Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat who defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan, is a physician and epidemiologist by training, a former recipient of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford, and the man who, at just 30 years old, was tasked with rebuilding Detroit’s public health system following the city’s bankruptcy.
El-Sayed was declared the winner early Wednesday morning, US time. According to BridgeDetroit, he was leading by nearly six percentage points at the time, with 85% of the votes counted.
The Senate seat became vacant after outgoing Democratic Senator Gary Peters decided not to seek another term.
“Michigan, we did it!” El-Sayed told his supporters in Detroit. He thanked them for giving a chance to a candidate who, in his words, had the lowest odds of winning.
Son of Egyptian immigrants
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed was born on October 31, 1984, in the Detroit area to a family of Egyptian origin.
He grew up in Detroit and the city’s northern suburbs. He was raised by his father, Mohamed, and his stepmother, Jacqueline, who has roots in Michigan’s Gratiot County.
He graduated from the University of Michigan. During his medical studies, he received a Rhodes Scholarship, which enabled him to pursue a doctorate in public health at the University of Oxford.
He earned his medical degree from Columbia University, where he became an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology in 2014. According to Time magazine, the 42-year-old never practised medicine clinically.
Appointed head of Detroit’s public health department at 30
Detroit’s then-mayor, Mike Duggan, appointed him executive director of the city’s Health Department in 2015. At 30, El-Sayed became the youngest health official to lead a major American city’s health department.
His task was to rebuild a service that had been privatised during Detroit’s bankruptcy. During his tenure, he also challenged increased sulfur dioxide emissions from the Marathon Petroleum refinery.
He left the position in 2017 to run for governor of Michigan. A year later, he lost the Democratic primary to Gretchen Whitmer.
From 2023 to 2025, he headed the Wayne County Department of Health, Human Services and Veterans Affairs. Since 2019, he has also hosted the podcast America Dissected, covering politics and public health.
The road to the Senate
He announced his candidacy in 2025 with the message that “in a state that built the American dream, it shouldn’t be this hard just to get by.”
His campaign focused on universal healthcare, addressing medical debt and increasing taxes on billionaires. Former US President Barack Obama also endorsed him.
“Abdul is a doctor who has stood up to special interests to fight for good-paying jobs, better healthcare and lower costs,” Obama said.
At a rally in Detroit, Obama compared attacks targeting El-Sayed’s faith and background to those he had experienced himself.
“We’ve seen this movie before. I’ve been in it,” Obama said.
Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent, portrayed El-Sayed as an overly extreme candidate for Michigan.
During the final stages of the campaign, President Donald Trump questioned El-Sayed’s loyalty to the United States, accusations that El-Sayed rejected.
“My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford gas, groceries or a doctor’s visit,” he responded.
El-Sayed is married to psychiatrist Sarah Jukaku, whom he met while studying at the University of Michigan. They married in 2006, have two daughters and live in Ann Arbor.
