Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed is drawing racist attacks and a failed media smear campaign, and it's backfiring on his critics.

• El-Sayed said he'll take his oath of office on a Quran, a normal practice (Keith Ellison did the same years ago), but it set off an Islamophobic backlash from commentators like Dave Rubin.
• CBS News reportedly pushed an article digging for ties between El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood, but even CBS's own standards staff objected that the story leaned on insinuation and guilt-by-association rather than actual evidence.
• Reporters and TV panels keep pressing El-Sayed to "denounce" terrorism and groups he has no connection to, a pattern also aimed at other Muslim lawmakers like Ilhan Omar.
• None of this is hurting him politically — he won his race anyway, has a huge social media following, and is becoming one of the most visible figures in the Democratic Party.

Outlook: Expect the attacks to continue, but with little effect, since critics have no real policy argument against him and the attacks mostly boost his profile.