Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won the US Senate election in Michigan, defeating Republican Mike Rogers, Associated Press reports.
The former public health official will succeed Democrat Gary Peters, who is leaving the Senate. El-Sayed will become the first Muslim senator in US history.
His road to victory began with a tough contest inside his own party. In the Democratic primary he narrowly beat Representative Haley Stevens, who had a considerable fundraising advantage and the backing of influential figures in the party leadership. Some of them warned that El-Sayed could prove too risky a candidate for the November election.
In the general election, however, he defeated Rogers, a former Republican congressman. AP called the race for him on 4 November at 02:27 US Eastern Time.
The result in Michigan gives the progressive wing of the Democratic Party an extra argument in its internal debate: its candidate was able to win in a competitive state where the outcome was not a foregone conclusion.
Mezon Central, based on reporting by Associated Press.