Two days before the US midterm elections, Michigan Democratic Representative Haley Stevens has endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the state’s open Senate seat, breaking with her party’s nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly beat her in the August primary.
Stevens announced the endorsement on Sunday after attending a Detroit church service with Rogers. “Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” she said in a video, according to the Associated Press via CBC. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers.”
“I’m not turning my back on Democrats. It is this one vote,” Stevens told reporters. Her top aide quit over the decision.
Tensions between the two Democrats had festered since the primary over Israel: Stevens is a staunch supporter, while El-Sayed is a fierce critic. Plans for Stevens to campaign with El-Sayed on Sunday unravelled after a public dispute.
Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel said the endorsement “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.” El-Sayed brushed it off: “At the end of the day I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens.”
The race for the seat held by retiring Democrat Gary Peters is tight and could help decide control of the Senate on Tuesday.
Sources: CBC News / AP, BBC News, The Guardian
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