Democrat defeats Mike Rogers in race marked by Islamophobic attacks from Trump and Republican allies

Abdul El-Sayed, the doctor and progressive insurgent, has made history in winning the closely watched US Senate race in Michigan, defeating the Republican Mike Rogers and becoming the country’s first Muslim senator.

El-Sayed’s victory adds to a decisive Democratic majority in the Senate after the party wrested control of the upper chamber on Tuesday.

Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens has endorsed the Republican candidate for the Senate after a spat with her party’s own candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. The endorsement stunned Stevens’ Democrat colleagues, with one calling it a ‘despicable betrayal’ on the eve of the midterm elections. So what will it mean for the race? Lucy Hough speaks to US southern bureau chief and host of Anywhere but Washington Oliver Laughland

Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens has endorsed the Republican candidate for the Senate after a spat with her party’s own candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. The endorsement stunned Stevens’s Democrat colleagues, with one calling it a ‘despicable betrayal’ on the eve of the midterm elections. So what will it mean for the race? Lucy Hough speaks to US southern bureau chief and host of Anywhere but Washington Oliver Laughland – watch on YouTube

Stevens lost the party’s Michigan primary by a close margin and had refused to endorse El-Sayed, with tensions between the two high

Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, in an extraordinary rebuke of her party’s nominee on the eve of the midterm elections.

Her endorsement came in a video posted to X after she attended an event with Rogers at the predominantly Black Perfecting church in Detroit on Sunday. The event marks a stunning political moment in Michigan, where control of the seat could be crucial to Democratic party.

Former president speaks to rapturous crowd of thousands in support of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate

Barack Obama told a Detroit crowd on Saturday that Abdul El-Sayed was “fighting for change, real change, that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket”, as he threw his weight behind the Democratic Senate candidate and the rest of the ticket on the first day of early voting in Michigan.

Obama said in front of thousands of onlookers at Cass technical high school in Detroit that El-Sayed would “finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guarantee quality, affordable healthcare to every single American”.