Democratic Representative Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the United States Senate in Michigan on Sunday, November 1, breaking with her own party’s nominee just two days before voters go to the polls in the midterm election.
Michigan’s open Senate seat is one of the most closely watched contests in the country, and its outcome could help decide which party controls the Senate for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber, and recent polling averages had given Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a narrow lead over Rogers.
Stevens announced her decision in a video posted on social media after appearing alongside Rogers at a church service in Detroit on Sunday morning. She attended the service at Perfecting Church on the city’s east side with Rogers and his wife, according to USA Today and The Detroit News.
“As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for US Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said in the video. “And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.”
Stevens, who describes herself as a very proud Democrat, had lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed in August. She initially backed him in the general election, but the relationship between the two camps broke down in the final days of the campaign.
El-Sayed’s campaign had asked Stevens not to attend a joint campaign event planned for Sunday with Democratic Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina. The request followed a statement Stevens issued on October 30 calling on El-Sayed to condemn an advertisement from an outside political action committee that blamed rising grocery prices in the United States on American military support for Israel.
El-Sayed has said the advertisement was produced by a third party and that his campaign was not involved in its production or content. Stevens, a strong supporter of Israel, also objected to El-Sayed’s campaigning with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, whose comments about Israel and Jewish Americans have become a flashpoint in the race.
“I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses,” Stevens said in her endorsement video.
Rogers, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives who is endorsed by Trump, said he was honoured to receive Stevens’ support. “This is courage in politics in America today,” he said, standing beside her. Trump also welcomed the endorsement, according to reports of his reaction on Sunday.
Democratic leaders moved quickly to contain the damage. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Senate Democrats were united in support for El-Sayed because he would fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan. Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the party stood fully behind El-Sayed and that Stevens was no longer a member of the party and would not be in the future.
The fallout reached Stevens’ own office within hours. Her longtime chief of staff, Justin German, said in a statement that he and many members of her team had resigned ahead of the endorsement. German said he was shocked and heartbroken by the decision and urged voters to back El-Sayed and Democrats up and down the ballot.
Polling before the endorsement showed a tight race. The RealClearPolitics average cited by USA Today put El-Sayed ahead of Rogers by 3.5 percentage points in Michigan, a margin within the range of many individual polls. Betting market Kalshi recorded El-Sayed’s chances falling to 68 percent on Sunday from around 76 percent at noon, while Rogers rose to 32 percent.
Michigan voters will choose between El-Sayed and Rogers on Tuesday, November 3, when all 435 House seats and more than a third of the Senate are on the ballot. Whether Stevens’ cross-party endorsement shifts enough voters in the final two days remains untested, but it has already turned one of the year’s closest Senate races into a public split inside the Democratic Party at the moment it can least afford one.
