Alaska’s Republican senator says he’ll accept the race result, even as he says it could be ‘stolen.’

LatestHere’s the latest.In a startling turn in a Michigan race that could determine which party controls the Senate, the Democratic representative who lost a primary fight to the progressive nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed endorsed his Republican opponent on Sunday, deepening an intraparty rift.The Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, received the endorsement from Representative Haley Stevens, a Democrat who represents suburban areas around Detroit, after she appeared with him at a church service. The late endorsement rocked the race for a seat that Democrats are trying to hold onto as they seek to flip seats in Republican strongholds.“I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” Ms. Stevens said in a video posted on social media. “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.”Democrats were furious over Ms. Stevens’s reversal — Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called it a “despicable betrayal” — but Dr. El-Sayed told reporters, “None of this matters.”The Michigan race has become a source of discomfort for Democrats in the final days of a campaign season that has otherwise challenged Republicans, who are trying to stave off Democratic advances in deeply conservative corners of the country, including Alaska. A federal judge there gave Democrats a victory on Sunday, dismissing the Trump administration’s lawsuit that pre-emptively challenged the results in the state’s Senate race.President Trump — who praised the “bravery” of Ms. Stevens’s endorsement — was traveling on Sunday to Iowa and Kansas, two of the conservative states that have turned into Senate battlegrounds.Nationally, the Senate battle is a tossup, but strategists in both parties say Democrats are in a strong position to reclaim the House. Republicans have been weighed down by high prices and Mr. Trump’s unpopularity but are trying to exploit the Democratic infighting to flip the Senate seat in Michigan.Dr. El-Sayed narrowly defeated Ms. Stevens in the primary in August, and their relationship remained frosty because of their differing views of U.S. policy on Israel. A plan to move past her recent criticisms of him this weekend fell apart and she instead attended a church service with Mr. Rogers, whom she previously criticized as a “rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda.”The messy fight in Michigan escalated hours before Mr. Trump was scheduled to speak at an afternoon rally in Dubuque, Iowa, before going to Salina, Kan. He won both states by double digits in 2024, but Democrats believe they have a chance to ride voters’ economic discontent to Senate victories. In Iowa, Representative Ashley Hinson, a Republican, faces Josh Turek, a Democratic state lawmaker. In Kansas, Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, is trying to fend off the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a centrist Democrat.Here’s what else we’re covering:Alaska Senate race: The Justice Department said it planned to appeal the judge’s dismissal of the suit pre-emptively challenging the results in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, which features two candidates with the same first and last name — a Republican incumbent and another man who could be a spoiler. The incumbent, Senator Dan S. Stevens, told CNN on Sunday that he would accept the results of the race, even as he suggested it could be “stolen.” Read more ›Senator hospitalized: Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, was hospitalized after a stroke, according to his chief of staff, Allison Herwitt. “We are optimistic he will make a full recovery,” she said in a statement. Mr. Murphy, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has been on the campaign trail with Democrats as he tries to help his party take control of Congress. Read more ›Wealth tax: California voters are considering a proposition that would charge a one-time, 5 percent tax on the wealth of residents worth more than $1.1 billion. At stake is a potential revolution in U.S. taxation. Read more ›Alaska’s Republican senator says he’ll accept the race result, even as he says it could be ‘stolen.’ImageSenator Dan S. Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, following a debate with Mary Peltola last month in Anchorage.Credit...Kerry Tasker/ReutersSenator Dan S. Sullivan, the Alaska Republican in a competitive re-election battle, pledged on Sunday to accept the results of his race against his Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola, whose campaign was said to have been involved in recruiting a candidate to siphon votes from the incumbent.But even as he told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he would accept the results, Mr. Sullivan suggested, without offering specifics, the race could somehow be “stolen” as he urged Alaskans to turn out and vote.The CNN host Jake Tapper asked Mr. Sullivan whether he was “only going to accept the election results if you win.” Mr. Sullivan replied, “No, I’m going to accept the election results.” He added later, “To all Alaskans watching, get out there and vote. Don’t let this election be stolen.”Republicans in Alaska — one of several traditionally conservative states where the party has been trying to fend off Democratic challenges — and beyond have complained for months about the presence on the ballot of a candidate who shares Mr. Sullivan’s first and last name.Last week, The New York Times reported that Ms. Peltola’s former campaign manager, the campaign’s then-chief of staff and top aides with the Senate Democratic campaign arm were involved with a plan to find Alaskans named Dan Sullivan who could run as Republicans in the election. Both the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied participating in efforts to recruit spoilers — an age-old practice known as ballot-stacking.President Trump, who had already ordered the Justice Department to sue to block certification of the results if Mr. Sullivan were to lose narrowly, demanded that Ms. Peltola be removed from the ballot in response to The Times’s report. The report did not uncover evidence of illegal activity.Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, ordered an investigation last week into whether Peltola’s campaign should face criminal charges or civil penalties, without specifying what crime may have been committed. Separately, however, the state sought to dismiss the D.O.J. lawsuit. A federal judge in Alaska did so on Sunday.On CNN on Sunday, Sullivan said he did not know whether Peltola’s campaign broke the law, though there are “good arguments on both sides.”Both parties have engaged in ballot-stacking for decades. Two years ago, when Ms. Peltola ran for re-election to the House, the state Republican Party backed an effort to help a Democrat — an inmate who ran his campaign from a New York prison — stay on the ballot.Mr. Tapper also asked Mr. Sullivan about Republicans’ efforts to boost potential spoilers this year. During the primary, a Republican super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, funded a group that spent more than $800,000 to boost two minor candidates, a Democratic candidate and a Green Party candidate, either of whom could potentially draw votes away from Ms. Peltola, as Mr. Tapper noted.The super PAC was not directly coordinating with Mr. Sullivan’s campaign, but has supported his run.Mr. Sullivan denied any involvement.“I haven’t done it,” Mr. Sullivan said. “You know me, Jake, that’s not my style. That’s not what I would do. And the reason I wouldn’t do it is because I respect the people I represent.”Kellen Browning and Anna Griffin contributed reporting.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRepresentative Haley Stevens might have endorsed Mike Rogers, a Republican, for Senate today. But for the past year, Stevens, a Democrat, had fashioned herself as one of his fiercest critics as she vied to compete against him for Michigan’s open seat.“Mike Rogers will be another rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda,” she wrote in an August post on X. “MAGA Mike is wrong for Michigan,” she wrote in a separate post from April. Rogers has “no clue what working Michiganders go through,” she wrote in another post in August.Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on social media that Representative Haley Stevens had carried out a “despicable betrayal.” He added that Senate Democrats remained “united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed.”The Justice Department plans to appeal a federal court judge’s decision to reject its effort to pre-emptively challenge the results in the Alaska Senate race. “The court dismissed the case on procedural grounds but did not dispute the argument of the United States that Daniel J. Sullivan (a/k/a Decoy Dan) entered the race as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters,” said Kiersten Pels, a department spokeswoman. “Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes.”Curtis Hertel, the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said on X that Representative Haley Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.”He had written earlier in a statement released via Michigan Democrats that members of the state party “reject the attempts by Haley Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum,” adding that Stevens’s decision to endorse and appear at an event today with Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Senate, “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.” Hertel added that the state party stood firmly behind Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate who defeated Stevens in the primary.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPresident Trump praised Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan on Truth Social, writing that she showed “bravery” and “almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan” when she made a late endorsement of Mike Rogers, the Republican running for Senate in the state.“Wow, this is BIG!,” Trump wrote, adding that he thought Stevens, a Democrat who narrowly lost to Abdul El-Sayed in a primary that came to be seen as a referendum on the party’s stance toward Israel, has cachet with voters, “especially our African American and Jewish populations.” Stevens is a staunch supporter of Israel, and El-Sayed is a vocal critic.Abdul El-Sayed, speaking to reporters in Michigan, sought to downplay the significances of Representative Haley Stevens’s endorsement of the Republican Senate candidate, Mike Rogers. “None of this matters,” he said.ImageCredit...Brian Snyder/ReutersThe chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, condemned Stevens’s endorsement of Mike Rogers, calling it “a betrayal of the values of the Democratic Party.”“At a moment when Democrats are united in fighting for Michigan families and standing up to Trump’s agenda, we reject these efforts to sow division within our party,” Martin said. “We will not allow last-minute political stunts to derail our momentum and we will triple down on our efforts to elect Abdul El-Sayed on Tuesday.”The Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus denounced Haley Stevens for endorsing Mike Rogers, a Republican, today, accusing her of “using Black Michiganders” for a political stunt after she announced the move at a Black church this morning. Rogers is in a tight Senate race with Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive.