Haley Stevens Endorsed Mike Rogers After an Ad Tied Grocery Prices to Israel. Her Party Called It a 'Despicable Betrayal.'
Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Two days ago, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) stood beside Republican Mike Rogers (R) at a Detroit church and endorsed him over her own party's Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed. She had lost the August primary to El-Sayed and backed him afterward. What changed, she says, was an ad, a campaign she was told to stay away from, and what she called a pattern she could not stand beside.
Her party's answer has been to attack her. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the move a “despicable betrayal.” Her chief of staff, Justin German, resigned. This page lays out what the ad actually says, what Stevens said and gave up, and why the party's reaction is its own story.
- 2 daysbefore Election DayStevens endorsed Rogers on Sunday, Nov. 1, after attending a Detroit church service with him, per CBS News and CNBC.
- 8 yearsher chief of staff's tenureJustin German resigned over the endorsement and said many staffers did too, per CNBC.
- $26Bthe ad's figure for added Israel aidThe Rebellion PAC ad's script, as transcribed by Newsweek; the ad does not say the word 'Jews.'
The ad, from Rebellion PAC, an outside group backing El-Sayed, is a short skit. Newsweek's transcript has a woman telling a man to put the eggs back, because “we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.” The man asks whether the U.S. does not already give Israel $4 billion a year; she says “now we're giving them another $26 billion.” A narrator then asks why Rogers “care[s] so much about Israelis want and so little about what you want,” over images of Israeli leaders, and closes: “Abdul El-Sayed is for you.” Newsweek reports the footage was first made for Cenk Uygur's 2024 presidential run and updated.
The ad does not say “Jews.” It blames U.S. aid to Israel for household costs. Critics, including Democrats, say that is the point. Stevens argued it blames prices on “the only Jewish homeland in the world.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) called it “gross, antisemitic,” per Jewish Insider, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), also per Jewish Insider, called it a “divisive stunt that trades on age-old themes of antisemitism… It blames Israel for all the ills in America.” Uygur rejects that reading.
El-Sayed said the ad “was not made by me, and I do not agree with the contents of that ad,” per CBS News. Critics noted he stopped short of condemning it, per Jewish Insider.
In a video, Stevens said: “Abdul said I'm no longer welcome in his campaign, and I should stay away, and he's right… that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers.” In a long post, excerpted by Townhall, she called it “a decision of conscience” and said El-Sayed “chose to campaign alongside Hasan Piker, whose rhetoric about Jewish Americans has been deeply disturbing.” She also objected to an El-Sayed campaign ad featuring Tucker Carlson, citing his “racist and anti-Black rhetoric,” she said. “We cannot preach inclusion while punishing dissent,” she wrote. At the church she said, per Bridge Michigan, “We have to stand with country. We can't stand with hate.”
The cost was immediate. German resigned and said many staffers did too, per CNBC. She conceded the August primary, endorsed the man who beat her, and as recently as the week before wanted him to win, per Al Jazeera. Rogers, a former congressman, called it “courage in politics,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told her to “keep speaking the truth,” per CBS. Stevens says she remains “a very proud Democrat.”
Schumer: “a despicable betrayal,” per CNBC and Newsweek. Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel (D) posted that Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future,” and that she “has abandoned everything she claims to care about.” Mediaite's headline said she was “thrown out,” but the reporting describes a statement, not an expulsion vote or party procedure, and Stevens says she is still a Democrat. DNC Black Caucus chair Virgie Rollins (D) called her “a sellout who used Black Michiganders for a political stunt,” as reported by Newsweek. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) disavowed the endorsement, per CNBC.
Her exclusion from the campaign was documented before she endorsed. CBS, citing two sources, reports El-Sayed's campaign asked her to stay away from all remaining events, after a Friday clash over a Sunday Detroit event with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC). Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) said she pulled that event because it had become “way too distracting.” We found no reporting on an election-night invitation either way. El-Sayed's response: “I actually don't think about Haley Stevens,” and the dispute is “relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.” At her Rogers appearance a heckler shouted that she was a traitor, per Newsweek.
Several Democrats did condemn the ad, and they deserve credit for it: Slotkin, Schneider and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who found El-Sayed's response insufficient. But in the coverage we reviewed, the party's sharpest language, “despicable betrayal,” “abandoned everything,” “sellout,” was aimed at the person who objected to the ad, not at the ad. We did not find Schumer, or the DNC, calling the ad itself antisemitic. A candidate who says he disagrees with it still has the nomination and the party's unity appeals; the colleague who objected to it was the target of the state party chair's statement that she is not a member.
Documented: the ad's script; Stevens' endorsement and stated reasons; staff resignations; Schumer's, Hertel's and Rollins' statements; El-Sayed's campaign asking her to stay away.
Disputed: whether the ad is antisemitic. Stevens, Slotkin and Schneider say yes; Uygur and the PAC say no, and the ad never says 'Jews.'
Not documented: a formal expulsion, an election-night disinvitation, or any source calling El-Sayed a communist.
Stevens lost a primary, accepted it, and then gave up her staff and her standing in her party over a specific ad and a specific campaign. In the coverage we reviewed, her party's sharpest language was aimed at the endorser, and we found no report of El-Sayed calling the ad antisemitic. Voters decide the race tonight.
