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El-Sayed responds to Stevens’s fiancée endorsing Rogers Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed responded to his former primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens’s (D-Mich.) fiancée endorsing his GOP opponent former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). “Well, I’m building a movement to take on the challenges that Donald Trump is facing. If folks have issues that are more important to them than that, that’s fine,” El-Sayed said while at a campaign event Wednesday. “That’s their choice. But to me, this election is about control of the United States Senate.” He continued that this election was about “putting a check on” President Trump and “addressing his effort to try and take away everything from religious freedom to our voting rights to union rights to healthcare.” “I’m welcoming a big tent of folks to come together around the effort to push back on Trump,” El-Sayed continued. “And I hope that as many folks out there can join. You know, we’ve felt really strong about our ability to bring people together. There are always going to be some folks who have different opinions, and they’re welcome to that. That’s the beauty of democracy.” In an interview with The Detroit News on Wednesday, Stevens’s fiancée, Jason Turkish, accused the Democrat of using antisemitic language. He added that “we have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul.” The pair announced their engagement in August following El-Sayed’s victory over Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. Stevens publicly backed El-Sayed after this loss, but she has not campaigned alongside him in several months. She also sidestepped questions earlier this week concerning her support for El-Sayed. “Look, I’m on the Democratic ticket. You know, I can’t say that I agree with everything that’s gone on,” she said on CNN. “I wish that first debate had been more about you know that rubber stamp for Trump because we got a lot of chaos in Michigan.” The Cook Political Report rated the race to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) a “toss up.” Decision Desk HQ, The Hill’s partner, favored El-Sayed over Rogers, giving the Democrat a 69 percent of winning compared to the Republican’s 31 percent odds. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
document fetched 2026-10-29 03:03 · canonical https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6180036-el-sayed-responds-stevens-fiance