- Democratic US Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for US Senate and joined him at a church Detroit
- The endorsement came as Democrats prepared a ‘unity rally’ for Abdul El-Sayed, who beat Stevens in the primary
- El-Sayed and Rogers are locked in a tight battle for Michigan’s open US Senate seat
DETROIT — Democratic US Rep. Haley Stevens on Sunday endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for US Senate, bucking former primary rival Abdul El-Sayed just two days before the Nov. 3 election.
“Abdul made very clear that I was not welcome in his campaign, that he didn’t need me there, that he didn’t want me there, and at some point, you got to look at who’s standing for country,” Stevens said after joining Rogers at Perfecting Church in Detroit.
“We have to stand with country. We can’t stand with hate,” she added, referencing the running feud she has had with El-Sayed over US support for the Israeli government.
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Rogers called Stevens’ decision “courage in politics,” characterizing the unlikely political pairing as “a statement about standing together against hate and the future of this state and this country than it is anything else.”
“Candidly, I’m glad I’m not running against Haley Stevens today,” he told reporters during a Sunday press conference.
Stevens’ endorsement came as other Democrats were headed to a separate church event in Detroit in an attempt to present a united front behind El-Sayed in a race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate.
Speaking to reporters after the event, El-Sayed said he is focused on fighting for the needs of other Michiganders — not Stevens, who he said he doesn’t think about much.
“If you’re somebody who believes that we should stand up to hate, and you have watched this last campaign, I think we probably would not want to support Mike Rogers and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance,” he said.
Several fellow Democrats quickly criticized Stevens, including state party Chair Curtis Hertel. He said her decision to campaign with Rogers “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.
“We reject the attempts by Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum, and will not allow these eleventh-hour distractions deter us,” Hertel added.
Stevens congressional chief of staff Justin German immediately resigned his post and said “many” other employees in her office had as well. In a statement, he encouraged Michiganders to vote for El-Sayed and “stand up for the America we all believe in.”
But Republicans like former national and Michigan GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel praised Stevens for “putting our state before party.”
“It takes courage to do this and while some will attack you, just know this is exactly what we need more of in this country,” McDaniel said on social media.
How we got here
Stevens, who lost in the primary to El-Sayed, was initially set to join the nominee and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina at the “unity” event. Those plans unraveled after a dispute over Israel and an outside group’s campaign advertisement escalated into a public exchange of criticism between the rivals.
Debbie Dingell, the Michigan congresswoman who helped organize the planned joint appearance in hopes of bringing together Democrats in the final days before Tuesday’s vote, said she asked Stevens not to attend and that Stevens told her she would abide by that.
“I’m the one who pulled it because it had become way too distracting,” Dingell told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “This is not how I was going to spend my weekend before the election, to be perfectly frank.”
“The bishop was getting upset, because this is a real church service,” Dingell added.
The latest and late-stage infighting comes as Democrats look to drive turnout among Black and Jewish voters in key strongholds.
El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, is in a tight race with Mike Rogers, an ex-congressman, for the seat held by Democrat Gary Peters, who is retiring. Keeping Michigan in Democratic hands is vital to the party’s effort to win a majority for the final two years of Republican President Donald Trump’s second term.
Dingell and other Democrats insist the party is united behind El-Sayed, who would be the country’s first Muslim senator if elected. Early voting has been underway since Oct. 24, before the latest tensions erupted. But the renewed bickering has complicated Democrats’ efforts to deliver a unified closing message in crucial areas such as Detroit, where turnout could prove decisive.
“All you guys want to talk about was Abdul and Haley and it really needs to be about what the issues are that people should be voting about on Tuesday,” Dingell said. She added about El-Sayed’s Republican opponent: “Mike Rogers loved every minute of it.”
The tensions carry particular significance in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, and neighboring Oakland County. Stevens defeated El-Sayed in both counties in the August primary, drawing support from Black and Jewish voters who are important parts of the Democratic coalition.
Throughout the primary cycle, Stevens promised to endorse the Democratic nominee and did so following her loss to El-Sayed.
Earlier this week, she told CNN she would still vote for El-Sayed after her
fiance Jason Turkish, a Jewish Democrat and civil rights attorney, said he planned to vote for Rogers in the general election.
Following that announcement, El-Sayed told reporters “there are always going to be some folks who have different opinions, and they’re welcome to that.”
“If folks see another issue that is more important to them and decide that their disagreement with me on that is bigger than their disagreement with me on all these other things, that is their choice,” he said.
This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 