Dem's staff resigns as she 'sells her soul' to endorse swing state MAGA Senate candidate

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for Senate on Sunday, two days before Election Day. She lost to Rogers’ Democratic opponent in the August primary. Her congressional staff began resigning almost immediately, and observers online suggested she "sold her soul" for power.

“I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” Stevens posted on X.

Stevens appeared with Rogers, a former GOP congressman endorsed by President Donald Trump, at a Sunday morning service at Perfecting Church in Detroit, according to Bridge Michigan. Shortly afterward, Detroit News Washington correspondent Melissa Nann Burke reported that “Haley Steven’s official staff including her longtime chief are resigning from her office this morning, per spox.”

HuffPost senior politics reporter Igor Bobic posted an automatic email reply from Stevens’ communications director: “Hello, as of November 1st I am no longer with the Office of Congresswoman Haley Stevens.”

Speaking to reporters alongside Rogers, Stevens indicated she felt pushed out by Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee who beat her in the August primary.

“When someone says you’re not welcome in my campaign, you take the message. That’s what I am doing today,” she said, in video posted by Acyn Torabi. She also said, “I’m not turning my back on Democrats. Everyone should be fired up for Democrats.”

The move came after a planned unity event among Stevens, El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) fell apart over a dispute about Israel. Stevens had demanded that El-Sayed condemn an ad from an outside left-wing group linking U.S. support for Israel to high grocery prices.

“Abdul promises to get money out of politics. He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford,” Stevens said in a statement, according to WDIV.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), who helped organize the event, said she asked Stevens not to attend because it “had become way too distracting,” Bridge Michigan reported. El-Sayed said his campaign didn’t make the ad and that he disagreed with its contents.

“So while Congresswoman Stevens seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago, let’s all focus on the task at hand,” El-Sayed said, according to WDIV.

Independent journalist Aaron Rupar shared video of Stevens standing beside Rogers at the press availability. Rupar wrote that Rogers “suggests Abdul El-Sayed is a Nazi-type antisemite.”

The Michigan Democratic Party blasted Stevens in a statement shared by Scott MacFarlane, MeidasTouch’s chief Washington correspondent. The party said that “Haley Stevens’ decision to campaign with Rogers—a man who has repeatedly sold out Michigan’s working class, wants to pass a national abortion ban & has pledged to be a loyal vote for Trump’s agenda—shows that she has abandoned everything she claims...”

Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, called it a betrayal.

“Standing with Mike Rogers is a betrayal of everything Haley Stevens has fought for her entire career. It’s also a betrayal of all of her supporters that believed in her,” Tanden wrote. “I hope @AbdulElSayed has a strong victory on Tuesday...”

Commentary editor John Podhoretz shot back at Tanden: “Selling your soul for your party is what you do.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a co-host of ABC’s “The View” and a former Trump White House communications director, called it “A November surprise in Michigan.”

George Conway, an attorney and Trump critic who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York this year, wrote, “I honestly think @HaleyStevens needs to check herself into the Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio.” The Lindner Center of Hope is a mental health treatment center.

Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita reposted Stevens’ endorsement.