Democratic strategist James Carville tore into former Michigan Senate candidate Haley Stevens on Sunday after she broke with her own party to endorse Republican Mike Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
“Your political career is over,” Carville said in a video posted Sunday. “If you think that these Republicans are going to treat you as anything other than what they view you as – and that is, let me just break the news to you – a used condom.”
Carville went further, dismissing Stevens’ standing within her own party as well. “The Democrats don’t even think you’re worth a used condom, but that’s about where you are,” he said. “You made your bed, sleep in it.”
He capped the remarks by suggesting Stevens team up with Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat known for distancing himself from the party’s socialist wing, to open a cheeseburger restaurant.
A Primary Rivalry Turned Public Break
Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers marked a sharp reversal after she had backed El-Sayed following their contentious primary. In her Sunday announcement, Stevens said the split stemmed from being pushed out of El-Sayed’s campaign.
“Hey Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away, and he’s right. That’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United State Senate today,” Stevens said.
She continued by criticizing commentator Hasan Piker and raising concerns about the direction of her party. “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses,” Stevens said. “A dear friend of mine earlier today was saying that education is on the ballot and she is absolutely right. What our students see, what our children see, and who we are as Michiganders is not hate. And is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now.”
The rupture had been building for days. According to the New York Times and Politico, El-Sayed’s campaign asked Stevens to stay away from its remaining events after she pressed him to disavow an anti-Israel advertisement. Earlier in the week, Stevens’ fiancé, who is Jewish, said publicly that he intended to vote for Rogers.
Carville’s broadside underscores the deepening divide among Michigan Democrats as the Senate race heads toward its final stretch, with party figures publicly turning on one another over Israel, campus politics and the direction of the Democratic coalition.
