Inside the Democrats’ embarrassing and potentially costly Michigan meltdown

Detroit: The last straw for Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens came on Saturday afternoon.

She was on the cusp of appearing at a unity event with Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in an August primary and became Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee. Several powerful intermediaries had been trying to broker peace between the former rivals, who were sparring over El-Sayed’s strong criticisms of Israel.

But after Stevens issued a hostile statement on Friday morning calling upon El-Sayed to condemn an ad made by a supportive political action committee and make other concessions, he stepped before reporters and said what his campaign had been signalling privately: he no longer wanted Stevens to join him at a Detroit church on Sunday.

It was one thing not to be welcomed by El-Sayed’s Senate campaign. It was quite another for him to say so in public.

So Stevens on Sunday did what she had been telling everyone she would not do. She endorsed former congressman Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in a race critical to control of the Senate.

“Abdul made very clear that I was not welcome in his campaign, that he didn’t need me there, that he didn’t want me there,” Stevens said while standing next to Rogers outside a Black church in Detroit, where they had just attended the Sunday service.

“I did endorse the Democratic nominee, and he chose to close this campaign by saying I wasn’t welcome. I’ve never been invited to a campaign event. That’s fine. You know, he’s busy. He’s running all around.”

Stevens’ extraordinary declaration and church appearance with Rogers were a stunning denouement of her weeks-long feud with El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated her in the Michigan Senate primary. Throughout their evident tension this northern fall, she insisted she was a team player and a good Democrat who would grit her teeth and back El-Sayed while working hard for other party members on the ticket.

Costly drama for Democrats?

Their dispute is deeply personal, involving slights between two mercurial millennial politicians of sizable egos quick to take offence.

El-Sayed, supremely confident, did not wish to give an inch to a defeated rival. Stevens, still absorbing her primary loss, eventually felt scorned by his campaign’s failure to include her in events or reach out for her views, and embarrassed to be told to stay away.

But the breach also represents a major fissure coursing through the Democratic Party about what its relationship with Israel and Jewish donors should be. El-Sayed, if he wins on Tuesday (US time) and enters the Senate in January, would be the most anti-Israel US senator since the formation of the Jewish state 78 years ago.

For now, the collapse of the Stevens-El-Sayed alliance has created an embarrassing and potentially costly drama for Democrats in a race that holds Republicans’ best chance of flipping a Senate seat. Stevens faced a swift backlash Sunday from her party, which was caught off-guard by her defection.

“It’s just really unfortunate given the stakes that this has turned into such a spectacle because of one person,” said Lonnie Scott, a veteran Michigan Democratic operative. “It is definitely not ideal that we’d be talking about Haley Stevens three days out from an election.”

This account of their split is based on interviews with more than a dozen people involved in or briefed on talks with El-Sayed’s camp and Stevens’ team, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, as well as public remarks from El-Sayed, Stevens and Rogers.

A unity breakfast, and then nothing more

Days after El-Sayed won a bitter primary race against Stevens in August that centred on disagreements over Israel, they appeared together at a unity breakfast. Stevens gave him a hug. And that was about it.

Since then, El-Sayed’s campaign hired a handful of Stevens’ campaign staff members, but he had next to no communication with her, according to Stevens and two others with knowledge of their relationship. She was never invited to campaign with him, nor were her thoughts solicited about how to proceed.

At times, other Democrats tried to include her in the campaign. In mid-September, Ray Wert, whose wife, Mallory McMorrow, had run in the Democratic Senate primary but finished a distant third, texted Stevens. He had a request. Wert, who is active in Democratic circles, wanted to publish an opinion essay in Stevens’ name attacking Rogers in a Jewish news outlet.

Stevens was initially receptive, according to screenshots of texts Wert provided to The New York Times.

“I really like what you wrote,” she messaged to Wert on September 20.

Wert replied, “I hope I captured your voice.” “You did,” she replied. “So nice.”

In late September, Stevens was suggesting edits to the essay over text. But something seemed to change at the end of the month.

“Pls hold for now,” she wrote on September 30, without elaborating. “I love you all but cannot move forward with this right now.”

At the root of the disagreement between Stevens and El-Sayed was US policy on Israel. El-Sayed has emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s leading critics of Israel. Stevens, who is not Jewish, once said, “I see Israel in my dreams” at a Hanukkah service. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supported her in the primary, spent at least $US30 million ($43 million) attacking El-Sayed during the primary and began spending more starting in October.

Stevens’ fiance is Jewish and is an AIPAC donor. She said in an interview on Friday that she was considering converting to Judaism.

The El-Sayed campaign believed no amount of acquiescence to Stevens would be sufficient, according to one of his campaign officials. So when she began to issue demands late last month that he disavow an ally’s online ad that she viewed as antisemitic, El-Sayed at first did not budge. She became increasingly critical of him in her cable television appearances. He tried to ignore her.

