DETROIT — Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan) endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Detroit on Sunday, following days of tensions with the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in the primary.
Stevens made the announcement in a video posted to X, in which she said El-Sayed said she was no longer welcome in his campaign.
“He’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers,” Stevens said, adding a criticism of the political commentator Hasan Piker, who campaigned with El-Sayed during the primary.
“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,” Stevens said.
Stevens’s post followed an unexpected appearance with Rogers at Perfecting Church in Detroit. She was recorded hugging him as she walked in.
Before an appearance at a different Detroit church, El-Sayed told reporters that he doesn’t think about Stevens.
“If you are somebody who believes that we should stand up to hate, and you have watched this last campaign, I think we probably would not want to support Mike Rogers and Donald Trump and JD Vance,” he said. “None of this matters.”
Stevens’s endorsement threatens 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.
But 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 an a video widely criticized as antisemitic from a group that is not affiliated with his campaign. Attempts to unify the party instead blew up.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said in a statement that Democrats are united in their support of El-Sayed and condemned “racist, Islamophobic, and over-the-top false attacks on Abdul by Republicans.”
Other Democrats, including in Stevens’s office, immediately condemned her decision.
Stevens’s chief of staff, Justin German, resigned and said in a statement that he was “shocked and heartbroken” by Stevens’s decision to endorse Rogers.
More resignations are expected, two people familiar with the plans said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) in a statement Sunday called Stevens’s endorsement an effort to “get attention.”
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement that Stevens had “abandoned everything she claims to care about.”
In her video Sunday, Stevens said that “I’m still a very proud Democrat; I still very much believe in everything I voted for and said.”
When asked later by reporters if she was comfortable with Democrats not having a majority in the Senate, Stevens said “yes.”
Republicans celebrated Stevens’s endorsement. President Donald Trump praised Stevens, saying that her endorsement showed “unprecedented loyalty” to Michigan.
“Her following is huge, and the level of respect from the People of Michigan, especially our African American and Jewish populations, is virtually unparalleled. Haley said what few people are willing to say,” Trump wrote Sunday in a post on Truth Social.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the top Republican super PAC focused on holding the Senate, touted the endorsement, emailing a photo of Stevens and Rogers sitting side by side and smiling.
Before the service, Stevens said that she supports investments in Black-owned businesses and that “that is a policy that Mike is going to take on,” according to a video posted by journalist Sam Robinson of the Michigan Chronicle. She and her fiancé were photographed and recorded sitting next to Rogers and his wife inside the church.
“This is courage in politics in America today. It takes courage for someone to stand up and say we can’t do that,” Rogers told reporters outside the church after the service ended.
Stevens’s comments incensed some Black Democrats.
“We are dismayed that Congresswoman Haley Stevens has revealed herself to be a sellout who used Black Michiganders for a political stunt,” Virgie Rollins, chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus, said in a statement.
Stevens’s appearance and endorsement marked a stunning turn in events for a Democrat who insisted she wanted a Democratic victory in the Senate race. She had clashed with El-Sayed last week over an ad from Rebellion PAC, a liberal outside group, that blames Israel for the high price of U.S. groceries. Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, said last week that he would vote for Rogers because of the ad.
El-Sayed’s campaign said he had nothing to do with the ad, and he criticized its contents Saturday. Stevens then released a statement that did not name El-Sayed saying, “I was glad to see our senate nominee say he does not agree with the content of the vile Rebellion PAC ad.”
El-Sayed and Stevens were originally scheduled to appear at a Sunday church event hosted by Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina). But El-Sayed’s campaign asked her not to come after she released a statement criticizing his response to the ad.
“When someone says to you you are not welcome in my campaign, you take them seriously. And that’s what I’m doing today,” Stevens told reporters outside Perfecting Church as protesters shouted, “Haley Stevens is a traitor.”
While Stevens’s clash with El-Sayed appears highly personal, it also highlights fault lines within the Democratic Party over Israel that are likely to persist in Congress after the November elections and into the 2028 campaign for the presidential nomination.
El-Sayed narrowly defeated Stevens in the August primary after months of clashing over policy, including the United States’ relationship with Israel. El-Sayed has called Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide and called for an end to unconditional military aid.
Stevens, who gave up her seat in Congress to run for Senate, is not on the ballot Tuesday.
El-Sayed received a standing ovation Sunday afternoon when he joined Clyburn at the Northend Church of God in Christ in Detroit for a “souls to the polls” get-out-the-vote event.
“I think she’s crazy,” Peaches Crutchfield, 64, said of Stevens from a pew in the back of the church before the service started.
“With gas being what it is, food prices being what they are, people in Michigan are struggling. How can she actually say that? How could she side with a Republican?” Crutchfield said. “I’m a Democrat. I’ll be voting for, well, the guy coming here. I can’t even pronounce his name, but I know at least he’s a Democrat.”
Jira reported from Washington and Cox reported from Detroit. Dan Merica in Washington; and Haider Zaidi and Taylor Grabowski in Detroit also contributed to this report.
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