Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens endorses Republican rival Mike Rogers two days before Senate vote

Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who lost her party's U.S. Senate primary in August, endorsed Republican nominee Mike Rogers on Sunday, two days before Michigan voters decide one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, according to CNBC. Stevens announced the move in a video posted to X after she and Rogers attended services together at Perfecting Church in Detroit.

"And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today," Stevens said in the video. She said she had been told she was not welcome at events held by Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee who defeated her in the Aug. 4 primary. "I don't belong in Abdul's campaign," she said. "I do not stand with Hasan Piker," a left-wing commentator who has campaigned with El-Sayed. Stevens added, "I'm sorry people are upset. I understand that."

A race rated a true toss-up

The Michigan contest is one of only two Senate races the Cook Political Report currently rates as a pure toss-up nationally, in a chamber Republicans control by a narrow margin. The seat is open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters chose not to seek re-election. Rogers, a former House member and ex-FBI agent, lost a 2024 Senate bid to Democrat Elissa Slotkin by roughly 19,000 votes and is making a second attempt this cycle with President Donald Trump's endorsement. Voting across Michigan and the rest of the country concludes Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Stevens, who represents Michigan's 11th District and has served in the House since 2019, finished behind El-Sayed in a three-way Democratic primary that also included state Sen. Mallory McMorrow. She had said as recently as late October that she still intended to support El-Sayed and expected him to "denounce" an ad from Rebellion PAC, an outside group, that tied high U.S. grocery prices to American aid to Israel. Stevens, a prominent supporter of Israel in Congress, had called the ad "fearmongering" and "wrong." Her fiancé, Jason Turkish, announced weeks earlier that he would vote for Rogers over the same dispute, and David Kramer, who had chaired Stevens' own Senate campaign, made a similar statement.

Staff resignations and swift backlash

The endorsement set off an immediate split inside Stevens' congressional office. Justin German, her chief of staff for eight years, resigned along with other staffers, saying they would instead support El-Sayed. El-Sayed, appearing outside a different Detroit-area church alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, responded dismissively: "I actually don't think about Haley Stevens," he told reporters, turning the conversation to the cost of living.

"Mike Rogers is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, calling Stevens' endorsement "a despicable betrayal."

Michigan's two sitting Democratic senators distanced themselves from Stevens as well. Sen. Elissa Slotkin said anyone who makes an election "this important about themselves" should reconsider their service in public office, while Sen. Gary Peters also disavowed the move. Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said Stevens "is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party" and would not be one going forward.

Trump embraces the defection

President Trump praised Stevens on Truth Social, calling her "a Highly Respected Democrat" with "huge" support and saying she commanded "virtually unparalleled" respect among Michigan's Black and Jewish voters. He said he "would love" to see her join the Republican Party and credited her with saying "what few people are willing to say." Rogers' campaign welcomed the endorsement; a spokesperson said the candidate "welcomes her" support.

The episode has reopened a divide inside Michigan's Democratic Party over Israel and antisemitism that first surfaced during the primary, when Stevens accused El-Sayed of trafficking in antisemitic rhetoric days before the August vote, a charge his campaign rejected. It also lands in a race both parties see as central to control of the Senate, where a handful of seats are expected to decide the majority.

What happens next

Michigan's polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. El-Sayed's campaign has continued to campaign with national Democratic figures through the final weekend, while Rogers has pointed to Stevens' endorsement as evidence of Democratic disarray. Whether the defection of a sitting Democratic member of Congress moves meaningful numbers of voters in the race's closing hours is untested; Michigan has no history of a recent primary loser crossing over to back the opposing party's general-election nominee in a marquee statewide race, according to live election updates from NBC News. Both campaigns are expected to make closing appeals through Monday night, with results likely to be reported Tuesday evening after polls close.