Abdul El-Sayed has made history as the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate after winning Michigan’s closely watched Senate election on Tuesday.
The doctor and progressive Democrat defeated Republican candidate Mike Rogers in a race that drew national attention and record spending.
In his victory speech, El-Sayed wasted no time taking a swipe at President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, two of his most prominent critics during the campaign.
Addressing Vance directly, he mocked the constitutional duty that will require the Vice President to swear him into office in January.
“JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January. So you know what that means? Wolverine 1, Buckeye 0.”
The Wolverine-Buckeye jab was a reference to the fierce college football rivalry between the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, Vance’s alma mater.
He then turned to Trump, who had repeatedly struggled with the pronunciation of his name during the campaign.
“Donald, look, I know you struggled with my name, so after JD swears me in in January, you can just go on and call me senator,” he said.
El-Sayed also took aim at political action committees and special-interest groups that spent millions of dollars campaigning against him, according to report.
He singled out the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, saying it had spent $42 million against him and thanking the organisation for giving him the opportunity to defeat it twice.
The incoming senator said his campaign had overcome huge financial disadvantages, including record outside spending and a quarter of a billion dollars spent during the general election.
“We showed that together, we can defeat a record $70 million of outside spending, an 11-to-1 money disadvantage in a primary election, that we can defeat a quarter of a billion dollars in a general election,” he said.
He ended by declaring that his campaign had defeated the political establishment, telling supporters: “Tonight, Michigan, we beat a machine.”
