Michigan: health, salaries, purchasing power… Abdul El-Sayed makes social win against Islamophobia

Attacks on his religion did not stop Abdul El-Sayed from winning a seat in the US Senate. In Michigan, the Democrat talked about health, wages and purchasing power. Subjects which weighed more, for some of the voters, than speeches of fear.

Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, according to media projections. This former Detroit public health official defeated Republican Mike Rogers at the end of a campaign marked by attacks on his faith and loyalty to the United States. His program notably focused on access to care and reducing the influence of large corporations in politics.

Voters had other concerns

In a report published on November 4, Reuters gives voice to voters in the Detroit area. Many say they have dismissed the accusations against El-Sayed to focus on their economic difficulties. Many also recall that Muslims are their neighbors, their colleagues or their doctors. A merchant from Dearborn, who had voted three times for Donald Trump, says he chose El-Sayed. He criticizes Rogers for not having distanced himself from the president’s anti-Muslim comments. These testimonies are not enough to explain the entire result, but they show that the attacks also repelled voters.

A failure for the fear mongers

Those who banked on Islamophobia lost this election. They wanted to make the name, origins and religion of a candidate a reason for rejection. They asked voters to fear a Muslim rather than judge his program. It is a policy of contempt: it smears those it targets and assumes that those to whom it is addressed will allow themselves to be led by their prejudices. This time the calculation failed. Raising the threat of Islam does not pay for a medical consultation or fill a refrigerator.

The defeat of this campaign, however, does not erase its damage. In Dearborn, residents interviewed by Reuters spoke of increased hostility and concerns for their safety. The speeches pass, but those they expose continue to suffer the consequences.

Beyond the symbol, a candidate who talks about health

In an analysis published by AOC, “Analyse Opinion Critique”, an online daily of ideas, political scientist Nadia Marzouki invites us to look beyond the election of the first Muslim senator. It brings El-Sayed closer to the hero of Mr. Smith in the Senatethe Frank Capra film in which an idealist confronts a corrupt political system. His analysis above all highlights the place of health in this victory: health insurance, the price of medicines, the very concrete difficulties of families. She also emphasizes the support of the United Auto Workers (UAW) automobile union, which helped bring workers together around her candidacy. Reducing El-Sayed to his religion would therefore amount to forgetting what his voters chose him for.

Nadia Marzouki finally sees in her career as a doctor a way of conceiving politics: taking care of society, repairing what is malfunctioning, responding to the needs of residents. This reading gives full meaning to his refusal of religious and ethnic divisions. When his opponents sought to make him a foreigner, El-Sayed spoke of what his fellow citizens experience every day.