Haley Stevens stands by Mike Rogers endorsement: ‘I don’t regret it’

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) is sticking by her cross-party endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race despite Democrat Abdul el Sayed’s victory in the contest.“I recognize that my decision has consequences. All important decisions do,” Stevens said in a statement on Wednesday. “I don’t regret it, but I am truly sorry that it upset some of my colleagues and people I care about personally.”El Sayed defeated Rogers early Wednesday morning, with the Associated Press calling the race at 2:27 a.m. Eastern. As of Wednesday afternoon, with 98.% of the vote counted, el Sayed garnered 52.51% of the vote, while Rogers held 45.49% of the vote. Stevens, who endorsed el Sayed shortly after her Democratic primary loss to the now senator-elect, sparred with el Sayed throughout his general election over his criticisms of the Israeli government and support for Palestinians. Stevens did not campaign with el Sayed during the general election, and their tensions came to a head just days before voters hit the polls, as she flipped and made a last-minute endorsement for Rogers.Stevens said in her post-election statement that she only regrets her original endorsement of el Sayed.“As co-chair of the House caucus on antisemitism, endorsing a man who stood with Hasan Piker and his antisemitic bile was always a tough fit for me,” Stevens said, referring to the socialist Twitch streamer who campaigned with el Sayed during the Democratic primary. “But I’ve been taught my whole political life that at the end of an election, you come together and support the winner, and I hoped I could help him moderate. Instead, he got worse.”“I regret my original endorsement, because I could have spared the country and my family from these past few days and from attempts to find a cause for an action that is consistent with a lifetime of my beliefs,” she continued. “The endorsement was the outlier act. Rescinding it was not.”DEMOCRATS SHRED HALEY STEVENS AFTER DEFECTION TO MIKE ROGERS: ‘DESPICABLE BETRAYAL’Stevens has received significant blowback from her party for bucking el Sayed, including from lawmakers who initially supported her primary candidacy, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who called her support for Rogers a “despicable betrayal.”El Sayed snubbed off the endorsement drama, telling reporters on Sunday that “none of this matters.”