Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has asked Rep. Haley Stevens to stay away from his final campaign events, culminating a bitter public dispute between the former primary rivals just days ahead of Tuesday’s election.
The two lawmakers had been scheduled to appear together Sunday morning at a church service in Detroit alongside House Democratic leadership member Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. However, an updated campaign advisory distributed Saturday listed only El-Sayed and Clyburn, omitting Stevens, NBC News reported.
“I don’t want any distractions,” El-Sayed told reporters after a Saturday campaign rally, according to The New York Times and The Guardian. “It seems as though other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about.”
A person familiar with the decision told NBC News that Stevens was disinvited to keep the focus away from internal conflicts in the race’s closing stretch. Politico first reported the disinvitation.
Clashing over political advertisements
The rift intensified Friday when Stevens released a statement calling on El-Sayed to publicly condemn a commercial produced by an outside progressive political action committee, Rebellion PAC. The ad features a couple at a supermarket fretting over grocery costs, with the woman asserting that money had to be set aside for “killing Palestinians” rather than buying eggs, directly linking domestic inflation to U.S. military aid to Israel.
Stevens called the message antisemitic and demanded an apology from El-Sayed, asserting that he had previously suggested Israel was the reason Michigan could not fund education, health care and child care. She also urged him to pull an advertisement of his own that featured commentator Tucker Carlson.
El-Sayed rejected Stevens’ demands Friday, asserting in a statement that she seemed “intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.” He pointed out that his grassroots campaign had overcome roughly $70 million in outside spending, including funds from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, when he narrowly defeated her by one percentage point in the August primary.
El-Sayed’s campaign stressed it had no affiliation with Rebellion PAC, and CNN reported Saturday that El-Sayed denounced the outside group’s commercial while speaking to reporters.
Party unease before Election Day
The feud has sparked deep anxiety among Democrats seeking to win the open seat and secure control of the U.S. Senate. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates Michigan’s contest against Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers as a toss-up.
Adding to intraparty strains, Stevens’ fiancé, attorney Jason Turkish, announced this week that he will vote for Rogers and has actively campaigned on the Republican candidate’s behalf, calling his decision a rebuke of El-Sayed. Turkish told Fox News on Saturday morning that Stevens only wanted to ensure that one group of people was not blamed for society’s economic challenges.
Despite the fallout, Stevens told The New York Times on Friday that she still intends to vote for El-Sayed on Tuesday, explaining in a CNN interview that she remains on the Democratic ticket’s side while urging the campaign to reject divisive rhetoric.
Other Michigan Democrats expressed sharp frustration over the dispute. “I have no idea what the hell Haley Stevens is doing,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow told CNN on Friday, emphasizing that voters are focused on the cost of living rather than campaign ads. Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell, who helped broker the planned Detroit event, told NBC News she had reached out to Stevens directly and sought to refocus attention on legislative issues in Washington.
With polling showing a narrow margin between El-Sayed and Rogers, it remains uncertain whether the public rift will damage Democratic unity as voters cast their ballots on Tuesday.
