SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - The bad blood between Democrats Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens has dominated the storyline of this state's Senate race in the final days before the election. It's a continuation of one of the nation's most divisive 2026 primaries. On Sunday, Stevens jolted the race by crossing party lines to endorse Republican Mike Rogers over El-Sayed for the seat.
During the primary-which El-Sayed won narrowly-Stevens repeatedly suggested El-Sayed was too far left to win a general election and that Democrats would be taking a huge risk if they nominated him. She also presented herself as a "workhorse," while suggesting El-Sayed was a showhorse more interested in social media and podcasting than getting things done.
El-Sayed, for his part, repeatedly suggested Stevens was a tool of special interests and that heavy ad spending on her behalf was a sign of that. "If you need a $60 million crutch, you probably can't be elected on your own terms," he said in one debate.
Lingering bad feelings had mostly stayed below the radar until last week, when Stevens started making demands of El-Sayed ahead of an event Sunday afternoon that was supposed to show unity within the party.
She asked El-Sayed to apologize for comments he had made about Israel and called on him to disavow what she describes as an antisemitic ad from an outside group. The congresswoman has also said he should take down one of his own campaign ads that quotes conservative commentator Tucker Carlson saying he wouldn't vote for the Republican in the race, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
While Stevens is not Jewish, she has long been a pro-Israel Democrat and represents a district that includes a large proportion of the state's Jews. Disagreements over U.S. policy toward Israel were one of the most intense topics of the primary, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's main super PAC spent heavily to try to help Stevens win.