Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens on Sunday endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a surprising move.
Mr. Stevens lost to Mr. El-Sayed in the Democratic primary earlier this year, but has since supported his candidacy.
Her endorsement of Mr. Rogers came after several days of tension between Mr. El-Sayed and his campaign over inflammatory ads by the political action committee Rebel PAC. The ad depicted a couple debating whether they could afford to buy groceries because of U.S. aid to Israel.
El-Sayed’s campaign said it was not involved in the ad and had no involvement.
The surprising endorsement was announced two days before Election Day, when voters will decide which party will control Congress during the final two years of President Donald Trump’s White House. The results of Michigan’s Senate elections could determine which party controls the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority.
“Hey, Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Mr. Abdul, was right when he said I was no longer welcome on the campaign trail and that I should stay away from him,” Stevens said in a video statement on X.
“And that’s why I’m endorsing Mike Rogers for United States Senate today,” she said.
“I’m not in Mr. Abdul’s camp. I don’t support Hassan Piker being trafficked on college campuses,” Stevens said.
Piker is a controversial political commentator who has campaigned with El-Sayed.
Mr. El-Sayed stood outside the church Sunday with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-Md.) and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and dismissed Mr. Stevens’ support for his opponent.
“Actually, I’m not thinking about Haley Stevens,” El-Sayed said. “There are families preparing to send their children to school tomorrow as they did 50 years ago. They’re worried about what their children will have for lunch. They’re worried that if one of their children gets sick, they won’t be able to pay for school. That’s what matters.”
Mr. Rogers and Mr. El-Sayed are vying for the seat that will be vacated after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters decided not to seek re-election.
In recent weeks, the rift between Mr. Elsayed and Mr. Stevens has worsened. At the center of this was US support for Israel, which was a key issue in the primary election.
Stevens is a passionate supporter of Israel. President El-Sayed called the country’s actions in Gaza after the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack by the Hamas militant group a genocide.
Stevens’ fiancée, Jason Turkish, supported Rodgers before Stevens’ flip-flop, citing rising anti-Semitism.
“It’s unfortunate that people are upset,” Stevens told reporters at a news conference in Detroit, alongside Rogers, who had attended church with him Sunday morning.
“I understand that,” she said.
Stevens’ Congressional Office staff resigned in support of her.
“As of this morning, many members of the team, including myself, have resigned,” Justin German, who served as Stevens’ chief of staff for eight years, said in a statement obtained by MS NOW.
“I am shocked and heartbroken by Congressman Stevens’ decision to support Mike Rogers,” German said, adding that he was speaking on behalf of a team that “wholeheartedly supports Abdul El-Sayed for the Senate seat.”
Mr. Stevens received support from many in the Democratic establishment during the disastrous primary campaign, making the support for Mr. Rogers all the more surprising.
She was a leading candidate for New York Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who on Sunday reiterated his support for El-Sayed and accused Republicans of Islamophobia.
“Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed because we know he will fight for the economic interests of Michigan’s working families, unlike Donald Trump or Mike Rogers, a pawn of billionaire donors,” Schumer said. “We Democrats are equally united in our total disgust with the Republican Party’s racist, Islamophobic, and overreaching false attack on Abdul.”
In a subsequent post to X, Schumer called his support for Rogers “a despicable betrayal from Congressman Stevens.”
Both Mr. Peters and Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin disavowed support for Mr. Stevens.
“Anyone who makes elections so important about themselves, rather than the people of Michigan and our democracy, should think twice about whether they are serving the greater good,” Slotkin said in a post on X.
Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel appeared to indicate that Stevens had been expelled from the party.
“Congressman Stevens is not currently a member of the Michigan Democratic Party and has no intention of becoming one in the future,” he said in the X post.
Trump praised Stevens’ support in a post on Truth Social.
“Haley Stevens, a highly respected Democrat who narrowly lost the primary to Abdul Mohamed El-Sayed and who has been drinking and dining Democrats breathlessly in support of Mike Rogers’ Michigan campaign for U.S. Senate, just endorsed Mike Rogers for the Senate!” said the President.
“Her fan base is enormous and the level of respect she receives from Michiganders, especially African Americans and Jews, is virtually unparalleled,” he said.
