El-Sayed, Michigan Democrats push to galvanize voters after stunning Senate race defection

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and fellow Michigan Democrats scrambled on Monday to refocus attention on turning out voters for Election Day after his former primary rival stunned the party by endorsing the Republican candidate in one of the country’s most closely watched races.

The final push before Tuesday's midterms followed a dramatic Sunday, when Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers after appearing alongside him at church. It prompted her expulsion from the state Democratic Party and drew fierce condemnation from party leaders, including longtime allies.

Speaking Monday morning at Eastern Michigan University, El-Sayed made no mention of the controversy, instead emphasizing that his campaign was about voters, not himself. Asked afterward what he would tell supporters nervous about the impact of Stevens’ endorsement on the race, El-Sayed had a simple message: “Go vote.”

“There’s only one thing we can do to control the outcome,” he added. He was joined at Monday's rally by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and his grandparents, who greeted the crowd.

With over 2.3 million Michigan voters having already cast their ballots as of Monday, the question is whether the extraordinary political drama will matter to those who have yet to vote. Nearly 4.5 million people voted in the 2022 midterms. The state’s regular early in-person voting period ended Sunday, with polls reopening statewide Tuesday.

“Well, around half of people have already voted,” said Lori Goldman, a longtime Democratic organizer in Oakland County, a party stronghold near Detroit. “But for the rest, it could matter a hell of a lot.”

For Rogers and Republicans, the endorsement represented a remarkable political coup . Rogers personally reached out to Stevens over the weekend, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Even Rogers’ own staff was unaware of the planned joint appearance at Perfecting Church until Sunday morning and learned of Stevens’ endorsement only when it was posted online, the person said. The campaign was touting the endorsement to voters Monday.

For Democrats, the defection exposed lingering divisions over El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated Stevens in an expensive and bruising primary marked by disagreements over Israel and the war in Gaza. Party leaders had spent the final weeks of the campaign trying to shore up support for El-Sayed, particularly among Jewish and Black voters who had strongly backed Stevens.

Those leaders — including some who have remained critical of their nominee — rebuked Stevens and said it would only energize their base. El-Sayed reported raising $2.4 million on Sunday, his largest fundraising day of the campaign, while the state party said it saw a surge of people volunteering to knock on doors.

“I don’t think this changes the election results other than it galvanizes Democrats,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel.

Michigan Democrats for months were divided on which candidate to support in the August primary, when El-Sayed defeated Stevens by around 14,000 votes.

But in the weeks since, many have rallied around El-Sayed as the party’s nominee, and even those who haven’t expressed stunned anger at Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers.

Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist who supported Stevens and has been so critical of El-Sayed that he plans to leave the Senate race blank, said the congresswoman’s endorsement had nothing to do with their policy differences: “If it did, she would have done it a month ago.”

“This is colossally stupid. But it has zero to do with any substance. It has to do with personal animosity between these two,” Hemond said.

Goldman, who supported Stevens in her first congressional campaign and has known her for a decade, said she was shocked by the reversal.

“I think she’s thrown away a career that had import,” Goldman said. “I’m stunned. I’m stunned. And I feel a little heartbroken for her.”

Debbie Rosenman, who leads two Democratic organizations in southeast Michigan, an area Stevens has partially represented in Congress for years, said the endorsement had left local Democrats feeling betrayed.

“What I am hearing is fury,” Rosenman said. “They are just infuriated with her and feel betrayed by her.”

Rosenman said the anger had also translated into increased volunteer activity, with people showing up at campaign offices without having signed up in advance. So many volunteers were seeking canvassing assignments, she said, that organizers had to move campaign literature between locations to meet demand.

Soon after her primary loss, Stevens endorsed El-Sayed, saying that she would do “whatever he wants me to do” on the campaign trail. But she remained absent from the campaign trail for months, something that became increasingly noticeable as Jewish leaders criticized El-Sayed.

El-Sayed has been a vocal critic of Israel, and has been criticized for a statement in which he said “hurt people hurt people" after a synagogue attack and for appearing with controversial streamer Hasan Piker on the campaign trail.

Those controversies largely preceded Stevens’ endorsement of El-Sayed. He has since apologized for his comments following the synagogue attack and has not appeared with Piker again. But Stevens and some Jewish leaders have maintained that he has not done enough to address their concerns. Her fiancé, Jason Turkish, said last week that he would vote for Rogers.

The tensions came to a head over a planned Sunday unity event featuring Stevens and El-Sayed. After their public sparring over Israel and an outside group’s campaign advertisement threatened to overshadow the gathering, Rep. Debbie Dingell, a senior Michigan Democratic figure close to Stevens, said she uninvited the congresswoman because the dispute had become “distracting.”

Dingell and other Democrats said Stevens had repeatedly reassured them throughout the week that the dispute would not cause her to withdraw her support for El-Sayed.

Few anticipated what would happen Sunday morning, when Stevens walked into a Detroit church alongside Rogers and stood with him in the pews. She announced her endorsement of the Republican shortly afterward.

“This is about Abdul getting angrier and angrier and saying, ‘I don’t want these people in my campaign,’” Stevens said later in a CNN interview. “This is a weight off my shoulders. I’m being straight with everybody.”

Dingell, visibly shaken during a CNN interview afterward, called Stevens’ remarks “one of the most painful interviews I have watched” and said she had been worried about the congresswoman all week.

Cappelletti reported from Washington.