{"id":663267,"date":"2026-11-01T03:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T03:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663267\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T03:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T03:26:12","slug":"michigan-jews-on-edge-amid-el-sayed-haley-stevens-rift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663267\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Jews on edge amid El-Sayed-Haley Stevens rift"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 11th-hour public feud between Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed<\/a> and his pro-Israel former primary rival is further exacerbating tensions between Jewish voters and the nominee ahead of Tuesday\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

US Rep. Haley Stevens<\/a>, who narrowly lost the race for the Democratic nomination to El-Sayed this summer, had previously endorsed her former competitor and was set to join him at a rally Sunday in the crucial final days of campaigning. Michigan is locked in a tight race that could help determine which party controls the Senate.<\/p>\n

Instead of a show of unity, Stevens is now forcefully criticizing El-Sayed for his recent criticism of Israel and for not condemning a PAC ad, made by an outside group to boost his campaign, that blamed Israel for rising grocery prices. El-Sayed has shot back, invoking Stevens\u2019 close relationship with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stevens, who represents a large Jewish district in suburban Detroit, unloaded on El-Sayed Friday in a series of interviews with The New York Times published early Saturday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On social media Friday, Stevens said she expected El-Sayed to condemn the ad soon, paid for by Rebellion PAC, a project of far-left commentator Cenk Uygur. El-Sayed had earlier distanced himself from the ad but had not commented on its content.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), candidate for the state’s open US Senate seat, speaks during a primary night watch party at the Hotel Saint Regis Detroit on August 04, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (credit: Finn Gomez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to say that the cost of groceries is because of Jews and the Jewish state,\u201d Stevens told the NYT, adding, \u201cMaybe it is what you want people to believe.\u201d She stopped short of formally rescinding her endorsement of El-Sayed.<\/p>\n

Much of Democratic establishment coalesces behind El-Sayed<\/p>\n

The feud comes at a moment when much of the Democratic establishment has coalesced behind El-Sayed in the key Senate race, even as deep concerns remain among many traditionally Democratic Jewish voters. Stevens\u2019 fianc\u00e9e, Jewish Democratic megadonor Jason Turkish, said this week he would vote for Republican nominee Mike Rogers. Stevens told the NYT she met with a rabbi before their wedding and is mulling converting to Judaism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement sent to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and other outlets Friday, El-Sayed accused Stevens of \u201crelitigating a primary that ended three months ago.\u201d He also said he had already \u201cdefeated\u201d spending \u201cfrom outside corporations and AIPAC\u201d on Stevens’ behalf.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed did not mention the Uygur ad, nor another ad – this one produced by his campaign – that featured a brief clip of far-right commentator and anti-Israel voice Tucker Carlson announcing he wouldn\u2019t vote for Rogers. Stevens had publicly urged El-Sayed to take down the Carlson ad, which the campaign had aired on conservative TV channels.<\/p>\n

The El-Sayed campaign has dropped Stevens\u2019 name from its description of Sunday\u2019s planned Detroit church event, which is now scheduled to feature Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. USA Today and other outlets have reported that El-Sayed\u2019s campaign has asked Stevens to stay away from all future events.<\/p>\n

Stevens and Turkish did not return a JTA request for comment.<\/p>\n

In her social media statement Friday prior to El-Sayed\u2019s response, Stevens had outlined Jewish constituent concerns about El-Sayed, noting that he himself has used rhetoric akin to blaming Michigan\u2019s financial ills on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ad did not invent its argument; it dramatized one Dr. El-Sayed has made in his own words throughout this campaign: that Israel is the reason Michigan cannot afford schools, health care, and child care,\u201d Stevens wrote. \u201cAbdul promises to get money out of politics. He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Turkish, in an earlier JTA interview from a Rogers event, and Stevens, to the NYT, said their final breaking point with El-Sayed came after a recent debate in which the nominee had declined to say whether Israel or Iran posed a bigger threat to the United States.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed condemns Hasan Piker comments<\/p>\n

El-Sayed on Friday did condemn a separate comment from anti-Israel streamer and former campaign ally Hasan Piker, who is Uygur\u2019s nephew. In a stream this week, Piker had compared the heavily Jewish Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield to a \u201cKKK neighborhood,\u201d adding, \u201cThe supremacist attitude underlying their worldview is identical.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to Jewish Insider about Piker\u2019s comments, El-Sayed noted he grew up near West Bloomfield and stated, \u201cComparing Jewish Michiganders to the Ku Klux Klan is utterly inappropriate and flat-out wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Republicans are jumping at the Jewish divide. Rogers, a former congressman, has seized on the intraparty feud to appeal to Jewish voters who had supported Stevens in the primary. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump called Jews who back El-Sayed \u201ccrazy,\u201d<\/a> leading to condemnation from some Jewish leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 11th-hour public feud between Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his pro-Israel former primary rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[183527,111,16607,1903,85,46,20011,43,1032],"class_list":["post-663267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-abdul-el-sayed","tag-antisemitism","tag-antizionism","tag-diaspora","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-michigan","tag-news","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}