By last Wednesday, Stevens said she would not be campaigning with El-Sayed. That day, her fiance, Jason Turkish, endorsed Rogers. He said El-Sayed would make the world less safe for Jews, and that he hoped Stevens would run for the Senate again in the future.

Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, a Democratic powerbroker and mentor to Stevens in the House, was privately growing nervous that Stevens might pull her support from El-Sayed and back Rogers.

In the eyes of some Democrats, it was time for an intervention.

On Thursday, congresswoman Debbie Dingell, the dean of the Michigan Democratic House delegation, sought to make peace. She arranged for Clyburn to invite both Stevens and El-Sayed to church on Sunday. Neither Stevens nor El-Sayed could refuse. Stevens looked up to Clyburn as a leader. El-Sayed needed a big turnout from black voters. On Thursday, Stevens said she had been asked to participate in a “souls to the polls” event and would be there.

From signs of peace to all-out war

Stevens had one condition. She wanted El-Sayed to disavow an ad produced by a PAC that backed him, saying it was antisemitic because it blamed US support for Israel for high grocery prices.

On Friday morning, she released a lengthy statement that abruptly reignited tensions. She said she had learned that El-Sayed planned to condemn the ad and called on him to apologise for comments he had made about Israel, as well as to take down an ad from his campaign featuring Tucker Carlson.

She said in an interview at her home later on Friday that she had been given a promise that El-Sayed would denounce the ad. She would not say who made that promise.

El-Sayed did not directly address Stevens’ public demands on Friday. But he was clearly fed up. He released a statement saying Stevens “seems intent on re-litigating a primary that ended three months ago.”

Then came Saturday.

By the afternoon, El-Sayed was getting peppered with reporters’ questions about Stevens. He condemned the ad she objected to. But he also issued a stern warning: he did not want Stevens to appear with him on Sunday.

“I don’t want any distractions,” El-Sayed told reporters after a rally outside Detroit. He added, “It seems as though other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about.”

An aide helped Stevens craft a statement of her appreciation for his stance against the ad. It did not mention his public disinvitation. As late as Saturday evening, Stevens told allies that she was still behind El-Sayed and planned to lie low through the weekend.

‘Blindsided’

Democrats were on edge on Sunday morning, with uncertainty hanging over the unity event later in the day. Would Stevens even be there? Would there be some kind of confrontation? Or maybe another peace offering?

There were positive signs the night before. Around 6pm on Saturday, former Michigan governor James Blanchard, a Democrat, received a message from Stevens asking him to join her at the service with El-Sayed and Clyburn.

And about 10pm, Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin spoke with Stevens and pressed her on whether she was still behind El-Sayed.

“I just want to be very clear about that: You’re supporting the whole ticket, including Abdul?” he asked her. She said yes.

Raskin went on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning and sought to assure viewers she was still on board. His information was out of date by the time he said it.

On Sunday morning, Stevens woke up angry about being told not to come to church. She called Rogers and asked if they could attend church together, a gesture he immediately embraced, she later explained. She told none of her friends and allies in Democratic politics about her plans.

They were all shocked to see her walk into the church with Rogers.

The two sat together in the second pew through an hour-long church service. Stevens occasionally clapped and raised her arm in praise while Rogers smiled. During the service, she posted an online video announcing she was endorsing him. “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign,” she said.

When the service was over, Stevens and Rogers walked outside to greet a throng of reporters.

“I woke up this morning, and I decided to go to church,” Stevens said. “I’m here with the person who I am voting for for United States Senate, and that is Mike Rogers.”

Raskin said he was “totally blindsided.”

‘None of this matters’

The blowback to Stevens was swift. Her congressional staff resigned en masse. Her one-time Democratic allies co-ordinated on group chats with the El-Sayed campaign about how they could be helpful and asked advice about what to post on social media.

The Michigan Democratic Party chair announced Stevens was kicked out of the party now and forever. New York senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, who privately backed Stevens in the primary, called it “a despicable betrayal”.

“I’m disappointed, but I understand,” said Clyburn, referring to Stevens’ decision.

El-Sayed brushed it off. “None of this matters,” he told reporters after attending the church service where he and Stevens were once scheduled to appear together.

Later in the day, a poll from The New York Times and Siena University showed El-Sayed leading Rogers by 11 percentage points.

Still, Republicans were gleeful for much of the day about the defection and the messy Democratic infighting. “Wow, this is BIG!” US President Donald Trump wrote on his social media site.

Rogers, standing with Stevens after church in Detroit, declared himself “honoured” to have her support and said it came as a surprise. He cited the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and suggested he was in a better position than he would have been had she won the primary.

“I’m glad I’m not running against Haley Stevens today,” Rogers said.

Then he and Stevens got into separate cars and drove away.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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