Democrats condemn Haley Stevens’ ‘betrayal’ following endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers – US politics live

In his first public comments since Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers, El-Sayed told reporters at a press conference outside of a rally he held on Sunday, the very same rally that Stevens had earlier been disinvited from attending, “At the end of the day, I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens.” He added, “I’m just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all.

“If you are somebody who believes that we should stand up to hate, and you have watched this last campaign, I think we probably would not want to support Mike Rogers and Donald Trump and JD Vance,” he said.

But Stevens’s political pivot earned her praise from Donald Trump, someone whose policies she has an entire page on her website dedicated to denouncing.

Trump, during his rally in Iowa, heaped praise on Stevens for turning against El-Sayed, urging her to join the GOP. “It was an incredible thing,” Trump said. “I’d love her to join the Republican party. I think that could happen.”

Stevens had lost by a close margin in this year’s primary, and for months had refused to openly campaign for El-Sayed, as had his other opponent Mallory McMorrow.

Some of the people who worked for Stevens’s campaign also reportedly quit following her Rogers endorsement.

Her long-time chief of staff, Justin German, and her communications director, Logan Basch, were among those who left, according to CNN correspondent Manu Raju.

German later released a statement on behalf of Stevens’ campaign team endorsing El-Sayed:

As Haley Stevens’ Chief of staff for eight years, I speak on behalf of our team in wholeheartedly supporting Abdul El-Sayed for Senate. This election is too important to sow division or stand on the sidelines.

We are shocked and heartbroken by Congresswoman Stevens’ decision to support Mike Rogers.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Democratic politicians have condemned congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, over her endorsement of his Republican rival just days before the midterm vote.

Stevens’ extraordinary endorsement of Mike Rogers was the culmination of an escalating feud between the former primary rivals – primarily over support for Israel – that has roiled one of the most fiercely contested Senate contests of the cycle.

As one might expect, top Democrats have been quick to express their outrage at the congresswoman’s “betrayal”.

California governor Gavin Newsom said on the political talkshow 2WAY that Stevens “went another 180 degrees overnight, so something was going on there”. “She’s been successful at taking our eye off the ball and that’s why I understand party leadership condemning it ... This may be curiously the October surprise of sorts,” he added.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer also responded negatively to the endorsement. Schumer’s campaign account called it a “despicable betrayal” from Stevens in a statement, but continued to push for unity among Democrats. He said:

Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors. We Democrats equally united in our total revulsion at the racist, Islamophobic, and over-the-top false attacks on Abdul by Republicans.

These attacks are evidence of the total bankruptcy of the Republican Party today, who resort to ugly and un-American fearmongering because they have nothing to offer on the problems that concern people today.

Meanwhile, Michigan’s Democratic party chair Curtis Hertel said:

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, and has pledged to be a loyal vote for Trump’s agenda – shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about. We reject the attempts by Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum, and will not allow these eleventh-hour distractions deter us.

Bernie Sanders joined the controversy, attacking Stevens for what Democrats view as an extraordinary betrayal after Stevens accepted El-Sayed’s narrow victory over her in Michigan’s Democrat senate primaries.

“Rep. Haley Stevens’ staff is right to resign in disgust,” Sanders posted on X. “They understand that the election in Michigan is far more important than Haley’s fragile ego and that all of us must stand together to elect Abdul, defeat Rogers and end the Republican rubber-stamp control of the Senate.”

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said Stevens had “betrayed” working class people “by endorsing the very Republican she said she wanted to run against”.

Read our full report here:

In other developments:

• Donald Trump railed against Democratic US senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign event in Iowa Sunday, repeatedly referring to the Michigan progressive as a “jihadist”. The president bashed El-Sayed, a practicing Muslim, in brazenly racist terms, saying that Congress would have to “get a special metal detector for Abdul” if he were elected. “If you vote for this jihadist lunatic that wants to destroy you, you’re crazy,” Trump said.

• A judge has dismissed the Donald Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska’s US Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses. Trump said on 23 October that he had ordered the justice department to file the lawsuit in a move that voting rights experts called an “unprecedented intervention” by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance.

• Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Murphy, 53, started feeling numbness in his arm while attending his son’s hockey game on Saturday, according to the Connecticut senator’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt. A hospital visit confirmed that Murphy had experienced a stroke.