Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers, and Democrats Call It a ‘Despicable Betrayal’

The Full Story

The video went up around 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. In it, Stevens points back to a fight that had been building all week. “Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” she says. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.” Within a few hours the post had drawn more than 9 million views on X.

Hours later she was in the pews at Perfecting Church with Rogers, his wife Kristi and her fiancé, swaying to gospel music while El-Sayed campaigned a few miles away at a different church alongside South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell and Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. Rogers told reporters he was “honored” to have her backing, the AP reported.

How a unity event fell apart

Sunday was supposed to look very different. Dingell had helped set up a joint appearance meant to show Michigan Democrats closing ranks behind El-Sayed, who edged out Stevens for the nomination in August. That plan collapsed on Friday, October 30, when Stevens issued a long statement demanding El-Sayed condemn an ad from an independent left-wing group that tied U.S. support for Israel to high grocery prices. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford,” she wrote.

El-Sayed said the ad wasn’t his and that he disagreed with it, while accusing Stevens of trying to relitigate “a primary that ended three months ago.” Dingell then called off the joint event, telling the AP she pulled the plug herself because the feud had become too much of a distraction. The two Democrats have also split sharply over Israel: Stevens is a firm supporter, El-Sayed a vocal critic, and he has drawn heat for past remarks about an attack on a Michigan synagogue and for appearing with the streamer Hasan Piker.

There were warning signs before Sunday. Last week Stevens’ fiancé told The Detroit News he planned to vote for Rogers, though Stevens herself went on CNN afterward to say she still backed El-Sayed.

The fallout

Schumer posted that Senate Democrats were “united” behind El-Sayed. DNC chair Ken Martin called the endorsement “a betrayal of the values of the Democratic Party,” CNN reported. Hertel went a step further on X, saying Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.”

The cost showed up inside her own office, too. Justin German, who had been Stevens’ chief of staff, said he was “shocked and heartbroken” and that “many members of our team have resigned, including myself,” according to Axios. California Rep. Jared Huffman was blunter, calling the move “pathetic, petty, selfish, unhinged.”

President Trump, meanwhile, praised Stevens on Truth Social as “a Highly Respected Democrat” and framed the endorsement as an act of courage. El-Sayed shrugged it off when reporters asked, saying he doesn’t spend time thinking about Stevens and wants to stay on cost-of-living issues.

The seat is open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring. Rogers, a former FBI agent and House Intelligence Committee chair, narrowly lost Michigan’s other Senate race to Elissa Slotkin in 2024. Democrats need to hold Michigan to have a shot at a Senate majority, which is why a late defection from a sitting Democratic member of Congress landed like this.

The Pit Take

This is opinion. Stevens frames this as El-Sayed pushing her away, and to be fair, she did get uninvited from the big unity photo op. But losing a primary and getting frozen out of the victory lap is a normal part of politics. Endorsing the other party’s candidate 48 hours before polls close, with early voting already underway, is not.

“It is this one vote” is doing a lot of work, too. One vote is how she can frame it, but it’s a public endorsement from a sitting member of Congress in a race that could decide who controls the Senate, and the timing guarantees El-Sayed spends his final 48 hours answering questions about her instead of making his own pitch. If her real objection is how El-Sayed talks about Israel, she’s had three months to make that case. Saving it for the last weekend looks a lot more like payback.

Whether it moves votes is another question. Voters tend not to follow a primary loser across party lines. What it will do is make Stevens the story of the last weekend, and that may have been the point.