Stevens’s fiance says he’ll vote for Rogers over El-Sayed

The fiance of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) said this week he would support GOP candidate Mike Rogers over Stevens’s former Democratic primary rival, Abdul El-Sayed, in Michigan’s Senate race.

In an interview published Wednesday, Jason Turkish accused the Democrat of using antisemitic language 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,” the Jewish Democratic donor told The Detroit News .

Stevens and Turkish announced their engagement in August, after El-Sayed narrowly defeated the House member in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. Stevens publicly backed El-Sayed after this loss, but she has not campaigned alongside him in several months.

Turkish told The Detroit News he has witnessed “an escalation in his [El-Sayed’s] rhetoric since the primary, and it makes folks unsafe.”

“Every time he talks about genocide, Jews get death threats,” he continued.

El-Sayed apologized in August for comments he made after an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue.

He has also faced scrutiny for his broader criticism of the Israeli government over its military operations in Gaza and distanced himself from Hasan Piker after the left-wing Twitch streamer, who joined El-Sayed on the campaign trail, made controversial comments about American Jews who support Israel.

In a statement to The Detroit News, the Democrat’s campaign spokesperson, Roxie Richner, said El-Sayed was “focused on building a broad coalition” in the state.

Turkish said he plans to attend a Rogers campaign event in Birmingham, Mich., on Wednesday evening hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition. The event, titled “Who Will Keep Us Safe? Rogers vs. El-Sayed,” will feature the GOP nominee and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R).

Turkish’s announcement follows a recent declaration from Stevens’s former campaign chair to Jewish Insider on Tuesday that he would similarly not support El-Sayed in the November race.

“I have lots of issues with Mike Rogers, and I’m not even willing to use words like ‘support,’” David Kramer told the outlet. “But I’ve made peace with voting for him because I do think that he at least does care about Jews being safe and participating in public life, and he seems to know the difference between an enemy of ours in Iran and an ally of ours [in Israel].”

The Hill has reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.