Two days before the midterm elections, Democratic Representative Haley Stevens stunned her own party on Sunday, November 1, 2026, by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers for the United States Senate in Michigan, turning one of the country's tightest Senate races upside down in its final hours.
Stevens appeared alongside Rogers at a service at Perfecting Church in Detroit on Sunday morning and then announced her decision in a video posted on social media. "Our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away. And he's right," Stevens said. "And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don't belong in Abdul's campaign."
A primary defeat that never healed
Stevens lost the Democratic primary in August to Abdul El-Sayed, the party's current Senate nominee, by a narrow margin after a contentious campaign. She had initially backed El-Sayed after her defeat, but the relationship broke down in the final week. Stevens had been expected to attend a joint church event on Sunday with El-Sayed and Democratic Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina. Instead, El-Sayed's campaign asked her not to attend, after Stevens released an extensive statement on October 30 calling on El-Sayed to condemn an advertisement from an outside political action committee.
In her video, Stevens also said she does not stand with Hasan Piker, the Twitch streamer who has campaigned with El-Sayed, a point that became a flashpoint between the two camps. Stevens stressed that she remains, in her own words, "a very proud Democrat," and said her endorsement was about Michigan and a single Senate vote, not a break with her party.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer decried the move in a statement, saying Senate Democrats were united behind El-Sayed. Stevens' own office appeared to confirm the rupture in its own way: an automatic reply from her communications director on Sunday said that, as of November 1, the aide was no longer with the office of Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
What is at stake in Michigan
Michigan voters will choose on Tuesday, November 3, between El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, and Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent who is endorsed by President Donald Trump. The seat is being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters. Rogers lost his 2024 Senate race by less than half a percentage point, and polls put this race among the tightest in the country: El-Sayed leads Rogers by 3.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average.
The outcome could help decide control of the Senate, where Republicans now hold a 53-47 majority. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are on the ballot on Tuesday, with more than 53 million Americans having already voted early. Stevens, whose House term ends in early January, said she will return to private life and is supporting Christina Hines for the House seat she has held since 2019.
Sources: USA Today, November 1, 2026; Al Jazeera, November 1, 2026; New York Post, November 1, 2026; Times Now, November 1, 2026.