Democrat Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan Senate Race

Two days before Michigan voters decide one of the closest Senate races in the country, the Democrat who nearly won the party's nomination stood outside a Detroit church on Sunday and endorsed the Republican.

Rep. Haley Stevens appeared with former Rep. Mike Rogers at a service at Perfecting Church, on the east side of Detroit, and then told reporters she is backing him over Abdul El-Sayed, her own party's nominee. "I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate," Stevens said. "I am one vote in this state. Michigan is a swing state."

Stevens said 90 percent of the rest of her ballot will still be for Democrats, but that she "can't stand with hate." In a video posted on X, she said, "I don't belong in Abdul's campaign," and criticized El-Sayed's campaigning with the streamer Hasan Piker.

A break that built for weeks

Stevens lost the August Democratic primary to El-Sayed by less than one percentage point, in a contest that split the party over Israel, campaign style and ideology. She endorsed El-Sayed after the primary, but the truce did not hold. On October 30 she issued a long statement demanding that he condemn an ad from an outside group that tied aid for Israel to grocery prices. On Saturday, El-Sayed's campaign asked her to stay away from its final events.

At Perfecting Church, Pastor Marvin Winans read the names of the candidates in the room. Stevens sat next to Rogers, his wife Kristi Rogers and her own fiance, Jason Turkish. Rogers said he was honored to have earned her vote and that the two had spoken that morning. "Candidly, I'm glad I'm not running against Haley Stevens," he said.

El-Sayed spent the morning at another Detroit church, Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, where Rep. Jim Clyburn introduced him. Asked later about Stevens appearing with his rival, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow answered, "Haley who?"

Fallout inside her own office and party

The endorsement cost Stevens staff. Her chief of staff said he and several other staffers in her House office are resigning over the decision, and her communications director's email sent an auto-reply saying he was no longer with her office as of November 1. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer decried the move and said Senate Democrats were united behind El-Sayed. Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said the party rejected attempts to divide it two days before the vote.

What is at stake on Tuesday

Michigan's seat is open, and Republicans hold the Senate 53 to 47. A handful of races will decide control of the chamber for the last two years of President Donald Trump's term. A polling average cited by USA Today had El-Sayed ahead of Rogers by 3.5 percentage points before Sunday. A sitting Democratic congresswoman crossing over this late is the kind of break both campaigns will fight over until the polls close, and Rogers has been courting disaffected Democrats under a "Democrats for Rogers" banner for weeks.