“We are dismayed that Congresswoman Haley Stevens has revealed herself to be a sellout who used Black Michiganders for a political stunt,” Virgie Rollins, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, wrote in a statement. “Congresswoman Stevens has lost her way, and Michiganders know that Mike Rogers is a shill for Trump and has failed Michigan. We are ready to elect Abdul on Tuesday.”AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe longtime chief of staff for Representative Haley Stevens, Justin German, has resigned, along with “many members of our team,” he wrote in a statement this morning. Logan Basch, Stevens’s communications director, also appears to have left his post. An auto-reply from his email address this morning says: “Hello, as of November 1st I am no longer with the Office of Congresswoman Haley Stevens.”German wrote in the statement that he and other staffers were “heartbroken” by Stevens’s “decision to support Mike Rogers” instead of Abdul El-Sayed. Stevens, a Democrat, this morning endorsed Rogers, the Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, after appearing with him at a church service this morning in Detroit.A judge rejects the Trump administration’s move to contest the Senate results in Alaska.Daniel J. Sullivan, left, a candidate in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, and incumbent U.S. Senator Dan S. Sullivan, right.Becky Bohrer/Associated Press, Doug Mills/The New York TimesA federal judge in Alaska has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit that pre-emptively challenged the results in a U.S. Senate race featuring two candidates with the same name — a Republican incumbent and another man who could be a spoiler.The ruling is the latest in a series of court defeats for the Trump administration, which has been seeking to intervene in state-administered elections.On Friday, the U.S. District Court in California blocked the administration from threatening to prosecute state and local election officials who do not comply with the department’s directives on handling ballots.Also on Friday, a federal appeals court panel denied a request to order California officials to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots that the administration claimed had been sent to possible noncitizens.In Alaska, the Justice Department filed its lawsuit last month at President Trump’s direction, asking the judge to block certification of the state’s U.S. Senate election results if Senator Daniel S. Sullivan loses but would have won had votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, gone to the incumbent instead.In that scenario, the suit also demands an investigation into whether voters who selected the retired teacher actually intended to vote for the senator.Federal officials have not made clear how an investigation into anonymous ballots would be conducted. In her Sunday ruling, Chief Judge Sharon Gleason of U.S. District Court in Alaska wrote that she did not see how the federal government’s proposed solution to any confusion would solve the problem if it even existed — or how the approach could work given the right to a secret ballot is a core principle of American democracy.The federal government, she wrote, “offers no rebuttal to the concerns regarding preservation of the secrecy of voting and provides no explanation of how its request for ballot segregation and a court-ordered investigation by law enforcement officers into certain voters’ intent could be implemented while preserving the secrecy of the ballot.”Kiersten Pels, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said the administration plans to appeal the dismissal and noted that the judge didn’t not address “the argument of the United States that Daniel J. Sullivan (a/k/a Decoy Dan) entered the race as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters.”The administration’s lawsuit accuses Daniel J. Sulivan of trying to “dupe Alaska’s voters into believing that he is Senator Sullivan.” Daniel J. Sullivan has said he voted for Democrats in the last three presidential races and for Mary Peltola, the current Democratic Senate nominee on the ballot, in her 2022 and 2024 campaigns for Congress.The suit also notes that he switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican only when he filed to run, and that his campaign website uses the same dark blue and yellow color scheme as the incumbent’s.A New York Times investigation revealed that a Democratic operative connected to Ms. Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee enlisted Daniel J. Sullivan to run as part of a broader effort to recruit independent and third-party candidates who might peel votes away from the incumbent.Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, has ordered a criminal investigation into the Peltola campaign even as the state elections division, overseen by his lieutenant governor, also a Republican, fought the Trump administration’s civil lawsuit.Ms. Peltola and national Democrats have denied any connection to Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy, and they joined the civil case as additional defendants along with national Democrats, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause, a self-described nonpartisan government watchdog organization.Daniel S. Sullivan, the incumbent senator, promised in an interview with CNN Sunday to support any election results but also suggested, without offering explanation or details, that the election could be “stolen.”In its defense in the Justice Department’s lawsuit, lawyers with the state of Alaska noted that state courts had already rejected