Abdul El-Sayed’s decision to tell Haley Stevens to stay away from his campaign events has fractured a late effort to unite Michigan Democrats before Tuesday’s election, as he holds a narrow lead over Republican Mike Rogers in public polls.
The break followed Stevens’s Friday demand that El-Sayed apologise for comments linking Israel to Michigan’s budget pressures, after a Rebellion PAC advertisement tied high food prices to US military support for Israel. El-Sayed said Stevens was trying to reopen their primary contest and urged her to concentrate on defeating Rogers.
El-Sayed defeated Stevens by 1% in the Democratic primary on 4 August.
The pair last appeared together on 6 August, two days after the primary. They then spent months apart during the general election campaign, even as El-Sayed faced Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate.
Late in October, their campaigns agreed that Stevens and El-Sayed would join South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn at a Detroit church on Sunday. Clyburn had supported Stevens in the primary, and the event was intended as a get-out-the-vote appearance two days before the election.
Then came the grocery-store advertisement. It depicted a Michigan couple blaming high food prices on US military support for Israel for “killing Palestinians.”
Stevens answered with a lengthy social-media statement on Friday. She demanded that El-Sayed apologise for saying “Israel is the reason Michigan cannot afford schools, health care, and child care.”
“Abdul promises to get money out of politics. He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford,” Stevens wrote.
El-Sayed said Stevens “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.” He said she should instead focus on Rogers, whom he called “Trump’s hand-picked candidate.”
His campaign told The New York Times on Monday that it was “not affiliated in any way” with Rebellion PAC, which made the advertisement.
Stevens had also called on El-Sayed to remove a campaign advertisement featuring Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News anchor. In a Friday statement, El-Sayed criticised “$70M in outside spending from big corporations and AIPAC on behalf of Congresswoman Stevens.”
After the latest exchange, El-Sayed’s campaign told Stevens to stay away from future campaign events. Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, relayed the request to Fox News.
Stevens nevertheless reiterated her support for El-Sayed in a CNN interview in the final week before the election, while calling on him to repair relations with Jewish and Black voters.
Rogers has sought support from Jewish Democratic voters. He appeared on Wednesday with Republican Senator Ted Cruz at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Birmingham, Michigan.
On X, Rogers praised Stevens as “a courageous leader who deserves the respect of every Michigan voter” and said she was “absolutely right to call” for El-Sayed to denounce the advertisement.
Michigan early voting began 24 October, and the general election is on Tuesday.
Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield said the contest had become more heated as voting approached. “We are one week away from the election, and it feels like the temperature has turned way up. Instead of things getting better over the last seven weeks, they’ve actually gotten worse.”
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