Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, in a stunning move, endorsed Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday.
Stevens lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed earlier this year, but since then had backed his candidacy.
Her endorsement of Rogers came after days of rising tension with El-Sayed and his campaign over an inflammatory ad by a political action committee, Rebellion PAC, which depicted a couple debating whether they could afford groceries due to U.S. support for Israel.
El-Sayed’s campaign has said it was not involved or affiliated with the ad.
The stunning endorsement was announced two days before Election Day, when voters will decide which party will control Congress for President Donald Trump’s final two years in the White House. The outcome of the Michigan Senate race could determine which party holds a majority in the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a slim majority.
“Hey Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said I’m no longer welcome in his campaign, and I should stay away, and he’s right,” Stevens said in a video statement on X.
“And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” she said.
“I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses,” said Stevens.
Piker is a controversial political commentator who has campaigned with El-Sayed.
El-Sayed, standing with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., outside a church on Sunday, dismissed Stevens endorsement of his opponent.
“I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” El-Sayed said. “There are families that are preparing to send their kids to schools tomorrow that look like they did 50 years ago. They’re worried about what they’re going to feed their kids for lunch. They’re worried that if one of their kids gets sick, they’re not going to be able to pay the bills. Those are the things that matter.”
Rogers and El-Sayed are vying for a seat set to become vacant after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters decided not to seek re-election.
In recent weeks, a deepening rift has worsened between El-Sayed and Stevens. At the center of it is U.S. support for Israel, which was a major issue in the primary contest.
Stevens is a staunch supporter of Israel; El-Sayed has called the country’s conduct in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks by the radical group Hamas a genocide.
Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, endorsed Rogers before Stevens’ flip-flop, citing what he said was rising antisemitism.
“I’m sorry people are upset,” Stevens told reporters at a press conference in Detroit, standing with Rogers, whom she had attended church with Sunday morning.
“I understand that,” she said.
Staffers in Stevens congressional office quit following her endorsement.
“As of this morning, many members of our team have resigned, including myself,” Justin German, Stevens’ chief of staff for eight years, said in a statement obtained by MS NOW.
“We are shocked and heartbroken by Congresswoman Stevens’ decision to support Mike Rogers,” German said, adding that he was speaking on behalf of the team “in wholeheartedly supporting Abdul El-Sayed for Senate,” German said.
Stevens had the endorsement of much of the Democratic establishment during the bruising primary, making her endorsement of Rogers even more stunning.
She was the preferred candidate of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who on Sunday reiterated his support for El-Sayed and accused Republicans of Islamophobia.
“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 said. “We Democrats [are] equally united in our total revulsion at the racist, Islamophobic, and over-the-top false attacks on Abdul by Republicans.”
In a later post to X, Schumer called her endorsement of Rogers “a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens.”
Peters and Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin both disavowed Stevens for her endorsement.
“[A]nyone who makes an election this important about themselves, and not Michiganders and our democracy, should think hard about whether they are serving the greater good,” Slotkin said in a post to X.
Curtis Hertel, the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, appeared to suggest that Stevens had been kicked out of the party.
“Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future,” he said in an X post.
In a Truth Social post, Trump praised Stevens’ endorsement.
“Congresswoman Haley Stevens, a Highly Respected Democrat, who narrowly lost in the Primary to Abdul Mohamed El-Sayed, and who has been breathlessly wined and dined by the Dumocrats to help in their Michigan Campaign for the United States Senate against Mike Rogers, has just ENDORSED Mike Rogers for Senate!” the president said.
“Her following is huge, and the level of respect from the People of Michigan, especially our African American and Jewish populations, is virtually unparalleled,” he said.