Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, said he plans to vote for Republican nominee Mike Rogers in Michigan’s high-stakes Senate election.
In an interview published Wednesday, Mr. Turkish said he has become convinced that Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, to whom Ms. Stevens narrowly lost the Aug. 4 Democratic primary, is an antisemite.
“I’ve just seen an escalation in his rhetoric since the primary, and it makes folks unsafe. Every time he talks about genocide (in Gaza), Jews get death threats,” Mr. Turkish, a Jewish Democrat, told The Detroit News.
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“We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul,” he added.
Ms. Stevens endorsed Mr. El-Sayed after he won the primary and said late Wednesday that she still supports him, The Detroit News reported.
She has not campaigned with him since they appeared together at a Democratic unity breakfast shortly after the Aug. 4 primary.
Mr. Turkish explained that several of Mr. El-Sayed’s remarks pushed him to prefer Mr. Rogers.
Mr. El-Sayed has said Israel is not a U.S. ally and declined to say in an Oct. 8 debate whether Iran or Israel poses the bigger threat, saying both have proven dangerous. Mr. Rogers has maintained that Israel is a core U.S. ally and Iran is an enemy.
El-Sayed spokeswoman Roxie Richner said in a statement that the Democratic nominee “is focused on building a broad coalition to win Michigan and win back the Senate majority for Democrats. Our tent is big enough for all those who wish to join it.”
Mr. Turkish said his decision is not one he ever thought he would have to make, noting he did not cast a vote for Mr. Rogers when he ran for Senate in 2024.
“The fact that I may disagree with Mike Rogers on a whole host of policy issues, but I have absolutely no reason to believe that he isn’t a patriot, that he doesn’t love this country, and that he doesn’t care about keeping the Jewish people safe,” he sad. “And, you know, at the end of the day, that’s just got to be the math that matters more, at least this time.”
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