DETROIT — Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her former primary rival Abdul El-Sayed, breaking with her party's nominee less than 48 hours before Election Day.
In a video posted to social media on Sunday, Stevens said El-Sayed had told her she was no longer welcome in his campaign and should stay away. She agreed with him, she said, and announced she was backing Rogers for the U.S. Senate. Her statement followed a surprise appearance alongside Rogers at a church in Detroit.
Outside a "Souls to the Polls" event at a different Detroit church, El-Sayed told reporters he does not think about Stevens and said voters do not either. Dismissing the endorsement as immaterial, he pointed instead to families preparing to send children to schools that look as they did 50 years ago, worrying about paying for lunch or covering the bills if a child falls ill.
Stevens said in her endorsement that she does "not stand with Hasan Piker," a streamer El-Sayed campaigned with during the primary. In August, after Piker implied that Jews' support for Israel put them at risk of personal violence, El-Sayed sought to distance himself from the controversy, saying Piker did not speak for the campaign, but he stopped short of disavowing him. Stevens had also criticized El-Sayed for not doing enough to reassure Jewish and Black voters who supported her in the primary.
Relations between the two had been disintegrating publicly for weeks. Tensions accelerated after Stevens' fiance, Jason Turkish, said he planned to vote for Rogers; in a later television appearance, Stevens maintained she still intended to support the Democratic nominee. She pressed El-Sayed to denounce an ad by Cenk Uygur of Young Turks that blamed Israel for high grocery prices in the United States, writing that it tells Michigan families their money must be set aside "for killing Palestinians." El-Sayed's campaign said he had nothing to do with the ad and criticized its contents on Saturday.
Stevens had been scheduled to appear Sunday at another church event in Detroit alongside El-Sayed and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., a joint appearance meant to unify the party before the election. On Friday she set a condition for taking part: that El-Sayed reject the ad and apologize for rhetoric she considered inflammatory and offensive. The event with El-Sayed and Clyburn went ahead without her.
The announcement drew sharp condemnation from Democratic figures. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a "despicable betrayal." Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement that Stevens' decision to campaign with Rogers — whom he described as having repeatedly sold out Michigan's working class, wanting to pass a national abortion ban and pledging to be a loyal vote for Trump's agenda — showed she had abandoned everything she claims to care about. Stevens' communications director has an email auto reply stating that as of Sunday he is no longer working for her office, and several former campaign staffers criticized their former boss on social media.
The clash between the two Michigan Democrats reflects a broader rift within the party over Israel and rhetoric surrounding it — a division the source material suggests is likely to extend well beyond Election Day, particularly as the party prepares for the 2028 presidential nominating process.
Sources: NPR News.