an attempt by the state’s elections agency to take Daniel J. Sullivan off the ballot and that the final ballot was designed to differentiate between the two men: It lists the senator as “Dan S. Sullivan” and notes his party affiliation and incumbency, and the other man is “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” with no party affiliation included.Alaska also uses ranked choice voting in state and federal general elections, meaning voters are familiar with the system. Any voter confused by the existence of two Dan Sullivans could simply rank both candidates.Judge Gleason had already expressed skepticism of the Trump administration’s case in a ruling last month agreeing to a speedy hearing. In that order, she pointed out that the federal lawsuit came after Alaskans had already begun casting ballots for November and nearly four months after the Alaska Supreme Court directed the state Division of Elections to include Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot.In Sunday’s dismissal ruling, she noted that federal lawyers, in their filings, said they were not attempting to interfere in the time, place and manner of Alaskan elections — matters the U.S. Constitution leaves in the hands of states.But, Judge Gleason said, the federal government’s proposed answers to any voter confusion were “a court order preventing the State from certifying the election if certain circumstances occur; a court order requiring the State to segregate and preserve certain ballots; and a court order permitting the United States to conduct an investigation into the intent of those voters who cast ballots for Daniel J. Sullivan.“These requests certainly involve the time, place, and manner of Alaska’s election,” she wrote.If anything, the judge added, such federal intervention amid an ongoing election would cause the precise sort of voter confusion the administration says it is trying to prevent.Bayliss Wagner and Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.The chair of the Senate Democratic campaign arm, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, said that the organization rejected “efforts to divide Democrats” in a statement released after Representative Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, endorsed the state’s Republican nominee for Senate, Mike Rogers.“The stakes of this election could not be higher: Mike Rogers is a rubber stamp for Donald Trump, and together they plan to continue sowing chaos and making life unaffordable for families while prioritizing their billionaire donors at the expense of Michigan families,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “We stand firmly behind Abdul El-Sayed, who is a fighter for Michiganders and will work tirelessly to be the champion they need in the Senate, and we reject any efforts to divide Democrats ahead of Tuesday’s crucial election.”AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWhen Haley Stevens lost to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed by about a percentage point in an August primary, she quickly endorsed him, casting herself as a loyal soldier in the party and hailing the Democratic ticket. But the roots of their stunning break this weekend may trace back to the hours after the primary. Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, said in an interview last week that he remained bothered that El-Sayed had not appeared with Stevens at a news conference the day after the primary, and had instead brought Mallory McMorrow, who finished a distant third in the primary. “Instead of with the woman who got 47-and-a-half percent of the vote, to his 48-and-a-half percent of the vote, he took the stage with Mallory McMorrow, who got 4 percent of the vote,” Turkish said.Representative Haley Stevens had said as recently as Wednesday on CNN that she would vote for Michigan’s Democratic nominee for Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, and the full Democratic ticket. In an interview earlier this month, she expressed confidence that Black voters, who were critical to her coalition in the primary, would not support Rogers against El-Sayed.Black voters “know that our Republican nominee, he’s certainly not going to lift a finger for Social Security and Medicare, and, you know, a host of issues that are on the ballot,” she told CNN on Oct. 6.Representative Haley Stevens, after appearing with Mike Rogers at a Detroit church, explained why she chose to endorse Rogers, the Republican candidate for Senate from Michigan:“Abdul made very clear that I was not welcome in his campaign, that he didn’t need me there, that he didn’t want me there. I did endorse the Democratic nominee and he chose to close this campaign by saying I wasn’t welcome. I’ve never been invited to a campaign event. That’s fine. You know, he’s busy. He’s running all around.”ImageCredit...Jose Juarez/Associated PressSenator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in a statement that Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan had his unwavering support. But Schumer did not address Representative Haley Stevens’s sudden change of heart to endorse the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers. Instead, Schumer said that “Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed” and accused Republicans of “racist, Islamophobic, and over-the-top false attacks” against El-Sayed.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIt is an understatement to say that Representative Haley Stevens’s last-minute endorsement of Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee in Michigan, is a deeply unwelcome development for Democrats in one of the nation’s most contested Senate races. Her news conference today after attending church with Rogers was carried live on cable news. And her comments amplified the message that the Rogers campaign had spent the last month projecting: that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee, was too extreme to represent the entire state.Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said in an interview that he was “blindsided” by Stevens’s decision to endorse Rogers. Raskin said that she had told him in a phone call about 10 p.m. last night that she was still behind Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Raskin said that he had pressed Stevens. “I just want to be very clear about that: You’re supporting the whole ticket, including Abdul?” he said he had asked her. “And she said yes.”ImageCredit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesAnna GriffinNational reporterA federal judge in Alaska has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit attempting to pre-emptively challenge election results in the Senate race involving Mary Peltola; the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan Sullivan; and two candidates Democrats are accused of recruiting in an effort to confuse voters. The administration had asked a court to order the state to delay certification of election results if the incumbent loses by a small enough margin that it could be blamed on the presence of a candidate with the same name. Chief Judge Sharon Gleason of U.S. District Court in Alaska said the administration failed to prove its proposed remedy would solve any confusion problems.Representative Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters that Abdul El-Sayed had “made it clear that I was not welcome in his campaign,” as she stood beside his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, after she endorsed him. “My vote for Senate is going to be with Mike Rogers,” she said. Stevens indicated that she believed Democrats would flip the Senate on Tuesday — she said she expected Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, to be the majority leader — but said she had stood with her party and was “booed off the stage.”ImageCredit...Jose Juarez/Associated PressAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTLogan Basch, the communications director for Representative Haley Stevens, appears to have left his post. An auto-reply from his email address says: “Hello, as of November 1 I am no longer with the Office of Congresswoman Haley Stevens.” Stevens, a Democrat, endorsed the Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, Mike Rogers, after appearing with him at a church service this morning in Detroit.In the video sharing her endorsement of Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, Representative Haley Stevens said that she “does not stand with Dr. Abdul’s campaign” or with Hasan Piker, the pro-Palestinian left-wing Twitch streamer with whom Dr. El-Sayed campaigned and later distanced himself from. She also cast the Senate race as a referendum on hate in politics.“What our students see, what our children see, and who we are as Michiganders is not hate and it’s not what we’re getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” Stevens said. She added that she was “still a very proud Democrat.”Representative Haley Stevens, Democrat of Michigan, just endorsed Michigan’s Republican Senate nominee, former Representative Mike Rogers, in a stunning reversal. She had initially endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated her in the Democratic Senate primary.“Our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said in a video posted to X this afternoon. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am voting for Mike Rogers for United States Senate.”The video went live while Stevens was sitting beside Rogers in a service at a Black church in Detroit, Perfecting Church.Representative Haley Stevens and Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, have been watching the church service from the second pew. Stevens occasionally raised her right arm in praise and seemed into the sermon, while Rogers nodded along while sharing whispers with his wife, who sat next to him. Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, also attended. The service is wrapping up, and the two couples have joined the rest of the parishioners in standing and applauding the minister’s big finish. There was no reference to Stevens and Rogers during the sermon. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTEl-Sayed’s primary opponent endorses his Senate rival.ImageRepresentative Haley Stevens, Democrat of Michigan, sitting next to Mike Rogers, Republican candidate, at a church service in Detroit.Credit...Jose Juarez/Associated PressRepresentative Haley Stevens, Democrat of Michigan, on Sunday withdrew her support for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in the state and her former primary rival, and endorsed his Republican opponent, a stunning last-minute turn in a race that is critical to the battle for Senate control.“Our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Ms. Stevens said in a video on social media. