Taylor Swift fan, 42-year-old Abdul El-Sayed, made history by winning Michigan‘s open Senate seat during the November 3 midterm elections. El-Sayed beat former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers in the election. With his historic win, the 42-year-old is all set to become the first Muslim to enter the U.S. Senate. However, out of all his remarkable achievements, the soon-to-be senator has surprised Swifties by revealing that he is indeed a fan of the Grammy-winning pop star.
Why Abdul El-Sayed’s music-themed campaign drew attention
Abdul El-Sayed, a self-declared Taylor Swift fan, has won over her enormous fanbase, Swifties, by making her music central to his campaign. This summer, El-Sayed shared one of his most-loved videos on TikTok, where he gave one of Swift’s beloved songs a political twist.
The epidemiologist emerged on a balcony on a balmy summer day, wearing an American flag-printed cowboy hat, blue denim, and a tight-fitting black T-shirt. He played the song “You Belong With Me (Taylor’s Version).” While he mouthed Swift’s lyrics, the text on the screen discussed key points of his campaign.
The video’s caption was a playful nod to Swift’s star-studded summer wedding with Travis Kelce. El-Sayed wrote: “Happy Taylor wedding …err, July 4th weekend.” The clip went on to garner 5.7 million views on TikTok (via Rolling Stone).
El-Sayed secured the Democratic nomination for the Senate race in August. Notably, this was a month after he posted the Swift-themed TikTok video. Interestingly, the “Opalite” crooner did not publicly endorse the 42-year-old politician. But she did not even try to remove her song from his creative TikTok video.
Interestingly, Swift previously removed her audio from President Donald Trump’s TikTok videos without directly confronting any political party. El-Sayed guested on Liz Plank’s Boy Problems podcast and revealed that his daughter is a “huge” Swiftie. One fan commented: “Him and Mamdani being Swifties, iktr.” A second fan echoed: “mandami and now him omg they all love her.”
A third fan penned: “Ik i liked him for a reason.” A fourth fan chimed in: “Get off. I stan him now.”
