Party Power Fight Scrambles Michigan Senate Race

The final New York Times/Siena poll put Abdul El-Sayed 11 percentage points ahead, but it was conducted before U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens reversed her endorsement and backed Republican Mike Rogers. With the election only days away, a fight among political figures had overtaken policy issues central to Michigan voters. The poll captured one contest; it didn't capture the reversal that followed.

Voters, Then the Party Drama

El-Sayed said, “I actually don't think about Haley Stevens.” He described Michigan as a state of 10 million people whose residents “deserve a lot better from their government,” and said he was focused less on Stevens and Rogers than on the other “9,999,998” Michiganders. The voters are the audience for the campaign, but Stevens' move rapidly became its headline.

His campaign reported Monday that it broke its single-day fundraising record Sunday, taking in $2.4 million from more than 26,000 first-time contributors. Those figures show a substantial burst of campaign participation, even as attention shifted from the policy questions voters face to the dispute over endorsements and party unity.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had endorsed Stevens in her primary race against El-Sayed before she was narrowly defeated in August, called her reversal “a despicable betrayal” in a social media post Sunday, Nov. 1. Schumer said Senate Democrats were united behind El-Sayed, arguing he would fight for Michigan working families' economic interests. He called Rogers “a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”

Former House speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Stevens had chosen to “dangerously betray Michigan families' healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement.” Pelosi said El-Sayed “must win” because Michigan and the country “deserve better.” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel wrote Sunday that Stevens was not a current party member, “nor will she be in the future.” The party's dispute over who belongs and who should win was now out in public.

An Endorsement Becomes the Campaign

The break followed Stevens' demand that El-Sayed publicly renounce an advertisement by a group unaffiliated with his campaign. Stevens called the ad antisemitic because it blamed U.S. support for Israel for expensive grocery prices, and said she wouldn't attend a campaign event with El-Sayed Sunday unless he disavowed it. El-Sayed said his campaign hadn't made the ad and that he did “not agree with the contents of that ad.” He asked Stevens to stay away from his campaign and withdrew an invitation for her to join him at a Detroit church.

Stevens instead appeared at a different Detroit church with Rogers. In a Sunday evening interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, she declined to explain why she had switched her endorsement. “I'm just casting my vote this one way,” she said, while maintaining that she still wanted Democrats to flip the Senate on election day. She said, “I am not trying to upset anyone,” and cited the “anger and lack of kindness” of El-Sayed's campaign. She said Democrats had told her, “Thank you, this is how we felt. We haven't liked this campaign. It's painful.”

Stevens' reversal followed a longstanding feud with El-Sayed, according to accounts cited in the report. She had endorsed him shortly after the primary but kept tensions out of public view; the two had little communication, and El-Sayed had never invited her to campaign with him. His Sunday event would have offered a public display of party unity. The report said the dispute over the advertisement was the last straw for Stevens.

Donors, Leaders and Everyday Issues

Over the weekend, Stevens also suggested El-Sayed's campaign stood with “hate,” linking him to Hasan Piker, a political commentator and online live-streamer. She pointed to Piker's past comments on Israel; El-Sayed had distanced himself from those comments over the summer. The United Democracy Project, a super PAC backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that works to elect pro-Israel candidates, was the largest contributor to Stevens' campaign in the Democratic Party's most expensive primary race.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told Cooper, “I know that Michigan is tired of the drama, that they're really worried about everyday issues, which are affordability and a very broken healthcare system.” She added, “This has been a very difficult week to watch.” At a Sunday rally in Iowa, President Donald Trump called Stevens' decision “very brave.” “I've never met Haley. But Haley said what few people were willing to say,” he said, adding, “I'd love her to join the Republican Party actually.”