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It was so tight at the end. We're actually standing outside that hall where Elsa gave his victory speech here. It's the where the Democratic uh watch party was on this election night. Now the day after in the morning, it's about 3:00 in the morning here and the crowd has finally cleared out here. There was so much celebrating going on. But you're right, it was an incredible win because Elsa started out election night with a big lead over Mike Rogers, his Trumpbacked Republican opponent. It got up to about 10% of the vote, 10% of the lead, I should say, shrunk down to about a 1% lead, but then later as the night went on and more votes were count counted from Detroit here, which is a
Democratic stronghold that really put Elsa over the top. In his speech, you know, he just relished uh taking some shots at those who took shots at him. He said he couldn't wait to take the oath of office, which he will in January now in the US Senate because it's J. D. Vance, the vice president, who has to swear him in officially. And he said he really is really looking forward to that because JD Vance was one of those uh who really leaned into Islamophobia and who accused Elsad of not really being American or patriotic. Of course, he was born and raised here in Southeast Michigan. Um, and so Eliad spent part of
his speech there really leaning into good old-fashioned American patriotic themes, uh, to say, "Look, no, I am an American and I appreciate this country. It's it's where I rose to this position. Where else could you do that?" Uh, having Egyptian u immigrant parents who moved to Michigan all those years ago. He also took some other shots. He said he thanked Apac, the Israeli lobbying uh, arm. Uh, said, "Thank you, Apac, for letting me beat you twice." and he was referring to his win in the Democratic primary back in August and then now his
win in the general election. Apac sank a lot of money uh into his opponents to try to defeat him. Uh the Republicans accused him of being anti-Semitic. Uh he continually tried to shoot that down and of course the Republicans really leaned into Islamophobia. They painted him as this sinister, dangerous, radical character. Um and it really didn't stick. And I have to say, you know, obviously the issues are a big deal here. Of course, he talked about um providing more Medicaid. Medicaid is the government-run subsidy um arm of the government that provides health insurance for people who don't have their health insurance through their workplace. And he wants to restore that.
There were big Medicaid cuts in the so-called one big beautiful bill that passed under Trump, the Trump administration. He says he wants to take money out of politics. But we can't discount another big part here. And John mentioned this too, this the name calling from President Trump. It was so over-the-top, childish, comical, nonsensical at times in describing Abdul Elsa, calling him Abdul Ramadan, referring to him as Muhammad, calling him a lunatic. Um he put out a really sort of desperate social media post just on Tuesday morning at the start of the election saying that Elsa hates blacks, hates whites, hates Jews, and uh to vote for him, you'd be a fool. And all of that, myself, having been a former Michigander, I can tell you that
really wore on people's nerves here. I think that really for independent voters, that was just the final straw. For some Republican voters, that was probably the final straw. And I think that really backfired on President Trump. The death.
