Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) announced in a video posted to X that she is endorsing Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her own party’s nominee, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, setting off a wave of condemnation from top Democrats across the country.
The endorsement came the same morning Stevens and Rogers were seen attending the same church service together, at Perfecting Church in Detroit, on Sunday, November 1, 2026.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the move a “despicable betrayal” in a post on X and said Senate Democrats remain “united” behind El-Sayed. Schumer described Rogers as “a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors” and said El-Sayed “will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan.”
Former President Barack Obama also weighed in, releasing a video through the Democratic Party urging Michigan voters to “support Abdul El-Sayed for the United States Senate,” framing the race as a fight over whether “this country belongs to all of us” or “just the wealthy, just the well-connected.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote that El-Sayed “will always put the American people first and fight hard to lower the high cost of living,” calling his election “critical to flipping control of the United States Senate” while labeling Rogers “a partisan hack who represents more of the same MAGA extremism.”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accused Stevens of choosing to “dangerously betray Michigan families’ healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers,” and said El-Sayed “must win — because Michigan and our country deserve better.”
Not every Michigan Democrat joined the pile-on in the same tone. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) struck a more measured note, writing that “any day of the week, Michiganders care more about the price of gas or groceries than the daily political drama or the last-minute moves by politicians for the TV cameras.”
Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, announced Sunday that Stevens is “not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party.”
A Falling-Out Over Israel and an Outside PAC’s Ad
Stevens’ break from her party did not come out of nowhere. Days earlier she had publicly called on El-Sayed to condemn an advertisement from Rebellion PAC, an outside group with no affiliation to his campaign, that tied rising grocery prices to U.S. aid for Israel, according to a report from MS NOW. Stevens went further, criticizing El-Sayed’s own past statements on Israel, writing that the Rebellion PAC ad “did not invent its argument” but drew on rhetoric El-Sayed himself had used on the campaign trail. If he wanted to get money out of politics, she wrote, he could start “by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”
That dispute scuttled a planned Sunday get-out-the-vote event in Detroit where Stevens and El-Sayed were set to appear together for the first time in months, alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC). Stevens had endorsed El-Sayed shortly after he won the August primary, and the two had appeared together once since, at a unity breakfast, but had not campaigned jointly since then.
El-Sayed responded to Stevens’ criticism in a statement on X, accusing her of being “intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago” and calling instead for a focus on “beating Mike Rogers.”
The Michigan Senate seat is seen as one of the most competitive in the country, with national Democratic leaders treating El-Sayed’s candidacy as central to their effort to retake the chamber.
