Abdul El-Sayed Defeats Mike Rogers Days After Haley Stevens Endorsed GOP Nominee

Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed fended off an establishment Democrat’s endorsement against him Tuesday by defeating former Republican Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers on Election Day, according to The Associated Press.

El-Sayed and Rogers ran neck-and-neck in the race to fill the seat of Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring in January. Democratic Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Rogers two days before the election, stating in a Sunday X post that she did not belong in El-Sayed’s campaign.

“As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said. “And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses.”

Stevens demanded that El-Sayed publicly disavow an ad created by the Rebellion PAC, which opposed sending taxpayer dollars to Israel. Stevens accused the ad of being antisemitic, despite the ad referencing the state of Israel and not Jewish people more generally. She also demanded that El-Sayed take down an ad from his campaign featuring podcast host Tucker Carlson.

El-Sayed refused Stevens’ demands, saying she was “relitigating” the primary season. He said Saturday that he did not want Stevens to join him at a campaign event held two days before the election, saying he wanted “no distractions.”

“Now the stakes are even higher — defeating Trump’s hand-picked candidate, taking back the Senate, and defending our democracy,” El-Sayed’s campaign said in response to Stevens. “That should be the priority for all of us right now. So while Congresswoman Stevens seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago, let’s all focus on the task at hand.”

Stevens angered Democrats when she appeared at a campaign church event in Detroit with Rogers and made her endorsement. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called her endorsement a “despicable betrayal.”

“This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens,” Schumer said. “Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”

Rogers celebrated Stevens’ endorsement, arguing that she showed courage by putting “Michigan First.”