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The Senate race in Michigan is getting messy. Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed has worked hard of late to portray the Democratic Party as a united front. But an awkward fight over a campaign event came to a head over Halloween weekend and had the left and the media in a tizzy. Will this late-breaking October surprise cost the populist progressive – and, according to some, socialist – come Election Day?
The Haley Stevens Saga
In one of the closest battles of the primary season, Abdul El-Sayed beat establishment favorite Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) 48.5% to 47.5% to go on as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the US Senate. The race was hotly contested, and though it may have seemed for a while that the Democrats had moved on and were presenting a unified front, it seems both might still hold a grudge.
Earlier this weekend, the narrative was unity. El-Sayed and US Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina were set to appear at a get-out-the-vote event at a church in Detroit – and Stevens was going to join them. What better way to present a united and inclusive front to the voters? All was not as it seemed, however. As Politico reported on Friday, El-Sayed’s campaign was asking Stevens to stay away from all of his future events.
Why the pushback? Haley Stevens made a point of accepting Jim Clyburn’s invite, then fired off at the man she would have been there to stand beside in a statement on X: “Abdul promises to get money out of politics,” she wrote. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”
She demanded that El-Sayed apologize for blaming Israel for Michigan’s problems, essentially relitigating the primary campaign battle.
But the drama doesn’t end there. An advisor to Rep. Clyburn told The New York Times on Saturday afternoon that El-Sayed didn’t have the authority to pull her invite. “This is not Abdul’s event,” Antjuan Seawright told NYT. “The invitation still stands.”
Awkward.
El-Sayed and the Illusion of Unity
Rep. Stevens released a statement saying El-Sayed had not done enough to condemn a third-party ad on his behalf blaming Israel and Jews for the high cost of living. “The ad did not invent its argument; it dramatized one Dr. El-Sayed has made in his own words throughout this campaign: that Israel is the reason Michigan cannot afford schools, healthcare, and child care,” she wrote. “I therefore expect him to apologize for those statements as well.”
El-Sayed responded – but not with an apology: “So while Congresswoman Stevens seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago, let’s all focus on the task at hand: that’s beating Mike Rogers, holding Trump accountable, and getting money out of politics.”
It’s an outcome that should surprise no one, given the divisive nature of primary elections. It’s also a crack in the façade of party unity El-Sayed and other Democratic hopefuls want to present with the general right around the corner. And that’s an illusion El-Sayed has worked hard to build.
Despite once criticizing former President Barack Obama, he stood side by side and hand in hand with him on stage during a recent campaign event. And along with them was Jocelyn Benson, the moderate secretary of state running for governor. When asked by reporters after the event if the show of solidarity proves the party is finally united, he answered: “I think it should.”
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Where were these big-name establishment Democrats during the primary? Haley Stevens was the establishment pick; they didn’t want El-Sayed to win. Obama, Kamala Harris, and the like weren’t endorsing El-Sayed until after he beat Stevens. Now, however, as Liberty Nation News Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner pointed out back in August, “They are all lining up to kiss his ring and sing his praises.”
“I have no idea what the hell Haley Stevens is doing,” Mallory McMorrow, a state senator who dropped out of the primary a month early, told CNN Friday. “This is a moment where we have to recognize the stakes.”
“There’s a lot of talk about it being a big tent party, but sometimes we worry the tent is maybe devolving into a circus and we’re going to be pushed out,” David Kramer, a longtime Democratic fundraiser who chaired Stevens’ primary campaign, told Politico. He also said he was voting for Republican Mike Rogers instead. So is Haley Stevens’ fiancé, who called El-Sayed antisemitic at a Rogers campaign rally on Wednesday and told Fox and Friends on Saturday that El-Sayed’s criticism of Israel “puts Jews at risk.”
But what of El-Sayed’s campaign? Does this kerfuffle put his chances at joining the Senate at risk? The latest CNN polling shows he’s leading his Republican opponent 49% to 42%, and Decision Desk HQ gives him a 74% chance of winning. But that was all before this blew up in his face – and it may not account for the renewed attention on an ad that has Jewish Democrats reconsidering their party affiliation.
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