RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive public health official, secured the Democratic nomination in Michigan ’s Senate race on Tuesday and is set to face off against Republican Mike Rogers in one of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterm elections .
El-Sayed defeated centrist Representative Haley Stevens in the Michigan primary by less than a single percentage point, according to data from The New York Times. If elected in November, he would become one of the most prominent elected progressives in the country. But he first must win over enough voters in the critical battleground state, roughly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, in November.
El-Sayed is married to Dr. Sarah Jukaku, a psychiatrist, and has two daughters, Emmalee and Serene, according to his campaign website.
El-Sayed and Jukaku met during their time at the University of Michigan and were featured in a 2006 article published by the college's student publication The Michigan Daily .
She told The Michigan Daily that they got engaged when she was a freshman. At the time, El-Sayed told the newspaper that the fact they were “so willing to commit to marriage is a byproduct of this general self-control” taught by their religion, Islam.
“I was going to meet one girl and I was going to marry her,” El-Sayed said at the time. “In some senses, I feel like that’s the purest form of a relationship with someone. It cuts out all the B.S.”
Jukaku has been featured in some of El-Sayed’s campaign material, including in a video speaking about support from her union when she had medical complications after childbirth. She was a medical resident at the time. She said she and El-Sayed discuss unions in a positive light.
“You don’t realize you need the union until you need it,” she said. “In my case, having that advocate was really important when I wasn’t sure where to turn.”
In his book, Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic, El-Sayed wrote that his wife’s parents emigrated from a village in India and described her “quiet confidence.”
“I struggled to learn who I was,” he wrote. “Sarah did not. She danced with her emotions. I wrestled with mine. And in time she would teach me to dance, awkwardly, with mine too.”
He wrote that it “makes sense” that she became a psychiatrist, “mainlining that quiet security into people struggling through some of the vilest experiences life can offer.”
Newsweek reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment via email.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Sam Wilson .
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