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A dispute between Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee and his former primary rival has broken into the open in the final days of the race, with Abdul El-Sayed's campaign asking Rep. Haley Stevens to stay away from his remaining campaign events.
Politico reported the request on Friday, citing two people familiar with the decision, who said Stevens should stay away so as not to distract from the central issues of the campaign. The campaign declined to comment on the report, and Stevens did not immediately respond to a question about whether she would stay off the trail.
The request followed a day of sharp public exchanges over an advertisement from Rebellion PAC, an independent progressive group. The ad, set in a grocery store, suggests that money set aside for "killing Palestinians" is why families cannot afford groceries, linking high prices to U.S. support for Israel. Stevens described the ad as antisemitic and said she expected El-Sayed to condemn it formally before she joined him on the campaign trail. She also said she expected him to apologise for his own past comments suggesting Israel was responsible for what Michigan cannot afford, and urged him to take down one of his own ads featuring Tucker Carlson, out of what she called the same respect for Michigan's Black community.
El-Sayed is not affiliated with Rebellion PAC, and his campaign has previously distanced itself from the ad. In his Friday response, he did not address the ad or his past comments directly. Instead, he accused Stevens of being intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago and said his campaign had always focused on gas prices, groceries and access to a doctor. He pointed to the primary result as proof of that focus, saying his campaign had defeated a historic $70M in outside spending from big corporations and AIPAC on behalf of Congresswoman Stevens.
The row has thrown a planned show of unity into doubt. Stevens had been expected to appear with El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina at a church in Detroit on Sunday, November 1, their first joint appearance since a unity breakfast days after the August 4 primary, which El-Sayed won narrowly. It was not immediately clear after Friday's request whether that appearance would still go ahead.
Adding to the controversy, Stevens' fiancé, Jason Turkish, a Jewish Democratic donor and civil rights attorney, told The Detroit News on October 28 that he intends to vote for Republican nominee Mike Rogers, citing concerns about El-Sayed's rhetoric and its impact on Jewish safety. Stevens herself continues to support El-Sayed: appearing on CNN the same day, she said she still very much wanted the Democratic nominee to win, describing her household as divided, while urging El-Sayed to denounce what she called hateful ads.
The Michigan race, for the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, is rated a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and voters go to the polls on Tuesday, November 3, with El-Sayed facing Rogers.