Haley Stevens defends switch to Mike Rogers in Michigan Senate race

Anderson Cooper pressed Stevens on reports she reversed course within hours

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens defended her decision to endorse Mike Rogers in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race during a Sunday interview with CNN. The endorsement drew criticism from Democrats, who called it a “betrayal,” The Guardian reported. Stevens said the choice had removed a burden, referring to Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed: “This is just a weight off my shoulders. Abdul [El-Sayed] has been getting angrier and angrier.”

Stevens, a Democratic congresswoman, had narrowly lost the August primary to El-Sayed after a bitter contest in which her campaign was boosted by millions of dollars from the pro-Israel lobby, The Guardian reported.

Stevens nevertheless said she was casting her vote for Rogers: “I’m just casting my vote this one way. In Michigan, there’s a lot of people out there voting.”

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked what had changed when reports indicated Stevens had told Democratic colleagues, only hours before pulling her support, that she remained with El-Sayed. Stevens initially did not answer directly. She said she “had some time to, you know, think,” but did not specify what about El-Sayed’s candidacy during the previous 12 hours led her to endorse Rogers.

Cooper pressed the timing, saying the concerns Stevens had cited seemed acceptable until the previous day. He asked whether El-Sayed’s disinvitation of Stevens from a campaign event or a church service was the crucial turning point. Stevens did not expand on the question or provide a specific account of what had changed.

Stevens eventually pointed to historic concerns, including El-Sayed’s decision to campaign with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. Cooper said those issues appeared to have been acceptable to Stevens until the day before, but Stevens offered no recent example that changed her view.

Asked how she could vote for Rogers after criticizing him for being a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s “Maga agenda,” Stevens said she was unhappy voting for a Democratic nominee who was “injecting” this “anger and lack of kindness.” She again did not provide specific recent examples.

The Guardian said Stevens did not expand on her reasoning and sought to downplay the defection. In the interview, Stevens cast the endorsement as a single vote and did not offer a specific reason for the change. Her explanation combined older complaints with a general concern about anger in El-Sayed’s campaign but did not identify the development that changed her position. Cooper’s questions focused on the difference between reports of Stevens’s support for El-Sayed and her announcement for Rogers.

The endorsement brought Rogers support from Stevens, a Democratic congresswoman who had narrowly lost the August primary to El-Sayed. Stevens’ explanation remained limited to longstanding objections and her stated discomfort with anger and lack of kindness in El-Sayed’s campaign; she did not resolve what changed in the 12 hours before the endorsement.