Updated November 2, 2026, 10:03 p.m. ET
HUNTINGTON WOODS — On the eve of the Nov. 3 election, Democrat Haley Stevens said she felt like she was living a lie after supporting her former primary rival Abdul El-Sayed, leading her to make the shocking decision to switch her support from El-Sayed to Republican Mike Rogers two days before the Michigan race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate.
“By the time I got to the place where I was ready to do it, I would have lied to a lot of people and the community. … There was no way to go around the place. Why? Because he said you weren’t welcome,” Stevens told the Detroit News on Monday, Nov. 2, referring to El-Sayed’s message that she was not welcome campaigning with him.
“I think this behavior and this level of anger and intransigence – it’s not acceptable or appropriate for a senator. And that’s it.”
The four-term congresswoman from Birmingham spoke exclusively to The News from the dining room table of her fiancé’s Huntington Woods home.
In deciding to support Rogers, Stevens said she was speaking on behalf of people angered by El-Sayed’s refusal to respond to her demand last week to disavow an outside group’s ad that blamed high food prices on U.S. foreign aid to Israel.
She said the spot was anti-Semitic. El-Sayed said Saturday that he disagreed with its content.
“Call it a defection. Look, I’m just speaking for the people, okay? I don’t want to own everything a senator does,” Stevens said. “I asked him to condemn disgusting anti-Semitism… very politely, very respectfully. And it made him so angry that we couldn’t all come together like a community does. And that was it.”
In the 24 hours since her surprise endorsement, Stevens said she’s heard a range of reactions, from “legitimate” disappointment and frustration from her Democratic colleagues and supporters to heartfelt gratitude, sharing a scroll on her smartphone that she said was filled with text messages of support.
Stevens received a standing ovation and was thanked Sunday evening, Nov. 1, in Detroit at Yeshivath Beth Yehudah’s annual dinner, an event that benefits a Jewish school, she said. “There were people thanking me profusely,” Stevens said of the event, where she sat on the stage.
The debate over U.S. aid to Israel was at the heart of the primary fight between pro-Israel Stevens and El-Sayed, who called Israel a rogue state and its actions in Gaza a “genocide.” Those positions and his affiliation with left-wing activist Hasan Piker, who said “America deserved the 9/11 attacks,” are why Stevens and other Michigan Democrats have criticized El-Sayed’s candidacy.
Stevens said she understands that her decision to side with Rogers has hurt her staff, her former campaign supporters and her colleagues in the House of Representatives, some of whom have called for her expulsion from the Democratic caucus. The News had already reported the mass resignations of at least eight of his official collaborators on November 1, including his longtime chief of staff, Justin German.
“They are great people, I love them very much and I understand that my action disappointed them,” Stevens said.
“I will definitely, you know, live with and understand that feeling. But the most important thing, as trite as it sounds, is that I can just live with myself and where my truth is. And I will tell you that was a relief for me personally. Just me. Just me and who I am.”
El-Sayed dismissed his former rival’s support for Rogers, saying “none of that matters.”
“This is a state of 10 million people that deserves much better from its government,” El-Sayed told reporters in Detroit.
“I’m much more focused on the 9,999,998 that aren’t the ones you’re talking about,” he added, referring to Stevens.
El-Sayed’s campaign said he raised $2.4 million on Sunday, November 1, in the hours after Stevens endorsed Rogers.
After his rally at Eastern Michigan University on November 2, El-Sayed was asked about his supporters being “nervous about what Haley Stevens did.” The former public health official said he doesn’t think much of his former opponent.
“So if we’re nervous about the future, go vote, right? There’s only one thing we can do to control the outcome,” El-Sayed said.
When asked if he had a message for Haley Stevens, El-Sayed shook his head and replied “no.”
“He doesn’t need to think about me. That’s great,” Stevens said. “I don’t need anyone thinking about me. I’m sorry they are, in some ways.”
Asked about the many policy differences she and Rogers disagree with, from holding immigration officials accountable to the SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, Stevens said, “One party is not going to get us out of this mess.”
“I’m worried about my community right now. What’s happening right now is not normal for me,” Stevens said.
Democrats unaffiliated with Rogers’ campaign invited her to the church service in Detroit, where she appeared with Rogers on Nov. 1, she said. Stevens would not identify who the Democrats were. She hugged the former Republican congressman as she entered the church and publicly supported Rogers shortly after the service during a news conference.
Stevens said Rogers didn’t promise him anything in exchange for his endorsement.
The reaction from leading Democrats condemning Stevens was fierce and swift, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who called the congresswoman’s decision a “despicable betrayal.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Stevens isolated herself from the Democratic caucus with her “terrible decision.”
Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel said Stevens was “not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party and will not be in the future.”
“And how long is Curtis Hertel going to be chairman of the party? Look, he has no right to say that,” Stevens said.
“I’m a Democrat and no one but me can declare that. That’s what we’re talking about: a big tent. People are rightly mad. I understand that. There’s a lot of respect for the party and its orchestration and the way it moves forward.”
She rejected suggestions from some friends and colleagues, including former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, that she was influenced in her support for Rogers by her fiancé, Jason Turkish, a Jewish Democrat who said last week he would vote for Rogers.
“This is unfortunately insulting and blatantly untrue. I am and always have been my own woman,” Stevens said.
“It was a decision that I made on my own, very personally and painfully. It was a painful decision.”
As for other colleagues who publicly thought Stevens was sick, emotionally unstable or not acting like herself, she said plainly: “I’m fine.”
“I’m more than that,” Stevens said. “I am at peace.”
mburke@detroitnews.com
Staff writer Grant Schwab contributed.
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