Democrat Rep. Haley Stevens said her shock endorsement of the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan boiled down to a rejection of the anti-Israel and anti-Black rhetoric from Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign.
She said her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers was “a decision of conscience.”
Ms. Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary for the Senate to Mr. El-Sayed, endorsed Mr. Rogers with just two days until the high-stakes election.
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Those in the Democratic Party, including some of her friends, were quick to condemn her change of heart after she endorsed Mr. El-Sayed after the August primary and said Wednesday she still planned to vote for him.
After losing the primary, she said she “put the party first and hoped we could move forward together.”
“Instead, I was shut out,” she said in the statement, adding that she felt there was little effort to listen to her voters or “bridge the disagreements” the primary had exposed.
Mr. El-Sayed’s campaign ads are what struck a nerve.
One ad tied to a group supporting the Democratic nominee linked the cost of groceries to America’s support for Israel, Ms. Stevens said.
Another from Mr. El-Sayed’s campaign featured conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, “whose racist and anti-Black rhetoric has no place in a Democratic campaign,” she said.
“I heard directly from Black voters, Jewish voters, and others about how deeply these messages hurt. They deserved to be heard, not dismissed,” Ms. Stevens said.
She also criticized Mr. El-Sayed’s decision to campaign alongside liberal internet personality Hasan Piker.
While he condemned some of Mr. Piker’s remarks, Mr. El-Sayed’s decision to “embrace Piker in the first place raised serious questions about his judgment and his ability to bring people together,” she said.
Ms. Stevens said she asked Mr. El-Sayed to reject that rhetoric, to which he said he disagreed with the outside ad.
“I welcomed that,” she said. “But by then, I had also been told I was no longer welcome at his campaign events.”
Her Jewish fiance, Jason Turkish, announced his plans to vote for Mr. Rogers in an interview published Wednesday, citing his belief that Mr. El-Sayed is antisemitic.
“Some critics have also dragged my fiance into this, suggesting he or others must have made my decision for me,” Ms. Stevens said.
She called such ideas “sexism dressed up as political analysis.”
“My fiance has his own views. I have mine. I made this decision, and I am proud of it,” she said. “Do not question my independence simply because you disagree with my conclusion.”
She acknowledged that her decision “has angered many Democrats.”
“I understand why. But it was not impulsive, and it was not made for me by anyone else. It was a decision of conscience,” Ms. Stevens said.
What she said troubled her “almost as much as this experience is my party’s reaction.”
The response she received “reveals something deeply troubling about what is missing in today’s Democratic Party,” she said, emphasizing the importance of welcoming differing opinions.
“Endorsing a Republican is no small thing. Mike Rogers and I disagree on many things,” she said. “But Michigan has to elect a senator and there is no neutral choice that absolves me of responsibility. Once I concluded that Abdul El-Sayed is not fit to serve in the United States Senate, I had to confront who should.”
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