A Democratic congresswoman is seeking federal protection after a stunning last-minute decision to throw her support behind a MAGA Senate candidate.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) has asked the U.S. Marshals Service to protect her after telling authorities she received death threats over her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan's fiercely contested Senate race, Axios reported Tuesday, citing two senior Trump administration officials.
Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to Abdul El-Sayed, had signaled she would support him in the general election. Instead, she announced Sunday that she was backing Rogers after joining him at a church service. Democrats broadly condemned the reversal, and her top aides resigned.
"She has received death threats and reached out to the Marshals Service," one Trump administration official told Axios. The official noted there is a process to follow but said officials expect the request to be fulfilled because Stevens is a member of Congress.
Israel was a central fault line between Stevens and El-Sayed during the primary. Stevens took issue with El-Sayed's ties to left-wing streamer Hasan Piker and with an ad from a PAC connected to Piker's uncle, Cenk Uygur, that pinned rising grocery prices on Israel.
El-Sayed distanced himself from the ad, but Stevens maintained he had not done enough to answer her concerns and did not want her help campaigning. The feud boiled over when she was told she was no longer welcome at his campaign events.
Axios said Stevens could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The threats came during a volatile stretch in Michigan politics. On Monday, the New York Post reported that a former El-Sayed campaign staffer was among several anti-Zionist activists federally indicted on allegations of terrorizing members of the state's Jewish community.
A day earlier, a conservative Jewish activist was attacked at a University of Michigan event where organizers were criticizing Islam, according to reporting by the Jerusalem Post. And on Friday, federal officials announced the arrest of a Michigan man accused of threatening FBI Director Kash Patel.
Stevens herself also recently sparred with an anti-Zionist activist she accused of trying to intimidate her over her support for Israel.