Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sancya, Pool
A brief truce between Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11) and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed appears to have fallen apart in the final days before the election, according to RedState.
Earlier on Friday, it looked as though the two had reached a detente. Stevens announced they would campaign together on Sunday, saying she understood El-Sayed would denounce an antisemitic ad from a PAC that blamed Israel for grocery prices in America. She also said she expected him to denounce his own ad featuring Tucker Carlson and to apologize for his own past language making similar claims about Israel.
El-Sayed instead released a statement responding to Stevens that offered no apology.
In the statement, El-Sayed said his campaign has always focused on the challenges Michiganders face, including high gas prices and “unaffordable groceries.” He said his campaign defeated a historic $70 million in outside spending from big corporations and AIPAC on Stevens’ behalf, and that the priority now is defeating Trump’s hand-picked candidate and taking back the Senate. He said Stevens “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago,” and urged everyone to focus on beating Republican Mike Rogers.
POLITICO then reported that El-Sayed’s campaign asked Stevens to stay away from all of its events in the closing days of the race, citing two people familiar with the decision. One of them said she should stay away “as not to distract from the central issues of the campaign.”
RedState argued that rather than moderating, El-Sayed is brushing off Stevens and the voters who backed her. It noted that he edged her out in the primary by less than 1 percent, and argued that the move could cost him those voters and push some of them toward Rogers.
