There will be a hockey-loving man representing Hockeytown in the United States Senate for the next six years.
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist from Southeast Michigan, defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Tuesday’s election, winning Michigan’s open Senate seat and becoming the first Muslim American elected to the United States Senate.
The 42-year-old former public health official withstood a strange last-minute endorsement of his Republican opponent by Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens and will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
But beyond his historic victory as part of a “blue tsunami” across the United States, El-Sayed brings something else rare to Washington. He’ll become one of the few members of Congress who has played hockey.
“I was a hockey goalie, and I was really into football in seventh and eighth grade,” El-Sayed told USA Lacrosse in 2018. “When I got to high school, I realized I was either going to start developing in football or hockey. I decided to drop hockey, and that left my spring open. I started playing my freshman year, and it was a great fit athletically. It took the speed and power of football and extended it in a very different type of game.”
As the son of Egyptian immigrants, El-Sayed also explained what it was like getting his parents to understand why he wanted to play sports.
“There aren’t many people from my background that play lacrosse,” El-Sayed said. “My dad, his father was a vegetable salesman. His mother never had the privilege of going to school, so she was illiterate. My dad would get caught playing soccer, and he’d get in trouble because he’d have to be working. For me, playing sports, my parents understood why it was important, but letting me play was a really big deal.”
El-Sayed is also a lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan, who intently watched one of the franchise’s greatest eras in the 90s. He’s been open about his unhappiness with how the team has languished in recent years, using their recent struggles as a cudgel against the club’s ownership, the billionaire Ilitch family, and as commentary on the nation’s overall affordability crisis.
“I was at the game when Darren McCarty took on Claude Lemieux,” El-Sayed told Jake Rivard of the Octopus Thrower earlier this fall. “The ‘97 and ‘98 Stanley Cup championships are still highlights of my childhood. The teams the last few years have been a far cry from the Wings I came to love as a kid. They’re stacking losing season on losing season, yet the Ilitch family’s wealth has done nothing but grow… Michiganders are sick of sky-high ticket and concession prices, buying them nothing but disappointment.”
The classic mauling of Lemieux by McCarty that El-Sayed referred to occurred on November 11, 1997, when McCarty forced the antagonistic Lemieux to answer for a dirty hit that injured Red Wings forward Kris Draper during the 1996 NHL postseason. McCarty hunted down Lemieux, threw an initial knockout punch, and dragged the downed pest all over the ice inside Joe Louis Arena.
A more recent example of his puck knowledge came when El-Sayed mentioned Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson‘s contract holdout saga. The 23-year-old Swedish defender has yet to play a game this season because he and Detroit couldn’t agree on a deal over the summer, leaving him a restricted free agent without a contract.
Late last month, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed that Edvinsson would prefer to be traded by the Red Wings, but Detroit’s interim general manager Shawn Horcoff has maintained that the club is prioritizing efforts to re-sign him. Edvinsson is reportedly seeking an extension worth roughly $10-11 million per season for 6-7 years, while the Red Wings are offering slightly less, around $8.5 million over six years.
“The team holding out on Simon Edvinsson is just the latest example in a long series of ownership prioritizing their bottom line over the team and the fans,” El-Sayed said. “Our teams aren’t just assets for billionaires; they’re part of our culture and heritage. Hockeytown deserves better.”
As part of his campaign, El-Sayed focused on money in America and American politics, including advocating for a federal wealth tax on the nation’s ultra-wealthy, like the Ilitch family. He framed his pitch around a simple, reportedly very effective slogan: “Money out of politics, money in your pockets, and Medicare for All.”
After his seismic victory, El-Sayed will soon be in Washington, DC, for new member orientation on Capitol Hill. He becomes the most prominent hockey fan to hit the government since FBI Director Kash Patel, who plays at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
The next question becomes, as the Red Wings try to reverse 10 straight years of playing zero playoff games, will El-Sayed ever attend a Capitals game when he arrives in DC?
