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For the left,<\/span> it\u2019s been the marquee race of the midterm cycle. Either a Republican former U.S. representative known for pushing domestic spying powers or an outspoken progressive who forced a reckoning over U.S.\u2013Israel policy among Democrats will emerge from Election Day as the next senator from Michigan.<\/p>\n Abdul El-Sayed would be the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected Tuesday night, capping off a race that\u2019s been viewed as a referendum on swing-state appeal for the Democratic Party\u2019s left flank. If he defeats Mike Rogers, a loyal Trump ally whose campaign often peddled Islamophobic tropes against the Democratic nominee, the results will all but certainly embolden progressives ahead of the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n If El-Sayed loses, it will likely trigger a centrist backlash \u2014\u00a0and cost the Democrats a critical Senate seat as the party fights to take back the upper chamber.<\/p>\n Polls across Michigan closed by 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, with anxious voters across the state awaiting the returns.<\/p>\n In the heavily Arab and Muslim city of Dearborn, voters across party lines said they were outraged at the Islamophobic attacks ads targeting El-Sayed that became a staple of airwaves and social media feeds in the campaign\u2019s final days.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a Muslim. And I\u2019ve seen a lot of ads, and it\u2019s disgusting, because we are good people,\u201d said Gus Tarraf, a Republican running for a state House seat. \u201cI love this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Donald Trump carried many precincts in Dearborn two years ago<\/a> due to voter frustration over the Biden administration\u2019s support of Israel, Tarraf said his community is turning on the Republican Party this year.<\/p>\n \u201cNot a lot of Arab Americans are happy with the Trump administration,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it doesn\u2019t matter if they know you, as soon as they know you are on the Republican ticket.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n El-Sayed\u2019s willingness to criticize U.S. policy on Israel animated soap-opera-level drama in the final days of the race, when his former primary opponent, centrist Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, announced she would switch her endorsement<\/a> to support Rogers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After demanding an apology<\/a> from El-Sayed for an outside PAC\u2019s ad, Stevens said on social media that she came to the decision after feeling \u201cshut out\u201d by El-Sayed\u2019s campaign, adding that she\u2019s heard from \u201cBlack voters, Jewish voters, and others about how deeply these messages hurt.\u201d Rogers, she said, gave her \u201cthe hope that he can serve in the tradition of John McCain: a senator willing to put country before party and stand up to his own side when conscience requires it.\u201d<\/p>\n Stevens\u2019s late-breaking endorsement of Rogers<\/a> drew a mix of eye-rolls and outrage from voters at three precincts in Detroit and Dearborn. None of the voters interviewed by The Intercept said it had swayed them to vote for Rogers.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have already early voted. People have already absentee voted,\u201d said Noora Iskander. \u201cI don\u2019t think many people change their minds. So I think it\u2019s just hypocritical.\u201d<\/p>\n Stevens\u2019s decision to make the endorsement while inside a Black church in Detroit may also have generated backlash from the Black voters that Rogers was hoping to win over, according to some who spoke to The Intercept. One said the church community has been buzzing \u2014 and not positively \u2014 about the weekend\u2019s events.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, she went to a Black church to use it as a backdrop,\u201d said Dearborn voter Dorothea Sharon. \u201cIt really was a slap in the face for the Black community that that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n While El-Sayed has had to face intense scrutiny<\/a> over accusations of conflating opposition to U.S. aid to Israel<\/a> with antisemitism, little accounting has been made of the blatant Islamophobia<\/a> and xenophobia from the Rogers campaign, the Republican Party, and Trump<\/a>. But in Dearborn, the rhetoric had clearly hurt several voters who spoke to The Intercept.<\/p>\n The father of state Senate candidate Abbas Alawieh, a Democrat who played a prominent role in the 2024 Uncommitted movement<\/a>, grew visibly upset when asked about the ads targeting Muslims.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are weak people who don\u2019t have anything to do \u2014 they don\u2019t have any programs for our economy, for our health, for our future,\u201d Zouheir Alawieh said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they are attacking us as Muslims and as human beings. It\u2019s never been like this. This is a shame. America is a place where the Black with the white with the yellow, the Muslim with the Christian with the Jews, can live freely. Don\u2019t try to tear up our society.\u201d<\/p>\n