Why did Democrat Haley Stevens just endorse a Republican for US Senate?

A Democratic congresswoman has thrown her support behind a Republican in one of the most closely watched races of the US midterm elections, just two days before voters head to the polls.

Haley Stevens, who lost Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary in August, announced on Sunday that she was endorsing Republican Mike Rogers over her own party’s nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.
The decision follows weeks of tension between the two Democrats over Israel and has provoked a backlash within the party as it fights to win control of Congress and limit President Donald Trump’s power.

Here’s what we know.

Who is Haley Stevens?
Stevens is a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan who narrowly lost the party’s Senate primary to El-Sayed, a former public health official who could become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate.

Despite a bitter primary battle, Stevens promised to support El-Sayed and said as recently as Wednesday that she still wanted him to win.
That was despite her fiance, Jason Turkish, a Jewish Democrat and civil rights lawyer, announcing that he would vote for Rogers. Turkish – who, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports, has donated nearly $250,000 to both Democrats and Republicans during this midterm cycle – accused El-Sayed of anti-Semitism, saying his rhetoric about Israel and its war in Gaza had made Jewish voters feel unsafe.
Why did Stevens endorse Republican Mike Rogers?
The decision followed weeks of tension over Israel that has become increasingly public in the final days of the campaign.

Stevens is a strong supporter of Israel, while El-Sayed has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and US military aid to the country.

Their differences were also a major issue during the Democratic primary, when a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent tens of millions of dollars to back Stevens.

But the latest dispute began last week, when an independent group backing El-Sayed, Rebellion PAC, released an advertisement linking US military aid to Israel to Americans’ struggles with the cost of living.

The advertisement shows a couple shopping for groceries who decide to put back a carton of eggs because they need to save that money for “killing Palestinians”.

Stevens called the advertisement anti-Semitic and demanded that El-Sayed condemn it. She also accused him of making similar arguments as in the ad by suggesting that money spent on Israel could instead go towards schools, healthcare and childcare.
El-Sayed said the advertisement was not produced by his campaign and that he disagreed with its message, adding that Stevens was trying to re-litigate their primary rather than focusing on defeating Rogers.

The tensions came to a head on Sunday, when Stevens and El-Sayed were supposed to attend a church service together in a show of Democratic unity, but Stevens was uninvited.

“Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” she said in a video on X, announcing she was going to endorse Rogers.

“And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”

But Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who helped organise the event, said she was the one who asked Stevens not to attend, telling The Associated Press news agency that “it had become way too distracting”.

Stevens, during a CNN appearance on Sunday, was pressed on why she changed course after previously endorsing El-Sayed.

“This is about Abdul getting angrier and angrier”, Stevens said about her former primary opponent, who she claimed had made “some” anti-Semitic actions during his campaign. “I’m trying to help the Democratic Party”.