Just days before Michigan’s extremely consequential Senate race, Democratic Representative Haley Stevens switched sides ― officially endorsing Republican Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
The Democrat told reporters on Sunday she made the endorsement decision that morning, saying she is choosing country over party.
“I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate. I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses,” Stevens said in a self-recorded video from her car. “What our students see, what our children see and who we are as Michiganders is not hate, and is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now.”
The endorsement came just after Stevens appeared at a church service with Rogers, on a day she was originally scheduled to appear at a campaign event in Detroit with El-Sayed.
“At the end of the day, I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” El-Sayed said at his event alongside Clyburn.
“I’m just going to tell you, this is a state of 10 million people who deserve a lot better from the government,” he told reporters. “I’m a lot more focused on the 9,999,998 that are not the ones you guys are talking about.”
Stevens’ staff, including longtime chief of staff Justin German, resigned from her office on Sunday morning. In a statement, German said staff are “shocked and heartbroken” by Stevens’ decision, and stand united to support El-Sayed.
“As of this morning, many members of our team have resigned, including myself,” German wrote. “We encourage everyone to exercise their civic duty, vote for Abdul and Democrats up and down the ballot, and stand up for the America we all believe in.”
Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images
El-Sayed’s campaign recently asked Stevens to steer clear of any remaining campaign events amid increased fracturing between the two Democrats, as Stevens became increasingly vocal against the nominee’s criticism of Israel.
Clyburn stressed that Stevens was still invited to Sunday’s event at a Black church, though she made no mention of the senior Democrat at her press conference with Rogers.
Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, told The Detroit News last week he would vote for “patriot” Rogers. Rogers, with the help of the Trump administration, has run an unapologetically Islamophobic campaign against El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim senator if elected.
“Blaming a certain group of people for all of your problems? That sounds like 1933, it doesn’t sound like 1926,” Rogers said at the press conference with Stevens. “Jewish Democrats are calling me afraid for their children to stay in the state of Michigan.”
El-Sayed has repeatedly voiced his support for Michigan’s Jewish community, and last week said he is “not affiliated in any way” with a PAC that created a controversial ad depicting a couple deciding they can’t afford some grocery items after discussing how much taxpayer money goes to Israel. Stevens has said that El-Sayed did not forcefully enough condemn the ad.
“This is the conscience of the Senate right now, and our Michigan moment,” Stevens, who lost to El-Sayed in the primary election, said in her video.
“And I’m just letting you know where I am. I’m still a very proud Democrat, I still very much believe in everything I voted for and said, and I’ve worked really hard and will continue to do so in all the ways life’s opportunities afford.”
“Haley Stevens’ decision to campaign with Rogers … shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.”
– Curtis Hertel, Michigan Democratic Party chair
But Stevens is getting no sympathy from fellow Democrats, many of whom have doubled down on their support for El-Sayed after the Michigan lawmaker’s endorsement of Rogers. Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin denounced the endorsement as an “effort to sow division within our party,” while Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel said Stevens is no longer a member of the party.
“Haley Stevens’ decision to campaign with Rogers — a man who has repeatedly sold out Michigan’s working class, wants to pass a national abortion ban, and has pledged to be a loyal vote for Trump’s agenda — shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about,” Hertel said in a statement.
“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 [to] deter us.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also released a statement following Stevens’ endorsement, calling the lawmaker’s move “a despicable betrayal” and saying Senate Democrats are united in their support for El-Sayed.
Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell also said the focus must be on electing Democrats like El-Sayed “up and down the ballot.”
“Michiganders are worried about how they are going to pay their mortgage and fill up their gas tanks, and the ability to afford groceries, healthcare and housing. They want leaders focused on making their lives more affordable,” Dingell said in a statement. “That’s what they’re talking about, not Congresswoman Stevens’ continued efforts to get attention.”
President Donald Trump said Stevens did what “few people are willing to say.”
“She showed great and almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan with what she did,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It’s a thing called bravery, and few people have it like just displayed by Congresswoman Haley Stevens!”
