Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., has endorsed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her own party’s nominee, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, touching off a wave of condemnation from top Democrats just ahead of Election Day.
Stevens announced the endorsement in a video posted to X. Hours before the announcement, she and Rogers were photographed attending the same Sunday service together at Perfecting Church in Detroit.
The move came days after Stevens publicly called on El-Sayed to “condemn an ad from Rebellion PAC,” an outside group not affiliated with his campaign, that tied rising grocery prices to U.S. aid to Israel. Stevens also criticized El-Sayed over his own past remarks on Israel, writing that the ad “did not invent its argument” but instead echoed rhetoric he had used on the campaign trail. She said he could begin removing money from politics “by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”
El-Sayed responded in a statement on X, accusing Stevens of being “intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago” and urging a focus on “beating Mike Rogers.”
The dispute derailed a planned joint appearance. Stevens and El-Sayed had been scheduled to campaign together Sunday at a get-out-the-vote event at a different Detroit church, alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. It would have been their first joint public appearance in months. Stevens had backed El-Sayed after the August primary and the two had appeared together that month at a unity breakfast, but had not campaigned side by side since.
Party leaders react
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats remain “united” behind El-Sayed and described Rogers as “a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”
“This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens. Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors,” Schumer wrote on X.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called El-Sayed’s election “critical to flipping control of the United States Senate” and described Rogers as “a partisan hack who represents more of the same MAGA extremism.”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Stevens had “chosen to dangerously betray Michigan families’ healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers,” adding that El-Sayed “must win — because Michigan and our country deserve better.”
Former President Barack Obama appeared in a video shared by the Democratic Party urging support for El-Sayed. “This country belongs to all of us. Not just the wealthy, not just the well-connected, everyone. Today, that idea is under attack. And Michigan is where we fight back,” Obama said.
Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, announced Sunday that Stevens is “not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party.”
Not every Michigan Democrat weighed in with the same intensity. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., struck a more measured tone, writing on X that “any day of the week, Michiganders care more about the price of gas or groceries than the daily political drama or the last-minute moves by politicians for the TV cameras.”
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