combined with a narrow but decisive margin over Republican Mike Rogers.

Young voters were a major driver. In counties with ≥30% young adults, El‑Sayed led by 24 points.

Is this an indictment of a college education and Marxist professors?

He won the plurality of Black voters (88% to Rogers’ 7%), though analysis noted he underperformed in counties with higher Black populations and fewer college‑educated residents. Remarkably, he won 60% of the Jewish vote in early voting, as compared with 79% for Jocelyn Benson.

El‑Sayed won by 7 percentage points over Mike Rogers and took 14 of Michigan’s 83 counties, including several of the most populous. He outperformed his opponent in many rural areas despite losses in some urban centers.

Over  4.8 million voters showed up, a midterm record and the highest since 2024.

All 83 counties shifted toward Democrats compared to 2024, with a 14‑point swing in Wayne County and double‑digit gains in rural areas. El‑Sayed’s wins were concentrated in college towns and liberal strongholds such as Kent and Washtenaw counties, where he topped 60–70% of the vote.

According to Bridge Michigan, key factors are:

• Universal healthcare and taxing the rich resonated in swing and liberal areas.
• All counties shifted toward Democrats, boosting El‑Sayed’s base.
• High margins in areas with strong higher‑education institutions.
• Independents leaned toward El‑Sayed.
• Rural gains offset losses in some urban counties.

The Breakdown

El‑Sayed’s vote share reflected a broad but geographically concentrated Democratic surge, with his strongest support among young voters, independents, and college‑educated areas, and notable gains in rural counties.

While he lost in some traditional Democratic strongholds, his margins in key swing areas and the statewide Democratic shift secured his win by a comfortable margin.

El Sayed won 100% of the smaller Islamist vote and the majority of the larger Jewish vote in the early vote counts.

Nearly one in four Jewish voters in Michigan who supported Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024 crossed party lines to vote for Republican Mike Rogers instead of Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed this year, according to an exit poll of early voters.

The Mercury Public Affairs survey of 482 Jewish voters who cast ballots before Election Day found that El-Sayed received 60% of the early Jewish vote in the Senate race, compared with 79% for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson. Rogers received 36%, and another 5% of respondents said they left the Senate race blank.

There are no separate vote counts for Christians, atheists, or Muslims.

However…

El‑Sayed won 37,000 votes in Dearborn with about 79,000 registered voters. There are about 28,000 registered Muslim voters in Dearborn. About 45,460 voters turned out (56.9% turnout).

El‑Sayed won 82.2% of the vote in Dearborn, compared with 16.9% for Republican Mike Rogers.

There are 244,000 Muslims living in Michigan and 300,000 Jews.

Voteres don’t register by party in Michigan and they have open primaries.