Two candidates, one Democrat and one Republican, are competing for a vacant US Senate seat in Michigan. BBC News Arabic described the race as very close. This article is based on a single report by BBC News Arabic. According to the report, the seat is decisive in determining which party will control Congress for the rest of Trump’s term. Democrats seek to hold the seat, while Republicans want to take it. Voting takes place on 3 November. Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is a physician and could become the first Muslim senator in the country if he wins. He narrowly defeated a pro-Israel Democratic rival in the primary election. El-Sayed has repeatedly described Israeli military operations in Gaza as genocide. Israel strongly rejects this characterization. Republican candidate Mike Rogers is a former FBI agent and served 14 years as a member of the House of Representatives. Trump endorses him. Rogers opposes cutting US military aid to Israel and considers this a matter of US national security. According to estimates by Brown University’s Costs of War project, US military aid to Israel could reach $21 billion for the period through September 2025. Michigan has the highest proportion of Arab Americans of any US state. It also has a large number of Jewish voters who strongly support Israel. Both groups have historically been pillars of the Democratic Party. In 2024, Arab and Muslim voters organized the “Uncommitted” campaign to protest President Biden’s support for Israel. More than 100,000 voters abstained in the primary election. According to the report, Democratic voters angry over this support helped Republicans win the state in 2024. After the attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in March, El-Sayed said that people in pain inflict pain on others. El-Sayed had lost relatives in an Israeli strike on Lebanon. He later apologized and said he did not intend to justify the attack, but the controversy has not fully subsided. Rogers and Trump accused El-Sayed of links to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied this. Rogers described El-Sayed as antisemitic, while critics accuse Rogers of stoking Islamophobia. According to the report, some older Jewish Democratic voters are turning to vote for the Republican candidate or to abstain. The head of the Rabbinical Council of Michigan stated that he will not vote for El-Sayed. BBC News Arabic quoted Aaron Starr as saying: “For years, most of our community has voted Democratic, but they now feel that statements and actions by some members of the Democratic Party, not all of them, are putting our safety at risk.” By contrast, Samra Luqman, a US citizen of Yemeni origin who was a Democrat, voted for Trump and joined his campaign because of the Democratic Party’s stance on Gaza. Luqman now identifies as a Republican and supports El-Sayed’s candidacy. BBC News Arabic quoted Luqman as saying: “It’s Gaza or nothing. If your position on Gaza, Israel and Palestine is not good, we don’t want you in your office, and we won’t give you our votes, regardless of your party affiliation.”