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am voting for Mike Rogers for United States Senate.”The extraordinary development reflected both the bitter disagreements over Israel and the personal animosity between the two prominent Michigan Democrats.Ms. Stevens, a moderate and a strong supporter of Israel, often clashed with Dr. El-Sayed, an outspoken progressive critic of the country, during their contentious primary race. After he narrowly beat her in August, she immediately endorsed him and they seemed to reach a quiet truce. Then, this month, she began to criticize him in news interviews, and in recent days, they traded public barbs over his stance on Israel. But she continued to cautiously commit to supporting Dr. El-Sayed and the full Democratic ticket.Ms. Stevens’s endorsement video went online while she appeared on Sunday morning with Mr. Rogers at a Black church in Detroit. In the video, she said she “does not stand with Dr. Abdul’s campaign,” nor with Hasan Piker, a provocative left-wing streamer with whom Dr. El-Sayed campaigned in the primary and from whom he later distanced himself.Ms. Stevens cast the Senate race — which has also included waves of Republican attacks on Dr. El-Sayed’s Muslim faith and background — as a referendum on hate in politics. She added that she was “still a very proud Democrat.”Miles away, Dr. El-Sayed was at a church service with other Democratic leaders, an event that had been intended to display party unity. On Saturday, he had publicly urged Ms. Stevens to stay away from that gathering, deepening the growing tension between the two Democrats.After the news of Ms. Stevens’s endorsement of Mr. Rogers, Dr. El-Sayed sought to downplay its significance.“None of this matters,” he told reporters.Ms. Stevens’s move shocked other Democrats and upended her congressional office, with several top officials announcing their resignations. Many Democrats condemned the effort to undermine Dr. El-Sayed so close to an important election for the party.Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, called the move a “despicable betrayal.” The chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus, Virgie Rollins, accused Ms. Stevens of “using Black Michiganders for a political stunt” and called her a “sellout.” And the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, accused Ms. Stevens of having “abandoned everything she claims to care about.”Ms. Stevens’s chief of staff, Justin German, announced Sunday that he and “many members of her team” had resigned over the decision. “This election is too important to sow division or stand on the sidelines,” he wrote in a statement, adding that staff members had been “heartbroken” by Ms. Stevens’s decision. Logan Basch, Ms. Stevens’s director of communications, also resigned on Sunday, according to an auto-reply email.Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said in an interview that he had been “blindsided” by Ms. Stevens’s decision, and that she had told him in a phone call around 10 p.m. on Saturday night that she was still behind Dr. El-Sayed.Mr. Raskin recalled in an interview that he had pressed Ms. Stevens. “I just want to be very clear about that: You’re supporting the whole ticket, including Abdul?” he recalled asking her. “And she said yes.”Addressing reporters after the service, Ms. Stevens said that she “woke up this morning and I decided to go to church and I am here with the person that I am voting for, for United States Senate. And that is Mike Rogers.”President Trump, who has repeatedly made anti-Muslim attacks against Dr. El-Sayed, said on Truth Social that Ms. Stevens had shown “bravery” and “almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan.”Ms. Stevens’s announcement capped off a roller-coaster week of public back and forth between the two Democrats.Last week, Ms. Stevens demanded that Dr. El-Sayed denounce an ad from an outside group that she has argued amounts to “fear-mongering about Israel.” But on Thursday, Ms. Stevens said that she planned to campaign with Dr. El-Sayed this weekend.Those plans, however, were upended when she issued a statement on Friday morning demanding an apology for comments Dr. El-Sayed had made about Israel.Dr. El-Sayed pushed back, saying she was no longer welcome.“I don’t want any distractions,” he told reporters on Saturday. He added, “It seems as though other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about.”On Sunday, Dr. El-Sayed attended the service without Ms. Stevens at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland also attended, and Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, introduced Dr. El-Sayed at the event. A third former Senate primary candidate, Mallory McMorrow, was also there.Ms. Stevens had strong support from Black voters in Detroit during the primary, and Dr. El-Sayed has worked to gain their support during the general election. Mr. Rogers has also campaigned heavily in Detroit.Early this month, Ms. Stevens expressed confidence that Black voters would support Dr. El-Sayed over Mr. Rogers, telling CNN that Black voters “know that our Republican nominee, he’s certainly not going to lift a finger for Social Security and Medicare, and, you know, a host of issues that are on the ballot.”On Wednesday, however, Ms. Stevens suggested in another CNN interview that Black voters were wavering on whether to support Dr. El-Sayed, an Egyptian American who has struggled to bridge tensions between Black and Arab American voters in the Detroit area.“I’m hearing from Black voters, and I still want the Democratic Party to have these coalitions in it,” Ms. Stevens told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. She called on Dr. El-Sayed to “make people who are in my coalition feel comfortable coming to the polls.”Ms. Stevens and Mr. Rogers sat together in the second pew at Perfecting Church, a prominent Black church in Detroit, on Sunday morning. Mr. Rogers’s wife and Jason Turkish, Ms. Stevens’s fiancé, also attended. Mr. Turkish has endorsed Mr. Rogers.Evan Gorelick and Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPaxton and Talarico battle over ‘what makes a Texan.’Ken Paxton speaking in McAllen, Texas, in July and James Talarico in Dallas, in October.Christopher Lee for The New York Times, Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesA Mexican ballad played across Spanish-language