Rep. Haley Stevens, the Michigan Democrat who lost her party’s Senate primary, delivered a late shock to Democrats by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers on camera just two days before Election Day.
In a video posted Sunday from her campaign account, Stevens stated she remains “a very proud Democrat” who loves Michigan but could not support the party’s nominee. “Hey Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul [El-Sayed] said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away and he’s right. And that’s why I’m endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” she said, as reported by Fox News.
The timing was no accident. Stevens had been scheduled to join El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn at a Detroit church service meant to project Democratic unity in the final days of the campaign. After a bitter public fight over an outside ad she called antisemitic, El-Sayed’s campaign pulled the invitation and told her to stay away from its remaining events. Instead, she walked into Perfecting Church on Sunday alongside Republican Mike Rogers.
Rogers welcomed the endorsement outside the church. “I’m honored to have Haley Stevens support today. I’m honored to have earned that vote,” he told reporters. “This is more a statement about standing together against hate and the future of this state and this country than it is anything else,” Fox reported. The National Republican Senatorial Committee blasted out the same Stevens quote within hours.
El-Sayed, who has never held elected office, narrowly defeated Stevens in Michigan’s Aug. 4 Democratic primary. Stevens has pressed him to condemn antisemitism among some of his allies, including streamer Hasan Piker. After her endorsement, Piker and other left-wing voices attacked her, with former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg branding her a “traitor” and Mehdi Hasan calling her a “complete traitor,” while the RNC argued that Democrats abandoned by El-Sayed “have a home with Mike,” Fox News Digital reported.
President Donald J. Trump responded on Truth Social, calling the move “BIG” and praising Stevens for her bravery. “She showed great and almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan with what she did. It’s a thing called bravery, and few people have it like just displayed by Congresswoman Haley Stevens!” he wrote.
The race was already razor close. A Fox News Poll of 1,028 likely voters taken Sept. 24 to 28 put El-Sayed ahead of Rogers 50% to 49%, within the margin of error of plus or minus 3 points. The same survey found that 11% of Stevens’ primary voters were already planning to vote for Rogers, well before Sunday’s endorsement.
Michigan is one of a handful of Senate races that could decide control of the chamber. Two days from Election Day, the Democrat who ran against El-Sayed, and who the RNC said “knows him better than anyone,” has told the state she is voting the other way.
Voters will decide on November 3.
