FARMINGTON, Michigan — Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) called on her primary opponent in Michigan‘s Senate race to withdraw his endorsement of William Lawrence, a progressive Democrat who drew backlash for unearthed comments questioning black leaders in Washington.
“He should totally not be campaigning with someone who’s saying goofy and hurtful and painful things like that,” Stevens said on Friday, dinging Abdul el Sayed, her rival in the Democratic primary, for agreeing to campaign with Lawrence in a Sunday rally.
The comments come as the Congressional Black Caucus gets increasingly involved in midterm politics in Michigan, one of several battleground states this cycle. Its PAC endorsed Stevens on Friday and a week earlier urged candidates not to affiliate with Lawrence, who accused older black leaders of undermining the “white Left” with their support for “establishment” politics.
Lawrence has since called the remarks, made on a 2024 episode of his podcast, “clumsy” but accused his opponents of taking his words out of context.
“The kind of crap that’s being said by William Lawrence, it’s not acceptable,” Stevens told the Washington Examiner at a festival in the Detroit suburb of Farmington.
“I don’t know the guy, I don’t like what I’ve heard, and I stand by my brothers and sisters in the Congressional Black Caucus in saying that he should be unendorsed by Abdul, and he should really think twice about why he’s running right now,” she added.
The Lawrence and el Sayed campaigns did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.
They are set to rally in Lansing on Sunday in an event headlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The event, part of a barnstorm through Michigan, is meant to gin up progressive enthusiasm for el Sayed ahead of the Democratic primary on Aug. 4.
The winner will face former Rep. Mike Rogers, the presumptive Republican nominee, in one of the marquee Senate races of the 2026 cycle.
Stevens’s denunciation adds to the growing fight for black voter support in Michigan. Recent polling shows her pulling ahead of el Sayed, aided by tens of millions in outside spending. Her lead with black voters, in particular, is in the double digits, according to a Detroit News survey.
On the airwaves, the two have sought to reach that demographic by praising black party leaders. The el Sayed campaign ran a TV ad earlier this month touting his support for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Outside groups supporting Stevens, in turn, have run campaign ads emphasizing the positive words former President Barack Obama had for her in 2018, when she ran for her first term in the House.
ABDUL EL SAYED SAYS HE’LL HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH SCHUMER ‘AFTER I WIN’
Lawrence’s race, for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, features two other Democratic competitors, both of whom are viewed as establishment-favored picks.
Lawrence has surged in the polls, prompting a super PAC aligned with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to run negative ads against him.