The campaign for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, reported it raised $2.4 million on Sunday after a shocking last-minute decision by El-Sayed’s former primary rival to endorse the Republican nominee.
The about-face by Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan) to endorse Republican Mike Rogers — and appear with him at a Detroit church Sunday, instead of at an event she had been scheduled to attend with El-Sayed — triggered denunciations by Democratic leaders nationwide, along with an apparent surge in fundraising for El-Sayed.
El-Sayed’s campaign reported more than 65,000 individual donations Sunday, of which 29,602 were first-time donors to the candidate. The average donation was about $37 each, according to the campaign.
“This record-breaking grassroots fundraising haul is a testament to the excitement that Abdul’s movement has inspired in the hearts of Michiganders — and a rejection of the status quo politics that’s left Michigan behind for far too long,” campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak said in a statement Monday.
Representatives for the Rogers campaign did not immediately respond to questions Monday about its fundraising.
Stevens’s bombshell decision could threaten Democrats’ path to winning a Senate majority. They need to net four seats in Tuesday’s elections to take control of the chamber, and that path becomes much more daunting if they lose a Democratic-held seat and need to win in multiple red states. (Democratic Sen. Gary Peters did not seek reelection in Michigan.)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) on Sunday called Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers a “despicable betrayal.” Other Democrats publicly condemned her decision, and several of Stevens’s staffers resigned.
The Michigan race has been mired in tensions since a bitter primary battle that ended with El-Sayed’s narrow defeat of Stevens and that exposed deep rifts in the party over Israel. Those tensions escalated last week after Stevens demanded that El-Sayed denounce a video widely criticized as antisemitic from a group that is not affiliated with his campaign. Attempts to unify the party instead blew up.
Violet Jira contributed to this report.
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