When Karrar Al-Sadkhan, 18, cast his first-ever ballot on Tuesday at a middle school in Dearborn, Mich., he chose a fellow Muslim to be his state’s next senator.
But while his pick, Abdul El-Sayed, defied a crush of anti-Muslim attacks and was elected as America’s first Muslim senator, for Mr. Al-Sadkhan, religion had little to do with it.
“The Democratic side was more focused on gas and health care and grocery prices, so that motivated me,” he said. “The Constitution gives us the freedom to worship how we want, but we still have allegiance to the Constitution.”
Mr. El-Sayed’s victory is a watershed moment for American Muslims, and a complicated one. It solidifies the community’s rising influence in national American politics even as Islamophobia is also surging in some quarters, backlash to which most likely contributed to his success.
Yet in interviews, Muslim voters from Illinois to Michigan to Washington, D.C., said they did not see his win as significant because he shares their faith. Instead, many see Mr. El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, not primarily as a religious touchstone, but as part of a progressive Democratic coalition taking root across the country, one that prioritizes things like affordability, universal health care and ending U.S. funding for Israel.
“Our country isn’t an Islamic-based nation,” said Mohamad Saab, 23, a college student who also voted for Mr. El-Sayed in Dearborn. “It’s a secular nation, and we want it to be that way.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. El-Sayed sought to challenge notions of what modern religious extremism looks like in America, noting that conservative Christian lawmakers have made explicit efforts to dismantle the separation of church and state.
At a town hall two weeks ago, a young man confronted Mr. El-Sayed, asking him to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political group, which he did. Mr. El-Sayed then asked the man, who described himself as a Christian, if he, too, would disavow “any attempt to read any religious doctrine into the laws of our country.”
The man, who formerly worked for Senator Josh Hawley, a conservative Republican, said he would not.
Mr. El-Sayed replied, “I think it’s you who needs to understand the Constitution, not me.” The hall erupted in cheers.
In Washington on Tuesday, Nesrin Abaza, 65, offered free coffee to anyone who displayed an “I Voted” sticker at her Palestinian restaurant. Any focus on Mr. El-Sayed’s religion is “ridiculous,” she said. Instead, she sees him as part of an ascendant group of young Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and James Talarico, who won the Texas Senate race on Tuesday.
“I support a new democratic movement,” Ms. Abaza said. “We are tired of people not listening to us.”
In Skokie, Ill., Bushra Amiwala, 28, said she did not think about the fact that Mr. El-Sayed is Muslim like she is, or about his criticism of Israel. Instead, Ms. Amiwala, an elected member of her city’s school board, hopes he will continue to advocate values she shares, like protecting women’s reproductive rights and investing in local schools.
“Money out of politics, money in your pockets and Medicare for all,” she said. “That’s all I hear Abdul say, to be honest.”
Momentum for Mr. El-Sayed has been building since New Yorkers last year elected Zohran Mamdani as the city’s first Muslim mayor and the country’s highest-level Muslim executive.
Muslim supporters were part of the Democratic coalition that helped lift both Mr. El-Sayed and Mr. Mamdani to victory. But overall, the Democratic Party has become more religiously unaffiliated as it also becomes less Christian.
Mr. El-Sayed worked to appeal across those changing demographics.
Late in the campaign, he released an ad highlighting himself not as a Muslim but as a “man of faith,” noting that his name means “servant” and that he prays every day. .
Republicans pummeled Mr. El-Sayed with racist and anti-Muslim attacks throughout his campaign. His Republican opponent, former Representative Mike Rogers, tried to connect his mother to Al Qaeda. President Trump called him a “vicious, violent jihadist,” claimed his victory would bring a wave of jihadists to America and described him as an enemy of Christians who would end Christmas.
Those attacks most likely contributed to Mr. El-Sayed’s success with Muslim voters.
“They helped us mobilize the community like never before,” said Basim Elkarra, senior adviser to the Unity and Justice Fund, a group that knocked on 135,000 doors for Mr. El-Sayed in Detroit neighborhoods with large Muslim and Middle Eastern populations.
As he canvassed voters, Mr. Elkarra often told them about recent cases in which a Muslim candidate lost by narrow margins — including, in one local Illinois election last year, by a single vote.
“The issue of Gaza is important to so many community members,” he said, noting an issue that resonated with many Democrats even as it alienated many Jewish voters.
Mr. El-Sayed has suggested Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state, though he softened that position near the end of his campaign. Michigan’s other senator, the Democrat Elissa Slotkin, is Jewish.
Despite Mr. El-Sayed’s success, American views on Islam are more negative and partisan now than they were after Sept. 11. Seventy-six percent of Republicans believe that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, up from 32 percent in early 2002, according to the Pew Research Center. For Democrats, the share rose to 29 percent from 23.
In Texas, Republican lawmakers — including Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who both lost their races on Tuesday — have investigated Muslim institutions and restricted the public practice of Islam, even as their state mandated Bible readings in public schools.
Andy Nguyen, 40, who voted for Mr. Talarico at a large mosque in Sugar Land, Texas, said he believed that Mr. El-Sayed and Mr. Mamdani want to work to benefit all citizens, expressing hope that their actions will help dispel anti-Muslim sentiment.
“Maybe with these two gentlemen, people will begin to open their eyes and feel differently,” said Mr. Nguyen, a dentist who converted to Islam in 2023.
Azar Mohammed, 53, became a U.S. citizen in 2023 and voted for the first time this year, for a straight Democratic ticket and for pragmatic reasons.
A contractor in Richardson, Texas, who employs a largely Latino work force, Mr. Mohammed said he was dismayed by the impact of President Trump’s immigration crackdown on his employees.
“We came here to work. We contribute to this country with our taxes. We work hard,” said Mr. Mohammed, who emigrated from India 33 years ago.
Muslims make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population, according to Pew. They historically align more with the Democratic Party but have recently become a more fluid cohort, including in Michigan in 2024, when Arab American voters expressed frustration over the Biden administration’s support for Israel and helped deliver the state for Mr. Trump.
In Clarkston, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta known as a haven for refugees, Khushal Gurbaz, 41, a limo driver, voted for Jon Ossoff because he wanted an end to the war with Iran.
Yet he also voted for Rick Jackson, his state’s Republican candidate for governor, thinking he would combat crime more adeptly than the Democrat, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who ultimately won.
Mr. El-Sayed was not the only Muslim candidate who won on Tuesday; Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey Democrat, was elected to the U.S. House, as was Darializa Avila Chevalier, a recent convert and democratic socialist, from New York.
Noting that many Americans still have a level of discomfort with Islam, Zeenat Rahman, executive director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, said Mr. El-Sayed and other newly elected Muslims would be closely scrutinized.
“How he governs will matter,” she said. “Our politicians who are Muslim American have a really big responsibility.”
For now, Wafic Faour, 66, a Palestinian American Muslim in Vermont, felt a sense of hope and pride when he took in the results.
It was proof that voters believe Muslims constructively add to the American project, he said.
“Islam tells you to look at your neighbor the same way you look at yourself, to help other people,” he said.
Reporting was contributed by Ken Fountain from Missouri City, Texas, Ryan Hooper from Dearborn, Mich., Johnny Kauffman from Clarkston, Ga., Carolyn Shapiro from Burlington, Vt., and Sasha von Oldershausen from Richardson, Texas.
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