Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Race, Beating Mike Rogers

Abdul El-Sayed will be Michigan's next United States senator. Decision Desk HQ called the race for the Democrat at 1:33 a.m. ET on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, and Fox News called it for him as well, at about 2 a.m. ET. With 77 percent of the votes counted at the Decision Desk HQ call, El-Sayed led Republican Mike Rogers with 50.74 percent to 47.29 percent.

The Associated Press had not called the race in its latest count read early on Wednesday. That snapshot put El-Sayed at 2,085,473 votes to 1,866,184 for Rogers, with 2,664 of 3,946 precincts reporting, 67.51 percent of precincts in and an estimated 80.69 percent of the vote counted. FOX 2 Detroit, reporting the Fox News call, noted at 1:50 a.m. that the AP had not yet called the race, so the result rests on the two decision desk calls rather than on the AP.

El-Sayed succeeds retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters and keeps the seat in Democratic hands. Out, reporting for The Advocate, called him the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate, and FOX 2 Detroit described him as the first Muslim to win a United States Senate seat in Michigan. El-Sayed is a doctor, and he led the health departments in Detroit and in Wayne County before running for the Senate.

Rogers is a former United States representative backed by President Donald Trump. El-Sayed reached the general election by beating Representative Haley Stevens in the August 4 Democratic primary, by less than one percentage point. Stevens endorsed Rogers two days before the general election. El-Sayed weathered that defection and won the seat anyway.

He spoke to supporters at a party in downtown Detroit that began at about 1:30 a.m. ET, before Fox News made its call. "We did it," he said. He said President Trump, who has routinely called him by the wrong name, could now "go ahead and call me senator." He added that he relished that Vice President JD Vance "is constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January." In remarks reported by LaPresse, he said: "I am truly proud and honoured to stand here as your senator-elect."

A final New York Times and Siena University poll over the weekend had El-Sayed ahead by 11 points, 53 percent to 42 percent, according to reporting by The Hill. The Senate balance going into Election Day stood at 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, according to FOX 2 Detroit. Michigan was the only open Democratic held Senate seat in a state that President Trump narrowly carried in 2024, which made the race one of the most watched in the country this fall.