Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race on Sunday — a stunning break with her party that derails Democrats’ attempts to create a united front for Abdul El-Sayed.
Stevens’ seismic step across party lines comes just days after she insisted she was still going to support El-Sayed despite their escalating public feud.
Tensions crescendoed through the weekend as Stevens attempted to condition a Sunday joint appearance with El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) on El-Sayed’s rejection of an ad from one of his allies that was critical of Israel. El-Sayed’s team then asked Stevens to stay away from his events, as POLITICO first reported.
“Abdul said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away. And he’s right,” Stevens said in avideo posted to social media on Sunday after she appeared at a Detroit church alongside Rogers.
“And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” she said. “Who we are as Michiganders is not hate, and it is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now.”
Her cross-party endorsement of the man she’d once hoped to defeat for a Senate seat, just two days out from a critical Senate election, underscores how fragile her public truce with El-Sayed was after a bitter August primary that deeply divided the party. And their infighting is splashing across social media at the most inopportune moment possible, as Democrats race to hold a competitive seat that could decide control of the chamber.
Rogers said he was “honored to have Haley Stevens’ support” and that they had spoken by phone earlier in the morning about her endorsement.
“We talked about America, what was better for Americans, what was better for the future of our state by bringing people together,” Rogers said while speaking to reporters alongside Stevens after the church service. “What we decided is: Sometimes the hate grows so loud that it jeopardizes some of our citizens in this state. … This is more a statement about standing together against hate and the future of this state and the future of this country than it is anything else.”
Stevens insisted she’s “not trying to harm anyone” and that she’s “not turning my back on Democrats.”
Representatives for El-Sayed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Stevens’ endorsement sparked immediate, scorching backlash from various corners of the Democratic Party. Several members of her team, including her chief of staff for eight years Justin German, resigned Sunday morning and said they will continue to work to elect El-Sayed on Nov. 3.
“Many amazing staffers went to work for Haley Stevens to fight for shared democratic values and keep this Senate seat blue. Some of those incredible people are now working their asses off to elect Abdul,” Stevens’ former campaign communications director, Arik Wolk, posted on X. “There are two Supreme Court seats and so many other values Haley claimed to care about on the line. By endorsing Mike Rogers she has betrayed all those values.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand reiterated their support for El-Sayed in statements Sunday and denounced Rogers — though they did not mention Stevens at all.
“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. We Democrats equally united in our total revulsion at the racist, Islamophobic, and over-the-top false attacks on Abdul by Republicans,” Schumer said.
Stevens had denied she would endorse Rogers or go to church with him to senior Michigan and top national Democrats as recently as Saturday night, according to a Michigan Democratic official briefed on the matter, granted anonymity to share private details.
Earlier Sunday morning, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told NBC that he spoke to Stevens the night before and she would be “voting straight down the line on the Democratic ticket, and she’s going to be celebrating with Democrats across the country when we win on Tuesday night.”
Her reversal just hours later confounded many Democrats.
“Michiganders are worried about how they are going to pay their mortgage and fill up their gas tanks … That’s what they’re talking about, not Congresswoman Stevens’ continued efforts to get attention,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who had been attempting to broker peace and helped organize the joint appearance between the primary rivals, said in a statement. “We must stay focused on electing Democrats up and down the ballot, and that includes electing Abdul El-Sayed as Michigan’s next Senator.”
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement — shortly before Stevens officially endorsed Rogers — that her decision to campaign with the Republican “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.”
“[El-Sayed] will still win. Haley swings no votes at this point. She just lit her career on fire for no reason,” said one senior Senate Democratic aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
In addition to their fury at Stevens, some Democrats are livid with El-Sayed for appearing to escalate the back and forth with Stevens in the final days.
“He couldn’t leave it alone,” said another senior Democratic aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Stevens said in the video that she does “not stand with Hasan Piker,” the far-left streamer who El-Sayed campaigned with ahead of the Democratic primary. (El-Sayed has since distanced himself from the streamer amid Piker’s controversial remarks about Sept. 11.)
She said remains a “proud Democrat.”
Republicans latched onto the endorsement quickly, saying that Stevens — who would have run against Rogers had she won the Democratic primary — knows El-Sayed “better than anyone.”
“When Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who ran against Abdul El-Sayed and knows him better than anyone, stands with Mike Rogers, Michigan should take notice. Democrats who feel Abdul has abandoned them have a home with Mike,” RNC spokesperson Hunter Lovell said in a statement.
Adam Wren, Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney contributed reporting.
