Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers for Senate

Democratic Representative Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the U.S. Senate in Michigan on 1 November 2026, two days before voters cast ballots in one of the cycle’s most competitive races. Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to Abdul El-Sayed in August, posted a video on X after appearing with Rogers at Perfecting Church in Detroit. In the video she said El-Sayed had told her she was no longer welcome in his campaign and that she was therefore endorsing Rogers.

“I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. Who we are as Michiganders is not hate and is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” Stevens said. She added that she remained a proud Democrat and that 90 percent of her votes in the House would still be with her party. Rogers said he was honored by the endorsement and that the two had spoken by phone that morning.

Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel rejected the endorsement. He said Stevens had abandoned the issues she claimed to care about by campaigning with a candidate who supports a national abortion ban and has aligned with Donald Trump’s agenda. Other Democrats described the move as a betrayal that undercuts the party’s effort to hold the seat. The Senate majority is expected to be narrow; Michigan is one of a handful of states that could decide control.

The public break followed a weeks-long dispute. Stevens had called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside advertisement that linked U.S. military aid to Israel with rising grocery prices. She described the ad as antisemitic. El-Sayed said he disagreed with the ad’s content but did not produce it. The exchange escalated into mutual accusations. Stevens later told reporters that she had been booed off a stage after endorsing El-Sayed following the primary and that she had never felt welcome inside his campaign.

Stevens and Rogers appeared together at the Detroit church service on Sunday. Photographs from the event show the two seated near each other and later speaking to reporters outside. El-Sayed’s campaign had previously said Stevens was not invited to remaining party unity events. The endorsement arrives after months of Democratic efforts to present a united front against Rogers, a former House member.

Polls in the final weeks showed a close contest. Democrats entered the final stretch with a modest national lead in generic ballot surveys, but individual races remain tight. Stevens’s decision gives Rogers a public statement of support from a sitting Democratic member of Congress at the moment when early voting and final messaging are already under way. Both campaigns continued events on 2 November. Election Day is 3 November.

The Michigan seat is currently held by a Democrat. A Republican win would strengthen the party’s position in a chamber where margins have been thin. Stevens’s public split does not change the formal ballot, but it removes one Democratic voice that party leaders had counted on for the final 48 hours of the campaign.