Democratic Representative Haley Stevens has endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Michigan, deepening a public rift with Abdul El-Sayed just days before Tuesday’s election.
Stevens, who narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the Democratic primary in August, appeared with Rogers at a church in Detroit on Sunday.
“Our Democratic nominee for US Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away, and he’s right,” Stevens said in a video posted on social media. “And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”
The split escalated last week after Stevens called on El-Sayed to condemn an advert produced by an outside group. The advert linked US military aid to Israel with rising grocery prices, which Stevens described as antisemitic.
El-Sayed accused Stevens of “relitigating a primary that ended three months ago”. He has also said the advert “was not made by me” and that he disagreed with its contents.
Rogers praised Stevens on Friday for raising the issue and voicing concerns expressed by Michigan’s Jewish voters. “Representative Haley Stevens is a courageous leader who deserves the respect of every Michigan voter,” he said in a post on X.
Stevens had been expected to appear with El-Sayed and South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn at a unity event on Sunday. Instead, she was asked to stay away from the remaining campaign events, with El-Sayed saying he did not want to distract from the campaign’s key issues.
Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, said last week that he intended to vote for Rogers.
