Former public health official Abdul El-Sayed is Democrats’ pick for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health director and a 2018 candidate for governor, ran as a progressive with backing from Sen. Bernie Sanders. He narrowly defeated the more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens in a contentious and expensive primary that saw nearly $100 million in outside spending, over $60 million of which was spent to boost Stevens. He’ll face former Rep. Mike Rogers for the seat opened by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
Rogers narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin, and is running again with the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Tim Scott, chair of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Michigan is a perennial presidential battleground state: President Donald Trump won it in 2016, former Democratic President Joe Biden put the state back in the Democratic column in 2020 and Trump flipped it back in 2024. But over the last 30 years, the state has consistently elected Democrats to the Senate — the last time the state sent a Republican senator to Washington was 1994.
Republicans currently control the Senate by a 53-47 majority, and senators serve six-year terms, meaning a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold competitive seats in states like Georgia and Michigan while flipping four GOP-held seats. The party is eyeing contests in Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states like Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.
