Four days before Election Day, Michigan Democrats can’t even agree on who gets to stand on the same stage.
Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign is asking Rep. Haley Stevens, his former primary rival, to stay away from all of his campaign events for the rest of the race, according to POLITICO, which cited two people familiar with the decision. One of them said she should stay away “as not to distract from the central issues of the campaign.” Fox News confirmed the snub through its own source.
A unity event that fell apart in one day
Earlier Friday, it looked like the two might finally appear together. Stevens said she would join El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina at a church in Detroit on Sunday, but she attached conditions: she said she expected El-Sayed to apologize for some of his past comments and to condemn an ad from an outside group backing him that she described as antisemitic.
That ad featured a grocery store conversation in which a woman tells a man they can’t buy eggs because they have to set aside money for “killing Palestinians.” El-Sayed’s campaign had previously said he was not affiliated with it.
El-Sayed didn’t address the ad or his past comments on Israel. Instead he fired back: “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.” He also bragged that his campaign had defeated “a historic $70M in outside spending from big corporations and AIPAC on behalf of Congresswoman Stevens.”
Hours later came the request that Stevens stay off his campaign trail entirely. Stevens did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s question about whether she would comply, and El-Sayed’s campaign declined to comment.
Democrats are panicking
The infighting has other Democrats openly frustrated. “I have no idea what the hell Haley Stevens is doing. This is a moment where we have to recognize the stakes,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who lost the same primary, told CNN on Friday.
El-Sayed narrowly beat Stevens in a bitter August primary that exposed deep divisions over Israel. The two have not campaigned together since a post-primary unity breakfast. Stevens has sharply criticized El-Sayed’s views on Israel, and her fiancé has publicly endorsed Republican Mike Rogers.
The timing could hardly be worse for Democrats. The seat belongs to retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, and the party can hardly afford to lose it if it hopes to take control of the Senate.
Rogers smells an opening
Republican Mike Rogers says the cracks are showing up at the ballot box. He told Fox News on Friday that his campaign is making “huge progress” in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint, and that “a massive number of Jewish Democrats” are organizing to vote for him. He also claimed his campaign is “about 7 percent ahead” among voters it believes are backing him who have returned their ballots.
A win would give Michigan its first Republican U.S. senator in more than two decades. With the Democratic nominee now telling his own party’s congresswoman to keep her distance, that suddenly doesn’t sound so far-fetched.