Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who lost her party’s Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed in August, endorsed on Sunday former Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican in the race.
In a video posted on social media, Stevens cited a growing rift between her and El-Sayed, as well as the nominee’s association with extremist political streamer Hasan Piker.
“Who we are as Michiganders is not hate and is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” she said. Stevens maintained that that she was still a “very proud Democrat” despite her endorsement of Rogers; she appeared with the Republican nominee at an event in Detroit on Sunday.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about the endorsement on Sunday, El-Sayed attempted to minimize its impact. “At the end of the day, I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” he told reporters at an event. “Because you know what? I’m just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all.”
The endorsement comes as a massive surprise just days before the election. The announcement could influence moderate Democrats, who are uncomfortable with the progressive, anti-Israel El-Sayed, to cast a vote for Rogers. Stevens’s announcement is the result of a divide between her and El-Sayed that has been present since the primary but has been blown open the past few days.
During the primary, the pro-Israel Stevens was favored by the Democratic establishment in the swing state of Michigan, but she narrowly lost that contest.
While Stevens originally endorsed El-Sayed after the primary, her support began to waver after an outside group cut an ad in late October backing El-Sayed that tied grocery prices to aid to Israel. Critics called the ad antisemitic.
Stevens on Friday said she had heard that El-Sayed planned to condemn the ad and called on him to also recant his own statements that she claimed blamed inadequate schools, healthcare, and childcare in Michigan on American aid for Israel. On the campaign trail, El-Sayed has argued that money used for aid to Israel should be used for domestic policies “rather than dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids.”
In a Friday statement, El-Sayed said Stevens “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.” Asked on Saturday if he condemns the ad, El-Sayed would not use that word, specifically. “You guys love to play the ‘condemn’ game,'” he told reporters. However, he noted that his campaign did not produce the ad and said, “I do not agree with the contents of that ad.” El-Sayed would also say that he did not want Stevens at a planned party unity event on Sunday, and his campaign reportedly said Stevens was not welcome at other events leading up to Election Day.
By Sunday, Stevens was in the Rogers camp.
“Our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away, and he’s right,” she said in her social media video. “And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”