Stevens pulls out of election analysis event at DC university

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) will no longer appear as a panelist at a George Washington University postelection analysis event Thursday, just a few days after she controversially endorsed the Republican candidate in the Michigan Senate race.

Stevens was set to appear alongside CNN’s Manu Raju; Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.); Inside Elections editor Nathan Gonzales; Morris Katz, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign media strategist; and former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.), who now serves as executive director of the university’s graduate school of political management.

The panel, scheduled for Thursday evening, is described as “an engaging post-election conversation featuring leading political experts.”

Representatives for Stevens and the university did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The university had previously promoted the event with Stevens, even after she endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers (R) in the Michigan Senate race, a sharp reversal from her previous support for Abdul El-Sayed, her opponent in the Democratic primary.

Stevens’s support for Rogers was not enough to carry the former congressman over the finish line. He lost to El-Sayed by 7 points Tuesday, part of a very strong night for Democrats nationally.

Stevens was blasted by Democrats for endorsing Rogers, including the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, who said Stevens was no longer a member and would not be in the future.

Other Michigan Democrats who criticized Stevens’s decision included Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, the state’s two sitting senators, as well as Rep. Debbie Dingell.

Before the endorsement, Stevens was set to appear alongside the now senator-elect at a church in Detroit just before the election in what was planned to be a show of unity and their first public appearance together since the primary.

She instead chose to appear at a church alongside Rogers after days of criticizing El-Sayed for an ad run by an outside progressive group blaming Israel for high grocery prices in the U.S. El-Sayed said that his campaign had nothing to do with the ad.

The issue of Israel and its war in Gaza was a major one in the Democratic primary. El-Sayed supports cutting off U.S. aid to Israel, while Stevens was backed by millions in outside spending from pro-Israel lobbying groups.