Haley Stevens: Rogers endorsement ‘absolutely’ worth it despite backlash

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) has no regrets after endorsing the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers.

When asked by NewsNation , The Hill’s broadcasting partner, whether endorsing Rogers was worth the backlash, Stevens said it “absolutely” was.

“Absolutely,” Stevens said while headed to vote in Birmingham, Mich., alongside her mother. “Voting is always worth it, right?”

Despite her choice to endorse a Republican in the Senate race, the congresswoman said she still wants Democrats to have a majority in the House, with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as Speaker.

“You know what this is? It’s the people’s day,” Stevens added. “And I told this to our next Speaker of the House, Hakeem Jeffries. It’s majority-makers day.”

Stevens has been widely criticized by her own party for her endorsement of Rogers, which stemmed from a feud with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, whom Stevens lost to in the primary.

El-Sayed and Stevens were set to make a joint appearance at a Detroit church with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), but after Stevens asked El-Sayed to apologize for an ad run by an outside progressive group blaming Israel for rising gas prices, El-Sayed uninvited her from all of his campaign events.

The next day, Stevens appeared at church alongside Rogers, not El-Sayed.

Democrats slammed the move , which was a sharp reversal from Stevens’s initial public support for El-Sayed.

“Haley Stevens made a terrible decision, blindsided everyone and isolated herself from the Democratic caucus,” Jeffries told Politico on Monday.

Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said Stevens was no longer a member of the party and would not be going forward. Some of Stevens’s own staff resigned over her Rogers endorsement.

However, if Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers was meant to help him, it may not be enough to move the needle in the final stretch of the campaign.

While few polls of the race have been conducted since Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers, a New York Times/Siena University poll released over the weekend showed El-Sayed ahead by 11 points.

Decision Desk HQ, a partner of The Hill, gives El-Sayed a 75 percent chance to retain the seat for Democrats.

Most polls in Michigan close at 8 p.m. EST, but results come in slowly . An analysis from nonpartisan election news site Votebeat shows that Michigan did not reach more than 50 percent of its counted vote until after midnight in 2024 — more than four hours after polls closed.