DETROIT — Michigan Democrats on Sunday faced an extraordinary political display of dysfunction just two days before the midterm elections: a Democratic congresswoman endorsed the Republican nominee for Senate, was kicked out of her own state party, and watched two of her top aides resign in protest.
Rep. Haley Stevens’s (D-MI) stunning endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers widened an already bitter feud with Abdul el Sayed, the Democratic nominee who narrowly defeated her in August’s primary, and injected fresh turmoil into a Senate race that could determine which party controls the chamber.
The timing and setting made the spectacle all the more jaw-dropping.
While el Sayed was gathering Democrats at a unity rally with Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), just a few miles away Stevens appeared alongside Rogers at a church service and announced she was backing the Republican over her own party’s nominee.
“I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” Stevens said in a video announcing her decision. “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.”
The endorsement set off an immediate political firestorm, drawing condemnation from Democrats coast to coast, including some of the party’s most influential figures.
It also triggered a stunning breakdown inside Stevens’s own congressional office.
Her chief of staff, Justin German, and communications director, Logan Basch, both resigned shortly after the endorsement. German, who said he was speaking on behalf of the entire staff, said they were “shocked and heartbroken” by Stevens’s last-minute decision.
The Michigan Democratic Party responded just as quickly.
Curtis Hertel, the party’s chairman, announced Stevens was no longer a member of the state party and would not be welcomed back. He also suggested there was something “very wrong with her right now.”
Stevens, however, insisted she remained a Democrat.
“I’m still a very proud Democrat,” she said in her video. “I’m just letting you know where I am.”
The sequence of events highlighted the depth of a Democratic civil war that has been simmering throughout the Michigan Senate campaign, with disagreements over Israel, the party’s ideological direction, and the question of whether Democrats can unite behind a nominee who emerged from a bruising primary.
Stevens and el Sayed had struggled to repair their relationship since the August contest, which el Sayed won narrowly. Their disagreements over U.S. policy toward Israel had become a defining fault line in the primary and continued to haunt the general election.
A plan to put their differences aside over the weekend fell apart, setting the stage for Stevens’s appearance with Rogers.
The decision infuriated Democrats who had been pressing the two candidates to present a united front ahead of Election Day.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called Stevens’s endorsement a “despicable betrayal” and said Senate Democrats remained united behind el Sayed.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also condemned Stevens, accusing her of betraying Michigan families.
“Haley Stevens has chosen to dangerously betray Michigan families’ healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers,” Pelosi wrote on X. “@AbdulElSayed must win — because Michigan and our country deserve better.”
Hertel delivered an especially blistering rebuke, accusing Stevens of abandoning the people who supported her and questioning how she could endorse a candidate backed by Republicans who, he argued, threaten voting rights and other Democratic priorities.
“The people of Michigan are betrayed,” Hertel said at the Souls to the Polls event in downtown Detroit. “The people that supported her are betrayed.”
He also criticized Stevens for appearing in the city and claiming to speak for black voters while supporting Rogers.
“It’s an abomination,” Hertel said. “Either Haley Stevens is not who she said she would be, or there is something very wrong with her right now.”
One voter at the event told the Washington Examiner she had voted for Stevens and was shocked by her about-face. But she warned now was not the time for the party to fall apart.
“You know, we ain’t got time to worry about pettiness,” she said. “We’re at the one yard line. Two days. Two more days.”
Another voter, Peaches Crutchfield, put it more bluntly: “She’s crazy. Haley Stevens is crazy.”
The fallout from the morning’s events quickly became a national political story, with Republicans celebrating Stevens’s decision and Democrats scrambling to contain the damage.
President Donald Trump praised the congresswoman’s endorsement, calling it “fantastic” and applauding what he described as her willingness to break with her party.
“Nobody expected that, but it’s a smart thing to do because el Sayed would destroy our country,” Trump told reporters in Iowa.
Asked whether Stevens should join the Republican Party, Trump replied, “We’d love to have her.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who traveled with Trump, said he reached out to Stevens to congratulate her.
“I think Haley did a heroic and important thing for the country,” Johnson said, adding that he told her “how courageous she was, how much we appreciate that.”
For Democrats, however, the endorsement was particularly damaging because Michigan is central to their hopes of reclaiming the Senate.
The open seat, being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), is among the most consequential contests in the country. Democrats have a narrow path to taking back the chamber, and Michigan is widely viewed as one of the most important pieces of that effort.
“Colleen and I are extremely disappointed in Haley’s decision,” Peters said. “Donald Trump’s corruption and chaos must be checked by a Democratic Senate majority to stop the economic pain crushing Michiganders. I endorsed Abdul, I’ve campaigned with Abdul, and tomorrow we will cast our ballot for Abdul and every Democrat on the ballot.”
El Sayed sought to brush aside the drama Sunday.
“At the end of the day, I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” he said in Detroit. “None of this matters.”
Instead, el Sayed said reporters were welcome to discuss housing costs, the economy, or anything unrelated to Stevens. They kept shouting questions at him about her.
While he didn’t want to talk about the endorsement, some of the Democratic Party’s most prominent progressive voices rallied to his defense.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who endorsed el Sayed and transferred $1 million to his campaign last month, criticized Stevens while appearing with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul at a stop in Queens.
Ocasio-Cortez said the stakes extended well beyond the personalities involved in the Michigan dispute.
“Women’s rights to our own bodies are on the line, the Constitution is on the line,” she said.
She described el Sayed as the candidate Democrats needed and argued that Stevens’s actions were an unnecessary distraction.
“Abdul el Sayed is very clearly the leader that we need in this moment, and I don’t think that it’s worth the distraction,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Mamdani also weighed in, framing the contest as a choice between a candidate fighting for working people and a Republican he accused of supporting further cuts to Medicare.
“What is so galling about this moment is we have to be clear about what the choice is,” Mamdani said.
“The choice is whether or not you want to fight for working people like what Dr. Abdul el Sayed has been on, or whether you want to provide additional oxygen and amplification to a candidacy of someone who wants to cut Medicare even further than it’s already been cut,” he added. “That’s what’s on the ballot.”
The public denunciations underscored how the Michigan contest has become a proxy fight over the future of the Democratic Party, with progressives and more traditional Democrats increasingly at odds over the party’s message, leadership, and electoral strategy.
DEMOCRATS SHRED HALEY STEVENS AFTER DEFECTION TO MIKE ROGERS: ‘DESPICABLE BETRAYAL’
For Stevens, the decision also represented a dramatic reversal.
After losing the Democratic primary, she had endorsed el Sayed, at least formally, and the two, literally, hugged out their differences. She had previously described Rogers as a “rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda.” Now, just 48 hours before voters head to the polls, she was campaigning alongside the very Republican she had once criticized.