Who is Jason Turkish, Haley Stevens’s El-Sayed-bashing fiancé?

Jason Turkish, the fiancé of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), has divided Michigan Democrats after the pair endorsed Republican candidate Mike Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s Senate race.

Turkish’s pledge to vote for Rogers followed attacks against El-Sayed for using “antisemitic language” while on the campaign trail. “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,” Turkish, who is Jewish, told The Detroit News last week.

On another occasion, Turkish told Jewish Insider that El-Sayed’s refusal to answer a question regarding whether Israel or Iran was a bigger threat to the U.S. was “100 percent disqualifying to be a United States senator.”

Turkish also pledged to attend a Rogers campaign event last week hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition. The event — titled “Who Will Keep Us Safe? Rogers vs. El-Sayed” — featured the GOP nominee and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R).

Turkish is a longtime donor based in Michigan who has donated to both Democratic and GOP candidates in the past. He made multiple contributions early on to Stevens’s House campaign before she announced her Senate bid, according to Open Secrets.

According to the website, he also recently donated to Granite Values PAC , a group sponsored by Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan (N.H.), and Dirigo PAC , a group sponsored by Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), per Federal Election Commission filings.

He previously attended the University of Michigan from 2005 to 2007 alongside El-Sayed, who delivered the commencement speech the year he and Turkish graduated.

Turkish and Stevens announced their engagement following the congresswoman’s loss to El-Sayed in August. Since then, Stevens has slammed El-Sayed for a super PAC ad tying rising grocery prices to U.S. military aid to Israel.

The pair separately called on the Democratic nominee to condemn the ad, with Turkish telling reporters in late October that El-Sayed “makes my community less safe.”

El-Sayed told The Washington Post that the ad was not affiliated with his campaign, as it was run by Rebellion PAC, a political action committee supporting his Senate bid. El-Sayed said it does not speak for him, but he has not outright condemned the ad.

Turkish — who has been legally blind since birth — currently works as a managing partner of Nyman Turkish PC, a law firm focusing on accessibility issues and civil rights cases, per his LinkedIn . His work includes removing the LSAT’s logic games section and establishing an agreement for blind Michigan voters to obtain absentee ballots, according to his website .

The Michigan Supreme Court appointed Turkish to the state’s Attorney Discipline Board until September 2027.