DETROIT/WASHINGTON Nov 2 (Reuters) – Democrats sought on Monday to contain a rift in Michigan’s US Senate race after one of their own crossed party lines to endorse the Republican candidate, as both parties made final pitches before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress
US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democrats’ Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed in a bitterly contested race, publicly backed Republican candidate Mike Rogers and appeared with him at a Detroit church, threatening to worsen divisions in a state viewed as crucial to Democratic hopes of retaking the US Senate.
The unexpected move lifted the mood of President Donald Trump’s Republicans before Tuesday’s midterms even as a federal judge dismissed a US Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of election results in Alaska if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses in the battleground state.
In Michigan, Stevens’ decision to endorse Republican Rogers surprised party leaders, with some members, such as Representative Debbie Dingell, saying that it created a “distraction” for Democrats.
Stevens said in a video posted to social media: “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.”
MICHIGAN RIFT
Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers came on the day she was scheduled to appear with El-Sayed in a show of party unity. But the planned event unraveled after Stevens called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside group’s ad that she said blames Israel for high grocery prices.
“That ad was very painful,” Stevens told CNN on Sunday night. “There are so many Democrats who want to vote for our Democratic nominee, and they’re just being told, ‘Hey, this is a party you don’t belong in, or this is a campaign you don’t belong in.'”
El-Sayed’s campaign recently asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as “not to distract from the central issues of the campaign,” a person familiar with the matter said.
Republicans sought to capitalize on Stevens’ move. “When you see a party, and at least a sliver of the party, veering off into the virulent hate that they have been spewing toward a group of people, it gets dangerous,” Rogers said.
El-Sayed, an Egyptian-American Muslim born in Michigan, has been targeted by Trump and other Republicans who have repeatedly questioned his loyalty to the United States and baselessly called him a terrorist sympathizer whose election would invite attacks on Americans. El-Sayed has called questions about his loyalty to the United States “shameful.”
The attacks fit a broader pattern of inflammatory rhetoric from some Republicans targeting Arab Americans, Muslims and transgender people and portraying Democrats as communists and dangerous radicals ahead of the midterms.
Stevens’ mother, Maria Marcotte, said her daughter decided to endorse Rogers because of what she described as dangerous political rhetoric from El-Sayed, pointing in part to his past appearances with Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer who has been criticized for his comments about Israel and American Jews.
“She’s really reached a point where she felt like her constituents, the people that she cares about, and the people she knows and loves are scared and frightened by some rhetoric that’s coming out,” Marcotte said in an interview with Reuters from the porch of her home in Birmingham, a northern Detroit suburb.
A spokesperson for El-Sayed’s campaign said it raised $1.2 million in the four hours after Stevens endorsed Rogers, making it the campaign’s second-best fundraising day since the Democratic primary election in August.
A New York Times/Siena poll released and partly conducted on Sunday showed El-Sayed with a 53% to 42% lead over Rogers.
A number of Stevens’ congressional staff resigned over the endorsement, according to reports from CNN and the Hill, while some voters expressed disdain.
“Haley Stevens is a traitor,” said Pamela Johnson, 72, after casting her ballot for El-Sayed in Warren, a Detroit suburb.
ALASKA INTERVENTION FALTERS
Also on Sunday, the Trump administration’s attempt to intervene in Alaska’s Senate race faltered when a federal judge dismissed the US Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to block certification of the results if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses.
The Justice Department argued voters may be confused by the presence of a challenger named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the same ballot.
The issue has roiled the campaign over the last several days after the New York Times reported that Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. into the race as a spoiler.
The senator said on Sunday he would accept the results of Tuesday’s election even as the Trump administration presses a criminal investigation into the issue.
Peltola has denied involvement, and Sullivan Jr. has denied coordinating with Peltola’s campaign.
“I think it’s great that it got thrown out,” said Aileena Bird, a 24-year-old resident of Wasilla, Alaska, who said she voted for Peltola. “I think that more should be done to fight against what Trump has been doing in trying to suppress the voters.”
(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington, Nathan Layne in Detroit; Additional reporting by Nathan Frandino in Wasilla, Alaska; Editing by Sergio Non and Lincoln Feast.)
