Haley Stevens triples down on Rogers endorsement after El-Sayed’s victory

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) on Wednesday tripled down on her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed took victory after a bitter midterm battle on the campaign trail.

Rogers lost to El-Sayed , receiving 45.48 percent of the vote to El-Sayed’s 52.52 percent, according to The Hill’s election partner Decision Desk HQ as of 1:15 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

Stevens began a lengthy post on the social platform X stating that her beliefs were “never measured by who would win at the ballot box” and that she recognized that her “decision has consequences.”

“All important decisions do,” she continued. “I don’t regret it, but I am truly sorry that it upset some of my colleagues and people I care about personally.”

Stevens addressed her “unwavering” support for Israel — a point of contention during her failed primary fight against El-Sayed — and said she backed a U.S. ally “that is imperfect and in need of some political reforms of its own.”

“As co-chair of the House caucus on antisemitism, endorsing a man who stood with Hasan Piker and his antisemitic bile was always a tough fit for me,” she said, referring to the left-wing political commentator and Twitch streamer. “But I’ve been taught my whole political life that at the end of an election, you come together and support the winner, and I hoped I could help him moderate. Instead, he got worse.”

“I regret my original endorsement, because I could have spared the country and my family from these past few days and from attempts to find a cause for an action that is consistent with a lifetime of my beliefs,” she said. “The endorsement was the outlier act. Rescinding it was not.”

The Michigan Democrat noted that those “colleagues who know me best understood that this was never easy for me,” calling her original endorsement for El-Sayed “highly unusual.” She said that as a “student of history,” she chose to stick with what she believed “mattered more.”

“What mattered more was truth over political convenience,” Stevens wrote. “Nothing about this experience has been easy on me or those closest to me. I was elected to do a job, and I am going to finish it. I was elected as a Democrat, and I still believe our party should be big enough for more than one viewpoint. I will keep fighting antisemitism wherever it shows up, in either party, for as long as I am in public life.”

The post concluded with a congratulations “to everyone who won” and a call to continue talks on “how we build tolerance from viewpoints and embrace one another, especially when we disagree.”

Stevens stunned Democratic colleagues with her endorsement of Rogers just two days before the midterms, with members of her staff resigning shortly after .

She defended her decision Sunday night in a tense interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, which fellow Democratic Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell called “one of the most painful interviews I’ve ever watched.” Stevens defended her pick once again on Tuesday, telling The Hill’s broadcast partner NewsNation that it was “absolutely” worth it.