Stevens Shares Devastating Election Eve Piece On Why She Disowned El-Sayed, Democratic Party: 'How Will He Represent an Entire State?'
Just one day after Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens stunned the political world by announcing she was revoking her endorsement of Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race, the lawmaker dropped a lengthy piece detailing her falling out with the Democratic nominee and her decision to endorse Republican nominee Mike Rogers instead.
Stevens, who narrowly lost the nomination to El-Sayed in August, had been in the candidate’s corner — if tepidly — since her defeat, and had publicly said she wanted El-Sayed “to win this race” as late as last week.
Her decision to throw her support behind Rogers on Sunday led to her excommunication from the state Democratic Party and condemnation from countless elected Democrats and left-leaning pundits.
“I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. I do not stand with Hasan Piker,” she said in a video, referencing the radical communist Twitch streamer who has become inextricably linked with El-Sayed’s run for Senate.
“Who we are as Michiganders is not hate,” Stevens added. “This is the conscience of the Senate right now.”
I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. https://t.co/pQgfSBuhOJ
— Haley Stevens (@HaleyforMI) November 1, 2026
However, explaining the decision in the wake of the unrelenting barrage of hate from her own party became difficult.
This included an awkward CNN interview with Anderson Cooper — followed by a denunciation from fellow Michigan Democrat Rep. Debbie Dingell — that the network’s resident conservative, Scott Jennings, called “one of the wildest things I’ve seen on set in 10 years out there.”
WATCH: Michigan Democrat Congresswoman Haley Stevens tells CNN why she endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for Senate over Democrat Abdul el-Sayed…
Cooper: “Your fellow Michigan congresswoman, Debbie Dingell, said that she talked to you at midnight last night, and that you told her you were not going to endorse Mike Rogers. If that is true, what changed between then and this morning?”
Stevens: “Well, look, this is just a weight off my shoulders, okay? Abdul has been getting angrier and angrier. I was trying to help, and I endorsed him. That ad was very painful. There are so many Democrats who want to vote for our Democratic nominee, and they’re just being told, ‘hey, this is a party you don’t belong in,’ or ‘this is a campaign you don’t belong in.’ And I’ve never cast a present vote in the Congress. I’m making a decision here. And, you know, that’s just where I landed on this. I woke up this morning clear-eyed, fresh, and, you know, focused on what was in my heart. And that’s that, you know, and there’s a lot of incredible things going on around Michigan. And frankly, this country, with these elections here.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 2, 2026
WATCH: Michigan Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Dingell MELTS DOWN over Haley Stevens doubling down seconds earlier on her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers over Abdul el-Sayed, seeming to imply she thinks Stevens is mentally unwell https://t.co/04ODtPXDRP
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 2, 2026
In the social media post explaining her thinking in endorsing Rogers, which dropped shortly after 9 p.m. Michigan time on election eve Monday, Stevens said the final straw was, in large part, El-Sayed’s reaction to her demand that he repudiate a PAC ad that blamed high prices and a lack of universal health care on U.S. support for Israel — although she said that El-Sayed and his campaign had done little to build bridges after an acrimonious primary process.
“After losing the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, I did what I believed was right. Despite deep disappointment — mine and that of the thousands of people who worked so hard for our campaign — I endorsed Abdul. I put the party first and hoped we could move forward together,” she wrote.
“Instead, I was shut out. The endorsement was welcomed; the people behind it seemed to be forgotten. There was little effort to listen to the voters who supported me or bridge the real disagreements our primary had exposed.”
She said she “was prepared to accept that… Then came the ads.”
“One, from a group supporting Abdul, tied the cost of groceries to America’s support for Israel. Another, from Abdul’s own campaign, featured Tucker Carlson, whose racist and anti-Black rhetoric has no place in a Democratic campaign. I heard directly from Black voters, Jewish voters, and others about how deeply these messages hurt. They deserved to be heard, not dismissed,” she wrote.
This el-Sayed ad is openly antisemitic. It’s is undisguised Jew hatred. What happened to @TheDemocrats? https://t.co/pNDbsUFZqf
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) October 27, 2026
#MichiganSenate
(Semafor) El-Sayed’s new ad pitch: Republicans love me
The new ad will get a six-figure buy, according to details shared first with Semafor. It features El-Sayed saying that “free speech is under attack, and we should be making America healthy again,” before pointing to a screen that plays laudatory words from Fox News host Jesse Watters (“he beat the machine”), Tucker Carlson (“I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint”), and others.
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) October 23, 2026
While the groceries ad was repurposed from “The Young Turks” host Cenk Uygur’s brief 2024 presidential campaign, the Tucker Carlson one was a new creation — and opened up fresh wounds among Jewish voters, considering Carlson’s turn toward anti-Israel conspiracy theories of late.
In addition, she emphasized the role Piker played in the campaign, despite El-Sayed’s public attempts to play down Piker’s involvement.
“Abdul chose to campaign alongside Hasan Piker, whose rhetoric about Jewish Americans has been deeply disturbing. He took Piker to college campuses to tell our youth that Iran is not our enemy. Just days ago, Piker compared efforts to win over Jewish voters in West Bloomfield to canvassing a KKK neighborhood. Abdul condemned those remarks, but his decision to embrace Piker in the first place raised serious questions about his judgment and his ability to bring people together,” she wrote.
Signing you in…
Please keep this page open. The results will appear here.
Check your email to count your vote
We sent a confirmation link to .
Click Confirm Your Vote in that email to count your vote and unlock the results.
Your vote has not been counted yet. If the email hasn't arrived, check your spam or junk folder.
“I asked Abdul to reject that rhetoric clearly. I wasn’t asking him to change his platform. I was offering him an opportunity to reassure people, reject division, and demonstrate the leadership required of a United States Senator.”
While El-Sayed “ultimately said he disagreed with the outside ad,” Stevens wrote, “by then, I had also been told I was no longer welcome at his campaign events.”
“That experience raised a bigger question. If a candidate cannot make room for people who supported his primary opponent, how will he represent an entire state filled with people who disagree with him?” Stevens wrote.
https://t.co/7tDAMPJoIy
— Haley Stevens (@HaleyforMI) November 3, 2026
She added that the response to her endorsement had been just as disillusioning as El-Sayed’s behavior.
“We cannot preach inclusion while punishing dissent. We cannot promise to heal a divided country if we cannot tolerate disagreement among ourselves. And we cannot build a lasting majority by making Americans feel their concerns are unwelcome,” she said.
“Loyalty to a party should never require abandoning your values or judgment.”
El-Sayed currently leads by 5.3 points in the RealClearPolitics polling aggregate, 50.3 percent to 45.0 percent for Rogers. However, every poll in the aggregate was taken before Stevens’ Sunday endorsement of Rogers.
If the Republican candidate wins, it would be a rare midterm flip for a party in power. The seat is currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
