Haley Stevens crosses the aisle, appears with Republican Mike Rogers at church as she endorses him for Michigan Senate seat

Democratic Michigan Representative Haley Stevens announced her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan's senate seat in November, after a public falling out with Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over the weekend.

Stevens was spotted at a church event with Rogers on Sunday after El-Sayed's team asked her not to campaign with them anymore.

US President Donald Trump praised the endorsement, calling Stevens brave and highly respected.

Stevens, who campaigned against El-Sayed for the nomination in the 2026 Michigan Democratic primary, was expected to campaign for Sayed, or at the very least not against him. Her appearance alongside El-Sayed's opponent marks one of the most bitter chapters in an already fraught race.

Stevens and El-Sayed clashed sharply during the primary over numerous issues, most contentiously those relating to Israel, which appears to have become increasingly personal as well as political.

Things reached a head in the past few weeks. In August, Stevens was still publicly supportive of El-Sayed, but by late October, things had changed dramatically.

A pro-El-Sayed TV ad claimed that Israel was responsible for the high grocery prices in US supermarkets, promoting what many American Jews consider dangerous conspiracy theories that echo longstanding antisemitic tropes that blamed Jews for economic downturns.

The ad came from an independent political action committee called Rebellion PAC, founded by far-left activist and founder of The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, who has himself been embroiled in similar controversies.

Although Sayed criticized the ad and clarified that he and his team had nothing to do with it, Stevens's fiancé, Jason Turkish publicly announced that he would be voting Republican in November, while Stevens released a brief statement, saying, "I was glad to see our senate nominee say he does not agree with the content of the vile Rebellion PAC ad."

This was apparently too much for El-Sayed's campaign team which withdrew an invitation for Stevens to appear alongside El-Sayed at a different church event on Sunday.

Stevens appearance with Rogers at a church the same day, has highlighted perhaps one of the deepest fault lines within the Democratic Party, turning what should have been a purely political disagreement into a personal rivalry that has come to overshadow the race itself.