Just 48 hours before the midterm elections, Haley Stevens withdrew her support for Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and endorsed Republican Mike Rogers in a last-minute video message posted to X. But Stevens’ change of heart marks a sharp departure from her previous stance on Rogers, someone she has repeatedly attacked for his alignment with Trump and his positions on tariffs, abortion and health care. Newsweek reached out to Haley Stevens via email for comment and is awaiting a response.
The endorsement switch followed a renewed dispute between Stevens and El-Sayed in the closing days of the campaign. Stevens had called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside group’s advertisement that she characterized as antisemitic. El-Sayed said he disagreed with the ad, which was not produced by his campaign, but accused Stevens of relighting their bitter Democratic primary.
In a video shared on November 1, Stevens said that she would now be backing Republican Mike Rogers in the Senate race. "I don't belong in Abdul's campaign. Who we are as Michiganders is not hate and is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now," she said.
"I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I’m just letting you know where I am. I’m still a very proud Democrat," Stevens added in the video statement.
But the endorsement was particularly surprising given Stevens’ consistent line of attack against the Republican candidate. One of her most-repeated lines was that a vote for Rogers would be a "rubber stamp" for Donald Trump’s agendas and policies in the Senate, including tariffs and health care policy. Just three months ago during a Fox interview, she said that Rogers was being "dishonest" with the people of Michigan.
Previous posts on social media showed her labeling the Republican "Millionaire Mike Rogers." She called him "out-of-touch" and "out-of-state," claiming that he cannot understand Michigan families and their struggles. Stevens has also repeatedly attacked Rogers for his links to Florida. In one post, she wrote that Rogers "used the revolving door to explode his wealth, then bought a Florida mansion with it." Stevens has also repeatedly linked him to Trump’s economic record.
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