OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN — Michigan’s Republican ticket had a clear message for voters preparing to vote in the midterm elections: Their path to victory relies on winning over voters who typically don’t align themselves with the GOP.
That prospect appeared to be buoyed by Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens’ 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her primary rival, Abdul El-Sayed. Early Monday afternoon, Republican operatives in Michigan blasted out a press release advertising an event just hours later intended to tout Stevens’ endorsement and its purported impact on Black and Jewish voters.
In front of a throng of press at the Michigan GOP’s headquarters, six community leaders representing African Americans and Jews criticized what they saw as El-Sayed’s excesses and lauded Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers. Broadly, they argued that El-Sayed had insufficiently distanced himself from some of his radical associations, that Stevens’ endorsement had real significance for the race and that they were seeing an unprecedented groundswell of support for Republicans among their peers.
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In addition to the community leaders, close to two dozen others — many of whom were Black or Jewish — attended the event as well. While some political observers have cast doubt on the impact of Stevens’ endorsement and the degree to which African Americans and Jews are defecting from the Democratic Party, members of those communities told Fox News Digital the shift is happening.
“I believe it’s going to make a big difference that she came out,” Michelle Nard, an African American former Democrat running for state Senate, told Fox News Digital. “She had a big following. She’s a great congresswoman, a great state representative for the United States.”
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Nard recounted how she had recently spoken to a Black woman who highlighted that her community makes a big deal of going to the polls on Election Day, a point she used to stress that Haley’s endorsement, though late in the cycle, could still influence last-second voters.
“You have strong Haley Stevens supporters in our community that will support her to the end, and then you have some that feel betrayed,” Marcus Bowman, a metro Detroit school board trustee, told Fox News Digital.
Bowman, who says he knows Stevens personally, said: “True supporters of Haley Stevens, they know her as a person and they know what she represents. I think they will follow her and respect her for her decision based off some of the radical things we’ve heard about Abdul El-Sayed.”
While those who spoke were handpicked for a Republican news conference, there is some data to back up Black voter defection. Between August and September, El-Sayed’s support among African Americans held steady at around 75%, well below the party’s typical benchmark.
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The Arab American community in the Detroit metropolitan area has historically been at odds with African Americans in the areas across a number of issues, a theme that has come up occasionally during El-Sayed’s campaign.
While comparable polls have not found similar trends among Jewish voters, who are a much smaller part of Michigan’s electorate, a number of high-profile members of the communities, including top donors, have flocked to the Rogers camp.
“Haley, what she did was give a lot of Jews permission, hardcore left-wing Democrats, permission to now say, you know what, if Haley can endorse him, I can vote for him,” Aaron Tobin, a conservative Jewish community leader, told Fox News Digital in reference to Mike Rogers. “Now I think she’s broken that wall down, and now they can see that a hardcore Democrat — and she was very successful and very popular in Michigan — if she said Mike Rogers is good enough for her, I think a lot of Jews are going to say, ‘I’m going to vote for him because Abdul just says the worst things.'”
Ezra, another Jewish voter, told Fox News Digital that he believes Jews have increasingly been abandoned by the Democratic Party and, even if Stevens’ endorsement doesn’t move the needle, he’s grateful that she took a stand.
“The [March 12] terrorist attack in [a] West Bloomfield [synagogue], I believe was the starting point of the Detroit Jewish community being afraid and that fear was not alleviated over the next [six months]. That fear has not been alleviated by Abdul El-Sayed in any sort of way, which is why I think you’re seeing this,” he said. “We’re waiting for something and it’s not coming. And so that’s why I think you’re seeing so many in the Jewish community moving for Mike Rogers because they’re like, you know what, that guy’s going to keep my family safe. The other guy’s not.”
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“I think in some ways, it’s, it’s more brave because it’s at the last minute. In some ways, you know what, who knows, even if it, if it’s 100 votes or 1000 votes, then it makes a difference,” he added.
These alleged breakthroughs with traditionally Democratic constituencies took center stage at Rogers’ closing rally on Monday night. At one point, the campaign invited six Black and Jewish voters, most of them former Democrats, to take the stage where they explained why they believed El-Sayed to be too extreme for their support. Rogers himself praised the group during his final campaign speech, invoked the need for unity and thanked Stevens at length for her endorsement.
Conservatives at the rally were clearly grateful to Stevens for her endorsement, with nearly every mention of her name being met with cheers or chants of her name. Republicans are even optimistic that Stevens’ endorsement could trickle down to their down-ballot races.
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“I was on the ground last week in Michigan and Ohio, and the momentum in Michigan is real. It was real before Haley Stevens endorsed Mike Rogers, even more real now,” Adam Piper, executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association, told Fox News Digital.
Piper said he “absolutely” believes Stevens’ endorsement will move the needle for Michigan Republican attorney general nominee Doug Lloyd.
“You know, around the Detroit area, Grosse Pointe, Detroit, elsewhere, I saw homemade yard signs in the yards of Black churches that said African Americans and Jews stand together. And that was powerful.”
Lloyd said he is optimistic that Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers could give him a boost.
“Well, I saw something today in the news that basically said 50% of the available voters have voted through absentee and early voting. We still have one day left. And as we’ve said, you know, the race isn’t done until 8 o’clock tomorrow night when the polls close,” he said. “So, if this made a difference for someone who had been sitting on the sideline and they decided they were going to get out and vote because of it, I’m excited for that.”
Democrats have argued Stevens’ endorsement could strengthen, rather than weaken, El-Sayed’s support. Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said he expected the episode to galvanize Democrats, while El-Sayed’s campaign reported raising $2.4 million Sunday, its largest fundraising day of the campaign.
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While cutting into the Democratic Party’s margins by successfully pulling away Black and Jewish voters could prove valuable to the GOP, a reversion among Arab voters — who swung toward Republicans in 2024 but strongly favor El-Sayed — could erase such gains. Fox News’ final power ranking rated Michigan’s Senate race as a toss-up, meaning that, as voters head to the polls, neither party holds a clear edge.