radio stations in Texas earlier this month. Accompanied by an upbeat guitar, a singer celebrated a young man raised by a single mother who instilled strong values:He’s an ally of the peopleHe’ll stand with themPaxton only looks at his ambitionThe hero of this corrido, a traditional Mexican narrative ballad, was James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas. The song was an ad commissioned by Lone Star Rising, a super PAC backing Mr. Talarico, and it was performed by Latin Grammy winner Salvador “Chava” Chavez.In the race for Senate, Texas culture has become its own battleground.From cowboy boots to a “Friday Night Lights”-inspired bus tour and an appearance at a Kacey Musgraves concert, Mr. Talarico has embraced familiar Texas touchstones on the campaign trail. His Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, has drawn on the oil industry, conservative values and cowboy mythology.Mr. Paxton has leaned heavily on traditional imagery of Texas.One advertisement celebrates the state’s oil and beef industries, accompanied by images of pump jacks and cowboys on horseback. Other ads have attacked Mr. Talarico over his past comments about reducing meat consumption and his positions on gender identity, presenting him as a candidate whose values are fundamentally at odds with those of Texas.The cultural shorthand is clear. Mr. Paxton’s Texas is a place of oil fields, cattle ranches and traditional values, a state whose identity is something to be defended against change.Both he and Mr. Talarico are making a case not just for how Texas should be governed, but for what it means to be Texan.“James Talarico belongs in California, not Texas,” Mr. Paxton wrote on X earlier this month, echoing attacks on the campaign trail that have cast the eighth-generation Texan as out of step with his home state.But it was Mr. Paxton who spent part of his childhood in California, where his father was stationed with the United States Air Force, a point that Mr. Talarico has seized upon.“I believe anyone can be a Texan,” Mr. Talarico said at an October rally in Plano. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an eighth-generation Texan like me, or a California transplant like Ken Paxton.”He added, “What makes a Texan is not in the boots or in the truck; it is deep in the heart.”ImageA supporter of Mr. Talarico stop outside of Round Rock Donuts in Round Rock, Texas.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesNevertheless, Mr. Talarico has made a point of flexing his Texas bona fides: He is rarely seen without his Lucchese cowboy boots and drives a Chevrolet Colorado pickup with a bumper sticker that says “Less Honkin’ More Tonkin.’”His campaign tour, “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” is a reference to the beloved TV series “Friday Night Lights,” which immortalized small-town Texas football. And after a nearly 10-day absence last month that he attributed to the flu, he made his first public reappearance at Austin City Limits, the city’s signature music festival.“Texas is a very proud state,” said Sharon Jarvis, a political communication researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. “You can see just how proud they are, how important these symbols are, and the rhetorical work that these symbols do.”Earlier this year, during a surprise appearance with Barack Obama, Mr. Talarico’s seemingly innocuous taco order — potato, egg, and cheese — sent the internet into a tailspin. Mr. Talarico has also made appearances at a Whataburger, the state’s most loved fast-food chain.Mr. Paxton’s supporters, meanwhile, have drawn upon a different set of cultural references, invoking the Alamo and the state’s frontier mythology to challenge Mr. Talarico’s Texas credentials.ImageFormer President Barack Obama and Mr. Talarico dropped into an Austin taco joint in May.Credit...Pool photo by Joel Angel JuarezAt one October rally, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recited lyrics from a Marty Robbins song about the Alamo, summoning one of the state’s most enduring symbols of sacrifice and independence. Mayes Middleton, a Republican state senator, took aim at Mr. Talarico’s cowboy boots, accused him of wearing a zip-up pair. They were not.In Texas, where the distinctions between Wranglers and Levi’s jeans, or the amount of dirt on one’s boots (Mr. Paxton also wears Luccheses), function as subtle cues of cultural legitimacy, even the smallest decisions can become politically fraught.Take “The Great Tamale Incident.”In 1976, President Gerald Ford, campaigning for re-election, stopped at the Alamo in San Antonio, where he was offered a plate of tamales. He proceeded to bite into it without removing the corn husk, a culinary faux pas that would come to haunt him.ImageSamual Hall celebrates after Mr. Paxton wins the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in May in Plano, Texas.Credit...Desiree Rios for The New York TimesMr. Talarico, by contrast, has sought to make room for a more expansive definition of Texas identity.“We’re this big mash-up of all these different people, all these different cultures, all these different friends,” he said during his stump speech in Plano earlier this month. “Think about Tejano music. If you’re listening to a Selena song, you’re hearing Spanish vocal styles from Northern Mexico, but you’re also hearing polka dance rhythms from Czech and German immigrants.”In a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly four decades, these cultural touchstones may serve yet another function: to make the prospect of Democratic representation feel a little more familiar.Jesus Jiménez and Lauren McGaughy contributed reporting.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT