Stevens Stops Short of Backing El-sayed After Senate Primary

WHO:

CNN - Multiple people backing El-Sayed privately said they believed he benefited from a favorable national environment for Democrats, despite what they viewed as shortcomings in his campaign.

CNN - Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow said she had seen organizers and excitement at PTA meetings and an Obama rally watch party.

CBS News - Sen. Gary Peters accepted a role co-leading a political center at the University of Southern California.

Newsweek - Haley Stevens said she planned to support Abdul El-Sayed despite her fiancé’s endorsement of Mike Rogers, describing the situation as “a household divided.”

NY Post - Jason Turkish, Haley Stevens’ fiancé, said he would vote for Republican nominee Mike Rogers.

CNN - Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic nominee for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary.

CNN - Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, said, “I’m on the Democratic ticket. I can’t say that I agree with everything that’s gone on,” when asked whether she was fully behind El-Sayed.

Fox News - Stevens said she was “on the team” but declined to say she was fully behind El-Sayed.

CNN - El-Sayed’s campaign spokesperson said the campaigns “remain in close communication”; CNN reported, citing four people familiar with the matter, that El-Sayed and Stevens had not been directly in touch.

CNN - Republican nominee Mike Rogers, a former congressman, has appealed to “Haley Stevens Democrats,” including Black and Jewish voters who favored Stevens.

CNN - Dave Coulter, Oakland County executive, endorsed El-Sayed after the primary and said, “I don’t think he can win without Oakland County. I think he will win Oakland, but the question is by how much.”

CNN - Mari Manoogian, a former state representative from Oakland County, said, “Democrats are coming home,” despite “all the handwringing.”

CNN - State Sen. Mallory McMorrow said she had no concerns about the campaign and said, “It feels like they’re running the campaign they need to run.”

CNN - President Trump and Rogers’ allies accused El-Sayed of being a “jihadist”; Rogers alleged links to extremist groups, which El-Sayed denied and called Islamophobic.

WHAT:

CNN - Michigan has not elected a Republican senator in 30 years.

CNN - El-Sayed was expected to headline an event in Stevens’ Oakland County home base the day before the election.

CNN - Rep. Jasmine Crockett had not campaigned with James Talarico after he defeated her for the Democratic Senate nomination in Texas.

CNN - Stevens appeared with El-Sayed at unity events after the primary, including a state party unity breakfast, but had not campaigned with him or spoken with him directly in recent months. She was not scheduled for joint appearances before Election Day and had not attended any of his eight prior Oakland County events or other events in Michigan.

CNN - Stevens offered to help, and El-Sayed’s campaign hired some of her former campaign staff. She joined Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson on a bus tour and traveled to Israel and India on congressional trips.

CNN - The primary rivals exchanged personal attacks: El-Sayed said Stevens was controlled by pro-Israel interests and “literally the least capable candidate in America”; Stevens said, “Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.”

CNN - El-Sayed said Stevens had an “extremely busy schedule” and that “the best use of all of our time is to touch as many people simultaneously as we can.”

CNN - Some Stevens supporters said El-Sayed had not reached out after his narrow primary win; two Oakland County Democrats who supported Stevens said they offered El-Sayed help and did not hear back. Some voters said they would skip the Senate race rather than vote for either nominee.

CNN - Rogers referred to a statement by El-Sayed for which El-Sayed apologized after an antisemitic attack at a synagogue.

CBS News - A Mitchell Research & Communications poll found El-Sayed leading Rogers 51% to 44% among likely voters; 3% were undecided and third-party candidates each received 1% or less. The poll’s margin of error was ±3.9 percentage points.

CBS News - El-Sayed led Democrats 94% to 6%; Rogers led Republicans 91% to 9%. Independents favored El-Sayed 52% to 38%.

CBS News - El-Sayed led among women 56% to 39%; Rogers led among men 49% to 46%. El-Sayed led voters ages 18–44, while Rogers led voters 65 and older 62% to 35%.

CBS News - The earlier poll showed El-Sayed at 45.6% and Rogers at 41.4%, a 4.2-point gap. The later poll’s researchers said El-Sayed was “in the driver’s seat for a big victory.”

WHERE:

CNN - Oakland County, a Detroit suburb with 1.3 million voters, was a key focus. Stevens beat El-Sayed there by seven points in the primary.

CNN - Oakland County voted for Kamala Harris by 10.5 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, a smaller margin than Joe Biden’s there in 2020.

CNN - El-Sayed and Benson attended an Obama rally in Detroit; Manoogian described canvassing in West Bloomfield.

CBS News - The Senate contest is in Michigan, where the open seat is held by Sen. Gary Peters.

WHEN:

CNN - Stevens lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed in August.

CBS News - The poll was conducted October 26–27 among 636 likely voters; the earlier poll was conducted October 1.

CBS News - El-Sayed and Rogers debated October 8 and October 21. Rogers did not participate in a proposed September 15 debate, saying he had not agreed to its expected format.

CBS News - Voters were surveyed for the November 3 general election; 28% said they had voted or were voting absentee, compared with 11% in early October.

CBS News - Peters announced in January 2025 that he would leave the Senate at the end of his term.

WHY:

CNN - Democratic operatives were frustrated that the Michigan Senate race remained competitive and was costing millions, while Democratic hopes of winning Senate seats in Alaska, Kansas, Texas and Iowa had been buoyed by the national political mood.

NY Post - Turkish said the country had “never seen a candidate for US Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul.”

CNN - Some Democratic operatives were frustrated that the race for a seat they considered reliably Democratic remained competitive and was costing millions.

CNN - Rogers’ campaign sought support from Stevens’ voters, particularly Black and Jewish voters.

HOW:

CBS News - The poll combined online panels with survey links sent to randomly selected registered voters’ cell phones and was weighted using demographics and 2022 and 2024 election results to project 2026 turnout.

CNN - Michigan’s straight-ticket option lets voters select all candidates from one party at once; the state Democratic Party’s “One Michigan” campaign promoted El-Sayed alongside other candidates statewide.

(UPDATED October 29, 2026 14:06 UTC)

Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Haley Stevens for the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan, but their strained post-primary relationship has left some Stevens supporters uncertain about backing him, even as Stevens says she plans to support the Democratic nominee. A poll found El-Sayed leading Republican Mike Rogers 51% to 44%, while Rogers has appealed to Stevens voters and accused El-Sayed of extremist ties, allegations El-Sayed denies and calls Islamophobic. Democrats are frustrated that the race remains competitive in a state that has not elected a Republican senator in 30 years, though supporters point to growing campaign enthusiasm and El-Sayed’s lead among independents.

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(UPDATED October 29, 2026 04:59 UTC)

Abdul El-Sayed narrowly won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, but divisions with rival Haley Stevens have left party leaders concerned about a competitive race for a seat they had expected to hold. Stevens says she’ll support El-Sayed despite her fiancé backing Republican Mike Rogers, while Rogers is courting Stevens’ supporters and has attacked El-Sayed over remarks and alleged extremist ties that El-Sayed denies. A poll found El-Sayed leading Rogers 51% to 44%, with Oakland County a key battleground and Democratic allies pointing to signs of enthusiasm among voters and organizers.

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(UPDATED October 29, 2026 02:02 UTC)

Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, but Stevens has stopped short of fully endorsing him, and her fiancé, Jason Turkish, says he’ll vote for Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed and Rogers are vying for the open seat, with a recent poll putting El-Sayed ahead 51% to 44%; Stevens’s supporters and Oakland County, where she beat him in the primary, remain key to the race. The rivals traded personal attacks during the primary, and Rogers has sought support from Stevens’s voters while accusing El-Sayed of extremist ties, which El-Sayed denies and calls Islamophobic.

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(UPDATED October 29, 2026 01:16 UTC)

Abdul El-Sayed is leading Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race, with a poll showing El-Sayed ahead 51% to 44%, as Democrats try to unite after his narrow primary victory over Haley Stevens. Stevens says she is “on the team” but has stopped short of saying she fully backs El-Sayed, and some of her supporters say they have not heard from his campaign; El-Sayed has also faced attacks over his past remarks, which he has denied were antisemitic. Oakland County is a key battleground, where Stevens won the primary and El-Sayed has since received the endorsement of county executive Dave Coulter, while Rogers is seeking support from Stevens’ voters, including Black and Jewish voters.