On Wednesday, Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary by about a single percentage point, beating Congresswoman Haley Stevens after a race that drew more than $70 million in outside spending, most of it from pro-Israel groups trying to stop him. He now heads into a general election against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers. If he wins in November, he will be the first Muslim ever elected to the United States Senate.

Abdul El-Sayed also terrifies right-wing politicians because, unlike Mamdani, he was born in the US and could run for president in future.

His primary win means he defeated not only $30 million from AIPAC and $40 million from other special interest groups, but also millions of dollars spent on Islamophobia campaigns since 9/11 to facilitate the War on Terror and genocide of Palestinians.

A Historic Win for Muslim Representation

Politics is shaped by its times. Before 2016, I don’t remember a Muslim in Congress ever being conceived of the way it is today. Keith Ellison and André Carson, though Muslim, were not known for being Muslim, but the elections of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib put them in the crosshairs of Islamophobes, who used it as a disqualifier and a slur against Obama under false pretenses over a decade earlier.

It is not a coincidence that since 2019 — amid Trump’s first term and its rising anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric — 200 Muslims have been elected across different seats in federal and state legislatures. And since October 2023, as the lobby’s influence has declined, it has emboldened increasingly Muslim and anti-genocide candidates to run — and win in midterms.

But there is more to it than that: over a decade of organization and community engagement behind these wins that no one sees.

Read more: Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan doctor who wants to lead the left to the US Senate

From Medicine to Politics

Dr. El Sayed shares this story at almost all public meetings. As a medical student, he was dismayed by how insufficient the healthcare system was, and that pushed him........

© Global Village Space