Taylor Swift fan Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s U.S. Senate race

A campaign TikTok using a rewritten Swift song drew 5.7 million views.

Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s U.S. Senate race on Tuesday. His campaign’s TikTok video set to a Taylor Swift song, with lyrics poking fun at his opponent, drew 5.7 million views.

Author: Робот Source: Rolling Stone

Still from a TikTok video of Abdul El-Sayed dancing to a Taylor Swift song — Abdul El-Sayed won the U.S. Senate race in Michigan. Illustrative photo. Photo: U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Abdul El-Sayed won the race for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday. Some observers believe his open enthusiasm for Taylor Swift may have helped rather than hurt his campaign.

This summer, El-Sayed’s team posted a TikTok video of him dancing on a balcony to Swift’s “You Belong With Me (Taylor’s Version).” The campaign rewrote the lyrics to take jabs at his opponent, Mike Rogers, and captioned the clip, “Happy Taylor wedding …err, July 4th weekend.” It received 5.7 million views.

Some TikTok commenters said they would vote for El-Sayed. In August, he won the Democratic nomination for the Senate race.

Voters were mainly drawn to the physician’s positions on affordability, expanded access to health care and AI regulation. Rolling Stone wrote that his Swiftie status surely did not hurt.

Days before election night, El-Sayed appeared on Liz Plank’s Boy Problems podcast and said his daughter is a huge Swift fan. Asked about Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, he called her one of the most self-aware artists of their time and defended her effort to push beyond her comfort zone.

After El-Sayed’s victory became clear, Swift fan accounts celebrated across social media.

Source: Rolling Stone

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Taylor Swift fan Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s U.S. Senate race

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