Abdul El‑Sayed’s victory in Michigan has the Democratic progressive wing dreaming of the White House

Abdul El-Sayed has done it. He has defeated — in order of appearance — the Democratic Party’s heavyweights, the Israeli lobby, the Republicans, and the anti-Muslim prejudices that Donald Trump and his supporters have spread over the past few months. This doctor, the son of Egyptian immigrants who just turned 42, will represent Michigan in the Senate starting in January — the true political aristocracy in a republic like the United States. With 52% of the vote, he secured the Democrats’ 54th seat of the night.The defeated candidate, Mike Rogers, is a close ally of President Donald Trump who during the campaign accused El-Sayed, without any evidence, of taking money from people who support Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah.With this victory, El‑Sayed has broken several glass ceilings: he will be the first Muslim senator in the country’s history. It is a landmark for a man who has said he considered entering politics after seeing that someone like Barack Obama could become president. It also proves that the Democrats’ most progressive wing can aspire to everything. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez, with an eye on a possible 2028 presidential bid, will be taking careful note of what happened Tuesday in Michigan.An elated El‑Sayed, before an equally elated crowd, spoke from Detroit at around 2.00 a.m. local time. Before the media declared his victory, he had already presented himself as senator‑elect. He delivered an emotional speech in which he recalled the insults he received in what he considers the dirtiest campaign he has ever seen.“As I was campaigning some of you would come up and ask me: How come you don’t hit back? How come you don’t call them racist or hateful? The answer is they weren’t targeting and attacking me. They were targeting and attacking you, the very idea of America,” he said. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly mocked El-Sayed’s name. He insisted on calling him by his middle name, Mohamed, a tactic he also used with Obama, and imitated the pronunciation with guttural sounds. After the vote, he received a response from his target: “Donald, I know you struggle with my name. So after J. D. [Vance] swears me in in January, you can just go on and call me senator.” “They want an America that is too small for some of us,” he added. “We know that America is big enough for all of us.” In the end, what these midterms show, he said, is that “the bad guys lost.”The future of the DemocratsBefore El‑Sayed there was Zohran Mamdani. The victory of the socialist in the cradle of capitalism came as a surprise, but it was interpreted as a phenomenon confined to progressive enclaves like New York. Now the party’s left wing can say it is also possible to win in swing states like Michigan, which are neither fully Republican nor fully Democratic. This state, with more than 10 million inhabitants, is a perfect example of that mixed behavior: Michigan voted for Trump in 2024, but has not elected a Republican senator since 1994.This victory foreshadows the battle that will likely dominate the party over the next two years, up to the 2028 presidential elections. Progressives will say times have changed and that establishment candidates no longer persuade middle‑ and working‑class voters suffocated by the high cost of living and the growing difficulty of obtaining quality health insurance.Centrists will respond that Tuesday night was a great night for Democrats across the country, and that El‑Sayed may have won in spite of being a progressive, not because he was one. They will also point to the case of Angie Nixon — one of the very few bad news items for Democrats in these midterms — who failed to secure a Senate seat in Florida.The debate has only just begun in a party led by such different figures as Representative Ocasio‑Cortez and Senator Jon Ossoff — both re‑elected Tuesday and both possibly eyeing presidential bids. Everything suggests that it will intensify as soon as the celebrations over these election results end.This vibrant campaign began with primaries in which El‑Sayed narrowly defeated the party’s establishment‑backed candidate, Representative Haley Stevens. Among other differences, they were divided by their stance on Israel. Stevens, who received more than $30 million for her campaign from the Israeli lobby, is a staunch defender of the U.S.–Israel relationship. El‑Sayed, by contrast, is harshly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, has no qualms about accusing it of genocide in Gaza, and calls for an end to aid to Israel.The campaign’s final upheaval came last Sunday, when Stevens unexpectedly announced her support for Republican candidate Rogers. The congresswoman’s betrayal outraged the entire party, which rallied in defense of El‑Sayed. Two days later, he won an election that has catapulted him into the U.S. political elite.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition