Michigan Senate race: El-Sayed calls the Stevens feud a “distraction” in Sterling Heights, and Rogers says she’d be welcome at his events

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed used a get-out-the-vote stop in Sterling Heights on Saturday, Oct. 31, to wave off a renewed feud with U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, saying he no longer wants her at a campaign event in Detroit on Sunday, MLive reported.

“I don’t want any distractions,” El-Sayed told reporters after the Macomb County event. He said others seemed “more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about,” and that he wanted to talk about President Donald Trump’s agenda and why Republican Mike Rogers “wants to be a rubber stamp for it.”

The race for Michigan’s open Senate seat is rated a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, NBC News noted. Voters decide it Tuesday, Nov. 3.

How the rift reopened

Stevens, of Birmingham, lost the August Democratic primary narrowly to El-Sayed and endorsed him afterward, but had not campaigned with him since a unity event that month, MLive reported. She agreed to join him and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina at a Detroit church on Sunday, Nov. 1.

Then on Friday she demanded that El-Sayed condemn an online ad from Cenk Uygur’s Rebellion PAC, an outside group, that links grocery prices to U.S. military aid to Israel. In one scene, a couple in a grocery store puts back a carton of eggs and says they need to “set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians,” according to MLive. Stevens wrote on X that the ad “dramatized an argument” El-Sayed had made himself and that “if those words are wrong when a political action committee supporting his campaign says them, then they are equally wrong when Abdul says them.”

El-Sayed’s campaign did not make the ad. “I do not agree with the contents of that ad,” he said Saturday. In a Friday statement, he said Stevens “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.” His campaign then asked her to stay away from its remaining events, and an advisory it sent Saturday listed only El-Sayed and Clyburn for Sunday, NBC News reported. A Clyburn adviser, Antjuan Seawright, told The New York Times that “this is not Abdul’s event” and that the invitation to Stevens “still stands,” according to The Hill.

Rogers moves in

Rogers, a former seven-term congressman who has been courting Jewish Democratic voters, quickly sided with Stevens. He called her “a courageous leader who deserves the respect of every Michigan voter” and wrote on X that “it is as shameful as it is disappointing” that El-Sayed’s response showed “he does not care about those concerns.” Asked Saturday whether Stevens could campaign with him, Rogers told MS NOW: “I would welcome her, if she wanted to join us at an event or any of our campaign events.”

Stevens has said she will still vote for El-Sayed. Her fiancé, attorney Jason Turkish, has said he will vote for Rogers, MLive reported. Another former primary rival, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, told Politico, “I have no idea what the hell Haley Stevens is doing.”

The closing pitch

El-Sayed told reporters the dispute “is not of concern to the vast majority of Michiganders,” who he said are struggling to afford gas, groceries and a doctor’s visit. Former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, who lost to Stevens in a 2022 primary after redistricting put them in the same district, appeared with El-Sayed in Sterling Heights and said he did not think “the average voter cares about it at all.”

The fight caps a closing stretch that has drawn Trump, Vice President JD Vance and former President Barack Obama to the state, as our earlier story on Vance’s Howell rally and the Senate polls laid out. Early in-person voting ends Sunday, Nov. 1. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Sources:
MLive, “El-Sayed no longer wants Stevens at Sunday campaign event, saying it would be a distraction” (Oct. 31, 2026), https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2026/10/el-sayed-no-longer-wants-stevens-at-sunday-campaign-event-saying-it-would-be-a-distraction.html
MLive, “Democratic feud between El-Sayed, Stevens reignites in final days of Michigan Senate race,” https://www.mlive.com/politics/2026/10/democratic-feud-between-el-sayed-stevens-reignites-in-final-days-of-michigan-senate-race.html
NBC News, El-Sayed campaign asks Stevens not to attend events (Cook toss-up rating, Sunday advisory), https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/haley-stevens-abdul-el-sayed-clash-israel-ad-ahead-sunday-rally-rcna606657
The Hill, Clyburn adviser says invitation to Stevens still stands, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6186552-clyburn-rally-el-sayed-stevens/
MS NOW, Rogers says he would welcome Stevens, https://www.ms.now/news/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate-election
Photo: Abdul El-Sayed meet-and-greet, Conlan Houston, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abdul_El-Sayed_meet-and-greet_by_Conlan_Houston_6.jpg

Sterling Heights · Election 2026 coverage

Tags: Election 2026 · U.S. Senate · Abdul El-Sayed · Mike Rogers · Haley Stevens · Sterling Heights