Why did Democrat Haley Stevens endorse Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race?

Haley Stevens lost Michigan's Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, then appeared with Republican Mike Rogers at church and endorsed him days before the vote. BBC correspondent Will Grant linked it to personal differences and to Israel: a super PAC called Rebellion ran an ad blaming US aid to Israel for high food prices. El-Sayed said he had nothing to do with the ad, but Stevens said she did not belong in his campaign.

• Stevens' own chief of staff resigned over the endorsement.
• El-Sayed's campaign told CBS News it raised over $1.2 million after the endorsement.
• Donald Trump praised the move and repeated unfounded claims about El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim US senator.

▸In their words

“But I think in part it's come down to messaging over Israel.” Will Grant · at 9:36 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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