DETROIT | Rep. Haley Stevens, the Democrat dissed by candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s battleground Senate race, stunned her party on Sunday by endorsing Senate Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
In a social media post declaring her support for Mr. Rogers, Ms. Stevens cited “hate” emerging from Mr. El-Sayed’s campaign.
Ms. Haley was seen Sunday morning walking into Perfecting Church in Detroit with Mr. Rogers and giving him a hug.
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In a campaign video posted minutes later on social media, she endorsed the Republican nominee in his neck-and-neck race against Mr. El-Sayed, with whom she has been battling over his rhetoric and stances on Israel.
On Saturday, Mr. El-Sayed disinvited her to a Democratic event intended to show the party had unified around his campaign.
“As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign, and that I should stay away. And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” Ms. Stevens said in the video.
The stunning move by Ms. Haley to throw support behind the GOP candidate in the deadlocked race comes after Mr. El-Sayed told her to stay away from a Sunday campaign unity event.
Mr. El-Sayed said Saturday he didn’t want Ms. Stevens to attend because it would create “a distraction.”
Ms. Stevens has been critical of Mr. El-Sayed over his comments about Israel, which have caused divisions among Democratic voters and, in particular, Jewish voters. She said she initially planned to attend the unity event with Mr. El-Sayed, but that was before Mr. El-Sayed told her essentially to stay away.
Hours later, she appeared at the church doors with Mr. Rogers.
While Ms. Stevens and Mr. Rogers stood next to each other in a pew, six miles across town Mr. El-Sayed was set to appear with Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina at the “Souls to the Polls” event at the Northend Church of God. The event was part of a final push to rally Black voters, a crucial constituency in his race against Mr. Rogers.
On Saturday, Mr. Clyburn insisted the invite to Ms. Stevens to joint them there was still open, but Mr. El-Sayed wasn’t interested in a joint appearance with his former primary opponent.
“I’ve been very clear that I would rather not distract from the key issues of this campaign, and those are getting money out of politics, money in your pocket and Medicare for All,” Mr. El-Sayed told reporters Saturday after a campaign rally. “I don’t want a distraction.”
“It seems as though other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about,” he added. “So we’re really focused on talking about Trump’s agenda, why Mike Rogers seems to want to be a rubber stamp for it.”
Mr. El-Sayed’s remarks to reporters came as Ms. Stevens renewed her criticism of how Mr. El-Sayed handled an online ad from Rebellion PAC, a group led by liberal commentator Cenk Uygur.
The fight spilled back into public view Friday, when Ms. Stevens announced she would attend the Detroit church event with Mr. El-Sayed.
In that same statement, she argued that Mr. El-Sayed has not fully accounted for past comments about Israel and the war in Gaza, which they fought over in the Democratic primary.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated super PAC, the United Democracy Project, spent more than $30 million on behalf of Ms. Stevens in the primary.
In the Sunday social media post endorsing Mr. Rogers, Ms. Stevens condemned Mr. El-Sayed’s association with Hassan Piker, a far-left streamer who said he hates America and blames it for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Who we are as Michiganders is not hate, and that is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” Ms. Stevens said.
• Susan Ferrechio reported from Fort Worth, Texas.
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