I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan on Tuesday night.
El-Sayed’s victory is troubling because the questions surrounding him go well beyond ordinary policy disagreements. His Muslim Brotherhood connections and his decision to campaign with Hasan Piker, who said “America deserved 9/11,” raise a question about whose extremism he is willing to overlook for political advantage. When a terrorist attacked Temple Israel in Michigan, El-Sayed rationalized the attack because the attacker's family members died in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
These things alone should have been disqualifying, and it was for some people; that’s why Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), who lost to El-Sayed in the Democrat primary, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers just before Election Day. She could no longer pretend El-Sayed had any business being in the U.S. Senate, especially after he couldn't condemn a blatantly antisemitic ad supporting his campaign.
Sadly, her warning didn't peel off enough Democrat voters to make a difference. In fact, according to a Mercury Public Affairs survey, El-Sayed still managed to get 60% of the Jewish vote.
Wow. Just wow. I can't even.
The Detroit News reported on where his strongest support came from and how the final numbers shook out.
Voters, especially in cities with heavy Muslim populations like Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck, flocked to the polls in support of El-Sayed.
In Dearborn, unofficial results showed more than 82% of voters cast their vote for El-Sayed, compared to nearly 17% for Rogers.
In Dearborn Heights, unofficial results showed 75% of voters supported El-Sayed. Hamtramck did not have its Nov. 3 results posted on its website.
With 91% of the vote counted the morning of Nov. 4, El-Sayed received 53.9% of the vote in Michigan and Rogers received 44.2% of votes.
Taking the stage on election night, El-Sayed grinned through a speech that should alarm everyone. El-Sayed had one chance on election night to calm voters worried about his radicalism and his silence on Islamic extremism. He didn’t take it.
"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," he said. "Up until right about now, you might have noticed, I always say, 'Inshallah,' or, 'God willing,' whenever the outcome of this race was mentioned. But today, tonight, we can turn that, 'Inshallah,' into a Alhamdulillah."
If you're not concerned about the country, listen to this https://t.co/Jw6ZOa2oBA
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 4, 2026
There is documented use of “alhamdulillah" in the context of armed religious conflict, including jihadist propaganda. Can the expression be used innocently? Sure. But consider who we’re talking about here. I'm not going to say definitively that it was, but I can't say for sure that it wasn't.
As I said before, radical Islamists in America will read this victory as a green light and perhaps see his use of the phrase “alhamdulillah” as a dog whistle. I hope not, but I’d be willing to bet there are plenty of people worried it might be, given El-Sayed’s troubling connections.