Washington — Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, clashed publicly Friday in a sharp exchange that threatened a rare joint campaign appearance scheduled for Sunday. The public dispute unfolds in the final stretch of a highly competitive Michigan Senate race, where Republican nominee Mike Rogers is actively attempting to court centrist and moderate Democratic voters.
During their primary contest, El-Sayed and Stevens presented starkly divergent philosophies for the Democratic Party. Although Stevens endorsed El-Sayed after he secured the nomination, the two have rarely shared a campaign stage since.
The latest friction began when Stevens issued a statement Friday demanding that El-Sayed apologize for past campaign rhetoric. During the primary, El-Sayed, a vocal critic of U.S. aid to Israel, suggested that Israel was directly responsible for funding shortfalls affecting Michigan schools, health care, and child care.
“Abdul promises to get money out of politics,” Stevens said in her statement. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”
Stevens also called on El-Sayed to publicly condemn an external political action committee advertisement that she characterized as antisemitic. The video ad, produced by Rebellion PAC, depicts a grocery store couple deciding to return a carton of eggs to the shelf because they must set aside money for what the ad describes as killing Palestinians, while criticizing U.S. military assistance to Israel. Earlier in the week, El-Sayed’s campaign stated that it had no affiliation with the advertisement.
“No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign,” El-Sayed’s team said in a statement.
Additionally, Stevens urged El-Sayed to withdraw his own campaign advertisement featuring conservative podcaster and former host Tucker Carlson.
In response, El-Sayed issued a Friday evening statement accusing Stevens of appearing “intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.”
It remains uncertain how the latest public feud will impact Sunday’s planned event at a Detroit church, where both Democrats were scheduled to appear alongside South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn. An initial announcement from El-Sayed’s campaign regarding the appearance with Clyburn omitted any mention of Stevens.
The political friction within Stevens’ own circle also drew attention earlier in the week when her fiancé, Jason Turkish, informed a local newspaper that he intended to vote for the Republican nominee, Rogers. Later that same day, Stevens addressed the situation during a CNN interview, confirming that she remained committed to voting for El-Sayed while describing their living arrangement as “a household divided,” and reiterating her call for his campaign to reject hateful rhetoric.
