Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan, who lost to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in a bitter Democratic primary for Senate in August, has grown increasingly critical of him as the election draws near, injecting unusual intraparty tensions into the final days of a pivotal midterm contest.
While Ms. Stevens reiterated Wednesday night that she plans to vote for Dr. El-Sayed, she did so through seemingly gritted teeth in a televised interview just hours after her fiancé said that he would be voting for former Representative Mike Rogers, Dr. El-Sayed’s Republican rival. She also called on Dr. El-Sayed to denounce an ad from an outside group that she has argued amounts to “fear-mongering about Israel,” and to take down an ad from his campaign featuring Tucker Carlson.
“Of course, I’m voting for our Democratic nominee for Senate,” Ms. Stevens said on CNN. “I’m voting for the Democratic ticket. But I want to encourage this campaign to shut out the hate and to call it out and to make people who are in my coalition, right — make them feel comfortable about coming to the polls.”
Ms. Stevens’s remarks are an unwelcome development for Dr. El-Sayed in a high-stakes race. It is rare for the loser of a primary who has endorsed the winner to be publicly critical this close to the general election.
It’s not the first time it has happened in this year’s midterms. In Texas, Senator John Cornyn has missed few opportunities to needle Ken Paxton, who beat him for the Republican nomination in May. Mr. Paxton, however, has not made as many cable news appearances as Ms. Stevens.
Ms. Stevens, a staunch supporter of Israel, said on CNN that she is representing Jewish Michiganders who supported her and are angry about advertising that they view as antisemitic. The campaign of Dr. El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel, has said it was “not affiliated in any way” with the ad that has come under scrutiny. But Ms. Stevens said that does not go far enough.
“He can disavow these ads, and he can reassure these undecided voters who are still out,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Dr. El-Sayed’s campaign declined to comment on Ms. Stevens’s remarks.
Dr. El-Sayed, speaking to reporters earlier Wednesday, dismissed concerns that Ms. Stevens’s fiancé was backing Mr. Rogers over concerns about Dr. El-Sayed’s Israel policy.
“I’m building a movement to take on the challenges that Donald Trump is facing,” Dr. El-Sayed said. “If folks have issues that are more important to them than that, that’s fine — that’s their choice.”
The public criticism from Ms. Stevens made clear that there has been little private reconciliation between the primary rivals despite her vow to vote for him. While Ms. Stevens couched her public remarks as constructive criticism, she has been more critical of Dr. El-Sayed in private, according to a person who has spoken with her, leaving some allies wondering if she would in fact vote for him.
She said in a text message on Wednesday that she would not appear with Dr. El-Sayed in the campaign’s final week. “I am not campaigning with Abdul,” she wrote.
Ms. Stevens’s criticism of Dr. El-Sayed had been building.
On Sunday, in another CNN interview, she said, “I can’t say that I agree with everything that’s gone on.” She questioned Dr. El-Sayed’s efforts to appeal to Black voters and suggested that he was too focused on foreign policy.
On Wednesday, Ms. Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, a Jewish Democrat, said he planned to vote for Mr. Rogers, and joined him at an event with the Republican Jewish Coalition in the evening.
“I watched Haley graciously concede an election, and open her arms and her heart to Abdul on Aug. 5, the day after the primary, and I prayed that he would moderate, and he hasn’t,” Mr. Turkish said in an interview.
Mr. Turkish said he was frustrated after Dr. El-Sayed declined to answer a question at an October debate about whether Iran or Israel was a greater threat to the United States. And Mr. Turkish expressed disappointment that the day after the primary, Dr. El-Sayed joined another Democratic primary contender, Mallory McMorrow, who finished a distant third after dropping out weeks before the primary, for a celebratory news conference in Detroit.
Dr. El-Sayed’s campaign said that its leadership remains in frequent contact with Ms. Stevens and that the congresswoman had campaigned on his behalf at mid-October Democratic event in Oakland County, which she had carried in the primary. It also said Dr. El-Sayed had brought on several staff members from Ms. Stevens’s campaign after the primary.
Dr. El-Sayed’s campaign said it had also asked Ms. Stevens to campaign alongside him. It did not respond to a question about why that had not happened recently.
“The Abdul campaign is grateful for Congresswoman Stevens’s immediate and sustained support,” Roxie Richner, a spokeswoman for Dr. El-Sayed, said in a statement.
Ms. Stevens’s tepid support — and the awkward dynamic between the two Democrats — is one of the most public points of tension among Democrats in Michigan, who remain far more divided than party leaders had hoped to be going into the election next Tuesday.
Opinion polls show that Dr. El-Sayed and Mr. Rogers are running neck-and-neck in Michigan, a traditional battleground state where a Republican has not won a Senate race in more than three decades. The battle between Dr. El-Sayed and Mr. Rogers could play a critical role in the national fight for Senate control.
Israel remains a dividing line for some Democrats in the state, and Jewish voters say they are torn about whether to support Dr. El-Sayed, who has called Israel’s government “evil.” Dr. El-Sayed is also trying to overcome tensions between Black and Arab American voters in the Detroit area.
Dr. El-Sayed and Ms. Stevens clashed regularly over Israel during the primary race, with Dr. El-Sayed assailing Ms. Stevens over support she received from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group. AIPAC is now backing Mr. Rogers.
Lonnie Scott, a Democratic consultant in Michigan, said Ms. Stevens’s recent commentary was not “helpful” and that “Haley should be a team player.” But, he said, Dr. El-Sayed “should be doing more outreach.”
“I don’t place blame on one over the other,” Mr. Scott said. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who stayed publicly neutral in the primary, defended Ms. Stevens.
“I’m sick and tired of people blaming Haley,” Ms. Dingell said.
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