In Michigan's Senate Race, a Democrat Endorses the Republican Two Days Before Election Day
Haley Stevens, who lost Michigan's Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, stunned party officials Sunday by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers after attending a Detroit church service with him, the Associated Press reported - a party split, two days before an election that could decide control of the Senate.
The strangest endorsement of the 2026 midterms landed on Sunday, two days before Election Day. Haley Stevens, the Michigan Democrat who lost her party's U.S. Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, stunning Democratic officials, the Associated Press reported in its News Summary at 2:06 a.m. Eastern, opened and read directly by the desk this run. The BBC carried the same development among its top U.S. stories overnight.
The endorsement came after Stevens attended a Detroit church service with Rogers on Sunday, the AP reported. Rogers is President Donald Trump's endorsed candidate in the race. The show of support followed a same-day rupture inside the Democratic campaign: Stevens had been uninvited to a joint event with El-Sayed earlier that day, according to the AP's account.
The stakes are the reason the endorsement leads the overnight wire. Keeping Michigan in Democratic hands is vital to the party's effort to win a Senate majority, the AP reported, and the race is one of the contests that could determine the balance of power when polls close on Tuesday. A defeated primary rival crossing party lines in the final 48 hours is the kind of late break campaigns cannot buy their way out of - or into.
El-Sayed dismissed the endorsement, saying he is focused on the issues voters care about, the AP reported. Michigan voters decide the race on Tuesday, Nov. 3, alongside the rest of the midterm slate; Florida's own Senate special election, between Ashley Moody and Angie Nixon, is covered separately in this cycle (SQ-20261102-004).
