Michigan Democrats spent months trying to unite behind El-Sayed
President Donald Trump praised Haley Stevens on Sunday after she endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, where Rogers is running to succeed retiring Democrat Gary Peters. In a Truth Social post, Trump called Stevens “a Highly Respected Democrat” and said her support from Black and Jewish voters in Michigan was “virtually unprecedented.” He wrote: “Haley said what few people are willing to say. She showed great and almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan with what she did,” and added: “It’s a thing called bravery, and few people have it like just displayed by Congresswoman Haley Stevens!”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, appearing with Trump at a campaign rally in Iowa, said he spoke with Stevens after the endorsement and “encouraged her to stay safe and keep speaking the truth.” Hunter Lovell, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said Democrats who feel abandoned by El-Sayed “have a home” with Rogers.
With less than 48 hours remaining before Election Day, Michigan Democratic leaders were left shocked; the party had spent months trying to unite behind its Senate nominee. The Associated Press characterized Stevens’s endorsement as an extraordinary defection in one of this year’s most important races.
Rogers, a former congressman, is seeking the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Gary Peters, while El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, is the Democratic nominee. The election could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill, and keeping Michigan in Democratic hands is vital to the party’s effort to win a majority for the final two years of Trump’s second term. El-Sayed defeated Stevens by a slim margin in the August primary. Stevens, however, defeated El-Sayed in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, and neighboring Oakland County, drawing support from Black and Jewish voters who are important parts of the Democratic coalition.
Stevens endorsed Rogers after attending a Detroit church service with him, a show of support for the Trump-backed candidate in a tightly contested race. Michigan and national Democrats had planned a joint church appearance for Stevens and El-Sayed with other Democrats, including South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, and hoped it would show unity and boost turnout in the Detroit area. Concerns remained about enthusiasm among Black and Jewish voters in key Democratic strongholds. Stevens instead attended Perfecting Church with Rogers, while El-Sayed campaigned at a different house of worship a few miles away with Clyburn and other Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the Senate primary before voting began.
At the church service north of Detroit, Stevens and her fiance, Jason Turkish, worshipped with Rogers and Rogers’s wife, Kristi. Stevens said afterward: “I’m not turning my back on Democrats. It is this one vote.” Rogers, standing beside her, said he was “honored” by her support. In the video announcing the endorsement, Stevens said: “Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” and: “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”
Dingell, a senior Democratic figure in the state who helped organize the planned joint appearance, said she asked Stevens not to attend and that Stevens told her she would comply. “I’m the one who pulled it, because it had become way too distracting,” Dingell said. “This is not how I was going to spend my weekend before the election, to be perfectly frank.” Stevens attributed the decision in her video to El-Sayed’s campaign; Dingell said she made the call.
El-Sayed, asked about the endorsement later Sunday, said he was focused on issues voters care about, including the high cost of living. “At the end of the day I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” he said, adding later: “None of this matters.”
In an at times disjointed interview later Sunday night on CNN, Stevens said she decided to support Rogers after waking that morning and taking time to think. “This is a weight off my shoulders, I’m being straight with everybody,” she said, describing El-Sayed as increasingly angry. Stevens took long pauses and appeared to struggle to explain her decision. Dingell, who joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper immediately after his interview with Stevens, called it “one of the most painful interviews I have watched” and said she had been worried all week about Stevens.
Stevens’s longtime chief of staff resigned after the endorsement, and a number of other staff members were expected to follow soon, according to a person familiar with the developments who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. “We are shocked and heartbroken,” the aide said in a statement. State party chair Curtis Hertel said the endorsement “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.” In a written statement, Hertel said, “We reject the attempts by Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum,” and that such 11th-hour “distractions” would not deter the campaign. He later wrote that Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who supported Stevens in the primary, called the endorsement “a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens” in a social media post.
Stevens supports Israel, while El-Sayed has criticized Israel. El-Sayed has also been criticized by some in the community for past remarks regarding a Michigan synagogue attack and for appearances with streamer Hasan Piker.
Although Stevens pledged after the primary to help El-Sayed however she could, the two have not appeared together publicly since a unity breakfast two days after his primary win. Each candidate accused the other of making personal attacks. Tens of millions of dollars in outside spending poured into the race, including from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s affiliated super PAC, which backed Stevens. El-Sayed objected to an outside group’s advertisement accusing him of disrespecting women.
Last week, Stevens’s fiance told The Detroit News that he would vote for Rogers. Stevens later appeared on CNN to reaffirm her support for El-Sayed while urging his campaign to “shut out the hate and call it out.” On Friday, after the Associated Press reported on the planned joint church appearance, Stevens released a lengthy statement calling on El-Sayed to condemn an advertisement that the Associated Press attributed to an independent left-wing group linking U.S. support for Israel to high grocery prices. “Abdul promises to get money out of politics,” Stevens wrote. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.” El-Sayed responded: “So while Congresswoman Stevens seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago, let’s all focus on the task at hand.” He made clear the advertisement was not made by his campaign and said, “I do not agree with the contents of that ad.”
Early voting for Tuesday’s election had been underway since Oct. 24. As of Friday, more than 1.8 million people had already voted in Michigan. Associated Press correspondent Julie Walker reported on the turmoil in the state’s Senate race as Stevens endorsed Rogers; Joey Cappelletti reported the story from Washington.