Democrat Turns Against Her Party, Endorses Republican Opponent in Michigan

Republicans led by US President Donald Trump received an unexpected boost on Sunday in a decisive race for a US Senate seat in Michigan, after a prominent Democrat endorsed Republican candidate Mike Rogers, just two days before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary in Michigan’s Senate race to Abdul El-Sayed in a highly competitive contest, announced her public endorsement of Rogers and appeared with him at a church in Detroit, threatening to exacerbate divisions in a state that is crucial to Democrats’ hopes of regaining control of the US Senate.

Stevens said in a video posted on social media, “I have no place in Abdul’s campaign.”

Hours later, Trump urged Stevens at a campaign rally in Iowa to join the Republican Party. He told reporters beforehand that he would reach out to her to thank her for the endorsement, which he described as “a smart move because El-Sayed will destroy our country.”

Voting will take place on Tuesday for 35 Senate seats and all 435 House of Representatives seats. Republicans hold a narrow majority in both chambers. Polls suggest Democrats are favored to win a majority in the House, while the battle for control of the Senate remains tight, with the outcome likely to be decided by a handful of states, including Michigan and Alaska.

If Democrats gain control of either the House or the Senate, they would be able to block Trump’s legislative agenda during the final two years of his term and open investigations into an administration that has so far dealt only with largely accommodating Republican majorities. The White House is preparing to implement parts of Trump’s agenda without congressional assistance.

In Michigan, Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers came on a day when she was expected to appear with El-Sayed at a party unity event. However, the planned event collapsed after Stevens called on El-Sayed to denounce a statement by an external committee, which the representative said blamed Israel for rising food prices in the United States.

Stevens told reporters on Sunday while standing beside Rogers after joining him at a church service in Detroit, “We cannot stand with hate.”

El-Sayed’s campaign recently asked Stevens to avoid attending his events until election day so as “not to distract from the central issues of the campaign,” according to a source familiar with the matter.

Republicans sought to exploit Stevens’ move. Rogers said, “This is courage in American politics today. When you see a party, or at least a segment of it, veering toward the intense hatred they direct at a group of people, it becomes dangerous.”

Trump later repeated on Sunday, during the Iowa campaign rally, false claims that El-Sayed is a “jihadist,” part of a broader pattern of inflammatory rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans targeting Americans of Arab descent and Muslims.

Trump declined to comment directly on Stevens’ endorsement of him on Sunday, saying he was focusing on other issues.

The move appeared to have little impact on some early voters in Michigan, where El-Sayed leads Rogers by about four points, according to RealClearPolling estimates.

Pamela Johnson, 72, after casting her vote for El-Sayed in Warren, a Detroit suburb, said, “Haley Stevens is a traitor.”

David Kolar, a 32-year-old elementary school teacher, said that Stevens’s endorsement “seemed like a last-minute distraction.” He added that he voted for Mr. Stevens because of his support for government-funded universal healthcare.

CNN and The Hill reported that several of Stevens’s congressional staff resigned in response to the endorsement.

It was not immediately possible to reach Justin German, Stevens’s longtime chief of staff, to verify reports quoting him as saying, “As of this morning, many members of our team, including myself, have resigned.” The statement described German as “shocked and heartbroken” over Stevens’s endorsement.

On Sunday, an attempt by the Trump administration to intervene in the Alaska Senate race also stumbled when a federal judge rejected a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at preventing the certification of results in case current Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan lost by a narrow margin.

The Justice Department said voters might be confused by the presence of a competing candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the same ballot.

The issue sparked controversy in the campaign over the past few days after The New York Times reported that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. to join the race in an effort to spoil the election.

On Sunday, Senator Sullivan said he would accept the results of Tuesday’s election despite pressure from the Trump administration to launch a criminal investigation into the matter. However, Republican Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy hinted that he might not certify Peltola’s victory, while incumbent Senator Sullivan declined to say whether he would support efforts to block certification.

Senator Sullivan joined his Republican colleagues in accusing the other Sullivan of attempting to confuse voters due to the similarity of their names.

Speaking to CNN, the senator said, “They put a phantom candidate on the ballot... I’m sure I’ll lose a lot of votes because of this trick. What I’m saying to Alaskans: don’t let them get away with these tricks.”