Democrat defeats Mike Rogers in race marked by Islamophobic attacks from Trump and Republican allies

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Abdul El-Sayed, the doctor and progressive insurgent, has made history in winning the closely watched US Senate race in Michigan, defeating the Republican Mike Rogers to become the country’s first Muslim senator.

El-Sayed’s victory adds to a decisive Democratic majority in the Senate after the party wrested control of the upper chamber on Tuesday with shock victories in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.

‘It’s the disregard for the rule of law. It just seems like they’re thumbing their nose at it’

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In the battleground state of Maine, Todd Cox, 63, has supported the state’s incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins not once, but twice, in previous elections. Not this time.

On Tuesday, Cox, a technology professional, cast his vote for Collins’s Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson – driven not by pressing local issues, but broader concern “for the direction the country is going in”, he said.

Control of the Senate and House of Representatives, both currently held by the Republicans, is at stake

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Americans are heading to the polls today in US midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidency and a chance for opponents to rein in his untrammeled power.

At stake is control of the US Senate and House of Representatives, both currently held by Republicans, and in recent days, the two parties have scrambled to deliver their final pitches to voters. Additionally, there are elections for governor in 36 states, as well for state legislatures, sheriff’s offices, and on the approval of ballot initiatives nationwide.

The issue runs through almost every twist and turn and has come to define the congresswoman’s political persona

For Haley Stevens, the road from Democratic Senate candidate to campaigning alongside a Republican she once called a rubber stamp for Donald Trump has been remarkably short – and the issue running through almost every twist and turn has been Israel.

Having failed to stop Abdul El-Sayed in the primary, Stevens chose to back Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday, a candidate who she previously warned would enable Trump’s agenda – apparently because the Democrat who won refuses to share her position on Israel.