This story originally appeared on The Advocate.
Michigan voters have elected Abdul El-Sayed to the U.S. Senate, making him the first Muslim elected to the chamber after a campaign in which he defended transgender patients, challenged Republican attacks on their health care and weathered a last-minute defection by his former Democratic primary rival.
El-Sayed defeated Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, according to Decision Desk HQ, which called the race at 1:33 a.m. Wednesday.
With 77 percent of votes counted, El-Sayed led Rogers 50.74 percent to 47.29 percent. He will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, keeping the seat in Democratic hands.
The victory followed a closing stretch in which El-Sayed continued defending LGBTQ+ rights under pointed questioning about his Muslim faith and progressive politics.
In a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, conservative columnist Ross Douthat asked whether those commitments were in tension. El-Sayed framed his position around constitutional protections, arguing that people must defend freedoms even when they would never exercise those freedoms themselves.
“I will always fight for the ability to make choices, to live who you are,” El-Sayed said.
He described building connections between Michigan’s Muslim and LGBTQ+ communities around that principle: Allowing government to strip one group of its rights endangers others. When Douthat suggested that rights conflict over transgender athletes’ participation in sports, El-Sayed questioned that premise and argued that such social conflicts are manufactured.
Related: Abdul El-Sayed sticks up for trans rights in heated ‘60 Minutes’ interview ahead of midterms
His win also came despite Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers two days before the election. Stevens, whom El-Sayed defeated in the primary, appeared with Rogers at Detroit’s Perfecting Church, a Black church, handing Republicans a prominent endorsement and campaign photograph.
Stevens cited her exclusion from El-Sayed’s campaign. The dispute followed an outside group’s advertisement about Israel that she condemned as antisemitic; El-Sayed said his campaign had not produced it and rejected its contents.
On CNN that evening, Anderson Cooper pressed Stevens to reconcile her endorsement with her earlier warnings about Rogers advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda. Her longtime chief of staff resigned, and Democratic leaders condemned the reversal.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson pointed to Rogers’ opposition to marriage equality and repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay service members.
“There’s only one pro-equality Senate candidate on the ballot in Michigan: Abdul El-Sayed. And he has HRC’s unequivocal support,” Robinson told The Advocate through a spokesperson.
El-Sayed’s willingness to confront anti-trans arguments had already drawn national attention during an August appearance on Fox News.
When host Jesse Watters pressed him about medical treatment for transgender minors, El-Sayed argued that those decisions belonged to patients, parents and clinicians. He then asked Watters about circumcision.
Related: Meet Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the handsome politician breaking a sweat on the campaign trail
The former Detroit public health official also faced attacks from Trump, who cast him as a socialist and a religious extremist. El-Sayed answered by emphasizing individual freedoms, including those of transgender Americans.
