DETROIT — After months of proclaiming support for the Democratic ticket, Rep. Haley Stevens has endorsed GOP Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her former primary rival Abdul El-Sayed, less than 48 hours before Election Day.
"As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away, and he's right," Stevens said in a video she posted to social media on Sunday. "And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the U.S. Senate today."
Her statement followed a surprise appearance with Rogers at a church in Detroit.
Outside a "Souls to the Polls" event at a church in Detroit, El-Sayed told reporters that he doesn't think about Stevens and said voters do not either.
"None of this matters," El-Sayed said. "You know what matters. You can go, like, 15 minutes that way, or 15 minutes that way, or 15 minutes that way. And there are families who are preparing to send their kids to schools tomorrow that look like they did 50 years ago. They're worried about what they're going to feed their kids for lunch. They're worried that if one of their kids gets sick, they're not going to be able to pay the bills."
In her endorsement, Stevens said she does "not stand with Hasan Piker," a streamer that El-Sayed campaigned with during the primary. In August, after Piker implied that Jews' support for Israel puts them at risk of personal violence, El-Sayed sought to distance himself from the controversy, saying Piker did not speak for the campaign. He stopped short of disavowing Piker.
Stevens had been critical that El-Sayed was not doing enough to reassure Jewish and Black voters who supported her during the primary. Even though relations between the pair had been publicly disintegrating for weeks, Stevens' announcement was a surprise.
Tensions accelerated after Stevens' fiance, Jason Turkish, said he planned to vote for Rogers. In a subsequent TV appearance, Stevens maintained she was still planning to support the Democratic nominee. She urged El-Sayed to denounce a recent ad by Cenk Uygur, of Young Turks, that blamed Israel for high grocery prices in the United States.
"The ad tells Michigan families they cannot afford groceries because their money has to be set aside 'for killing Palestinians,' and it blames our close ally Israel for everything Michiganders cannot afford," she wrote.
El-Sayed's campaign had said he had nothing to do with the ad and criticized the contents of the ad on Saturday.
Stevens said she was originally scheduled to attend a different church event in Detroit on Sunday alongside El-Sayed and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. The planned joint appearance was meant to be a unifying event for the party ahead of the election. But on Friday, Stevens set a condition for her participation in the event — that El-Sayed reject the ad and apologize for rhetoric she considered to be inflammatory and offensive.
The event with El-Sayed and Clyburn went ahead as planned, without Stevens.
Stevens' announcement has sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it a "despicable betrayal."
"Haley Stevens' decision to campaign with Rogers — a man who has repeatedly sold out Michigan's working class, wants to pass a national abortion ban, and has pledged to be a loyal vote for Trump's agenda — shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about," Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement.
Stevens' communications director has an email auto reply that says as of Sunday, he is no longer working for the Stevens office. On social media, several former campaign staffers slammed their former boss' actions.
The clash between the two Michigan Democrats highlights a broader rift within the party as it relates to Israel and rhetoric around Israel. That schism is likely to extend far beyond Election Day and will be something the Democratic Party has to contend with, particularly as it prepares for the 2028 presidential nominating process.
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