El-Sayed brushes off late Stevens endorsement of Rogers

Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed brushed off his former rival Haley Stevens’s surprising and late endorsement of GOP nominee Mike Rogers, saying on Sunday it didn’t matter and that he was focused on issues in his state.

“At the end of the day, I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” El-Sayed told reporters, flanked by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), on Sunday in Detroit.

“This is a state of 10 million people who deserve a lot better from the government. I’m a lot more focused on the 9,999,998 that are not the ones you guys are talking about,” he said.

Rogers and El-Sayed are locked in a tight battle for retiring Sen. Gary Peters’s (D-Mich.) seat, with a Decision Desk HQ polling average showing El-Sayed with a nearly 5-point lead.

Stevens shocked her party earlier on Sunday by reversing her endorsement of El-Sayed and instead backing the Michigan Senate GOP nominee and appearing alongside Rogers at a church event.

She pointed to El-Sayed’s decision to campaign earlier on with controversial far-left Twitch stream Hasan Piker and for disinviting her from a campaign event that was scheduled on Sunday.

Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) had brokered an event that sought to include both Stevens and El-Sayed as tensions between the two’s stances on support of Israel simmered in recent days.

Stevens had pushed for El-Sayed to disavow an ad created by a group supporting the progressive that blamed high grocery prices on Israel and the war in Gaza. El-Sayed told MS NOW that his campaign was not behind the ad and that “I do not agree with the contents of that ad.”

Stevens had also criticized him for struggling to answer a recent debate question on whether Iran or Israel posed a bigger threat to the U.S.

A source familiar confirmed to NewsNation , The Hill’s sister network, on Saturday that El-Sayed disinvited her from the planned Sunday event and did not want her near his other campaign events.

“…Abdul was very clear. He said, ‘Don’t come,’” Stevens told reporters on Sunday next to Rogers. “I endorsed him. I meant it when I endorsed him. I gave him a big hug.”

Several aides from her official office, including her chief of staff, announced their resignations shortly after the move. Some of her former Senate campaign staff also took to social media to criticize her move.

Arik Wolk, who served as a spokesman for her Senate bid, called the developments on X “ridiculous and pathetic.”

Stevens’s late endorsement also roiled national and Michigan Democrats , who slammed her decision while also making it clear they supported El-Sayed in the general election on Tuesday.

“The stakes of this election could not be higher: Mike Rogers is a rubber stamp for Donald Trump, and together they plan to continue sowing chaos and making life unaffordable for families while prioritizing their billionaire donors at the expense of Michigan families,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), chair of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement.

“We stand firmly behind Abdul El-Sayed, who is a fighter for Michiganders and will work tirelessly to be the champion they need in the Senate, and we reject any efforts to divide Democrats ahead of Tuesday’s crucial election,” she added.