Islamic extremist becomes Senate nominee in Michigan after winning photo-finish primary race

Michigan U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

Abdul El-Sayed, the extremist Muslim and socialist candidate, defeated his more moderate opponent by a razor-thin margin in Michigan's primary held on Tuesday, capturing the Democrat nomination for U.S. senate, and advancing to the November general election. 

The race was so close between El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, midnight came and went in Michigan without a winner being declared. Not long after midnight, though, NBC News projected El-Sayed would hang onto his slim lead, and called him the winner. By just after 8:30 a.m. eastern time, Decision Desk HQ also declared El-Sayed had won the race. Fox News reported that vote counting was continuing on Wednesday.

The victory for El-Sayed is another huge win for the far left wing of the party, following extremist socialist candidates who won primary races in Colorado and New York earlier in the cycle. He will go on to face Republican Mike Rogers, who won Tuesday's primary uncontested. Rogers has been endorsed by President Trump.

Many of El-Sayed's past comments and policy positions could make it difficult for him to appeal to a centrist voter base in the general election. "You may not hate Muslims, but Muslims definitely hate you,” El-Sayed told a former state lawmaker during a debate at a Michigan Press Association event in 2018, according to footage of his remarks. El-Sayed has been campaigning for Michigan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants since around the same time.

More recently, El-Sayed has campaigned alongside Hasan Piker, the incendiary podcast host who espouses a range of anti-American and anarchist views, including that the U.S. deserved the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. El-Sayed has refused to distance himself from Piker and has also accused the Israeli government of being "evil" and guilty of "genocide" in Gaza over its military response to the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. 

In a speech to supporters in the early-morning hours before the race had been called, El-Sayed then invoked the Arabic phrase inshallah -- meaning "if God wills" or "God willing" -- in reference to defeating Rogers in the general election. HIs supporters erupted in applause upon hearing the phrase.

Early on Monday, Rogers appeared on Fox News to discuss the looming race against El-Sayed. 

"I find it shocking that I'm going to go up against a guy who believes America deserved 911!" Rogers marveled. "I have never seen someone so radical, so extreme," he continued, expressing genuine shock at the far-left, socialist takeover that's been sweeping the Democrats. "The Democrat Party is lost to this hardcore socialist attitude. And I listen, I fought terrorism my whole life. I was an FBI special agent, U.S. Army officer, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee."

According to new poll released this week, Rogers has a four-point lead on El-Sayed in the November showdown. Below, watch a highlight from El-Sayed's early-morning remarks to supporters.