Party Leaders Condemn Stevens for Backing Republican

More than half of Rep. Haley Stevens’ congressional staff resigned in protest after she withdrew her endorsement of Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and backed Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday, two days before Election Day. Her chief of staff, Justin German, said: “As of this morning, many members of our team have resigned, including myself.” The party’s unity machinery is now running against one of its own.

A campaign dispute becomes a party test

Stevens had narrowly lost Michigan’s Senate primary to El-Sayed in August, then endorsed him and pledged to support him in the general election. In a video posted on X, she said El-Sayed had told her she was “no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away.” “And he’s right,” she said, before announcing her endorsement of Rogers.

Earlier Sunday, Stevens appeared with Rogers at a Detroit church and praised his record helping Black communities. She also said: “Who we are as Michiganders is not hate, and is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now.”

Their dispute centered on an advertisement released October 23 by Rebellion PAC, a pro-El-Sayed political action committee. The ad said grocery prices were high because government money was being spent helping Israel with “killing Palestinians” and funding Israelis’ universal health care. It ended with the words “they/them” over images of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, followed by “Abdul El-Sayed is for you.” Critics called it antisemitic.

Cenk Uygur, a left-wing commentator and uncle of streamer Hasan Piker, put out the ad. It had been reused from 2024, had little money behind it and went viral online. El-Sayed’s spokesperson said it didn’t speak for the campaign. At a campaign event Saturday, El-Sayed said: “That ad was not made by me, and I do not agree with the contents of that ad.” He called it “not really of relevance to Michigan voters.” His fiancé, Jason Turkish, an attorney and Democratic donor, publicly called the ad antisemitic and accused El-Sayed of putting “Jews at risk.”

The party’s discipline, and its limits

Stevens wanted El-Sayed to condemn the ad, rather than simply disavow an association with it. Democratic Reps. James Clyburn of South Carolina and Debbie Dingell of Michigan tried to arrange a joint unity event for the former primary rivals. El-Sayed’s campaign later said the event was off and Stevens should stay away to avoid becoming a distraction.

Stevens posted that she expected El-Sayed to condemn the ad and said they would appear together Sunday. She later wrote: “A unifying moment has arrived, our democratic nominee for U.S Senate disavows the Rebellion PAC ad made by Hasan Piker’s uncle that claims Jews are responsible for America’s economic woes.” The statement was widely viewed as an ultimatum. El-Sayed replied that the campaign was focused on challenges facing Michiganders and that Stevens seemed intent on “litigating a primary that ended three months ago.”

The party’s response came swiftly. Michigan’s Democratic Party chair said Stevens was no longer a party member and wouldn’t be permitted to rejoin. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called her action “a despicable betrayal” and said Democrats were “united in our support” for El-Sayed. He said El-Sayed would “fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote that El-Sayed would fight to lower the high cost of living and called Rogers “a partisan hack who represents more of the same MAGA extremism.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Stevens had “chosen to dangerously betray Michigan families’ healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers.”

Money, votes and the cost of the fight

The contest sits inside a party split over Israel and the Democratic establishment’s support for the Gaza war. Stevens has been a longtime champion of Israel. In 2022, after redistricting placed her in the same district as Rep. Andy Levin, a Jewish Democrat sharply critical of the Netanyahu government, Stevens defeated him in the primary with backing from $4 million in AIPAC spending. In this year’s Senate primary, AIPAC again backed Stevens, spending more than $30 million, its largest-ever investment in a single election. El-Sayed was a vocal critic of Israel and of the Democratic establishment’s support for the Gaza war.

Stevens lost the primary by less than 1 percentage point. Soon afterward, she endorsed El-Sayed and hugged him at a unity breakfast, saying, “It’s a big-tent party,” and that “the time for all this negative, nasty, the disunity stuff — it’s over.” The two didn’t campaign together afterward.

The electoral stakes remain central to the party’s warnings. Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin said anyone making an important election “about themselves, and not Michiganders and our democracy” should consider whether they were serving the greater good. Sen. Gary Peters said a Democratic Senate majority must check Donald Trump’s “corruption and chaos” and said he would cast his ballot for El-Sayed and every Democrat on the ballot. Polls had shown El-Sayed narrowly but consistently leading Rogers, though they didn’t guarantee the outcome. The immediate response to a fractured campaign is another appeal to voters—and another fight over who gets to define party unity.