Updated October 28, 2026, 11:57 p.m. ET
Days before the Nov. 3 election, the Democratic fiancé of former Senate candidate Haley Stevens said he intended to vote for Republican Mike Rogers for the U.S. Senate, saying he had been convinced for the past three months that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was an anti-Semite.
Stevens, however, said Wednesday evening that she still supports her former rival, El-Sayed, to whom she narrowly lost the Democratic Senate primary on August 4.
“Like many households across America, we are a house divided,” she said on CNN. “I still want our Democratic candidate, his name is Abdul, to win this race. There’s so much at stake.”
Stevens is engaged to Jason Turkish, a Jewish Democrat and civil rights and disability attorney from Huntington Woods.
“I’ve just seen an escalation in his rhetoric since the primaries, and it puts people in danger. Every time he talks about the genocide (in Gaza), Jews get death threats,” Turkish told the Detroit News of El-Sayed, a longtime critic of the Israeli government.
“We have never seen a U.S. Senate candidate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we saw with Abdul.”
Turkish, a Democratic donor who also gave to Republican candidates, described his decision to support Rogers as “putting country before party.”
El-Sayed spokeswoman Roxie Richner responded to the Turkish rebuke in a statement: “Abdul is focused on building a broad coalition to win Michigan and win back the Democratic majority in the Senate. Our tent is big enough for anyone who wants to join.”
El-Sayed later told CBS News that “there will always be people who have different opinions, and they are welcome to do so, that’s the beauty of democracy.”
“To me, this election is about controlling the United States Senate. It’s about putting a check on Donald Trump. It’s about responding to his efforts to take away everything from religious freedom to our voting rights to union rights to health care to the big ugly bill,” El-Sayed said.
“So if people see another issue that is more important to them and decide that their disagreement with me on that is greater than their agreement with me on all these other things, that’s their choice.”
Turkish attended a Rogers event on the evening of Wednesday October 28 at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. There, Rogers was scheduled to participate in a forum sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition titled “Who Will Keep Us Safe?” Rogers against El-Sayed following October 7 and the attack on the Temple of Israel.”“
Turkish is the second major figure in Stevens’ orbit to lend support to Rogers in recent days. His former campaign chairman, attorney David Kramer, told the Jewish Insider on Tuesday, October 27, that he also intended to vote for Rogers.
Stevens endorsed El-Sayed after his victory, but has not campaigned or appeared publicly with him since a Democratic unity breakfast shortly after the primary. She went on CNN Sunday and praised Rogers for “rigorously” seeking support from black voters in Detroit.
When asked if she still fully supports El-Sayed Sunday, Stevens gave a lukewarm response to CNN’s Dana Bash, saying, “Look, I’m on the Democratic ticket, you know. I can’t say I agree with everything that’s happened.”
While Stevens reaffirmed her support for El-Sayed on Wednesday, she told the network he should “do the right thing” and denounce two “hateful” ads that have appeared in recent days, including a campaign spot featuring right-wing personality Tucker Carlson and another from an outside group that attacks Rogers for his support of Israel, a U.S. ally.
“I know he has the courage to speak out against these two ads and remove them,” Stevens said. “I know undecided voters would feel very reassured to see that: we can win this seat.”
Turks have become more involved in politics over the past five or six years. He has worked primarily with Michigan Democrats, but he has also donated to Republicans, including embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, donating more than $24,000 to her allied committees last year, according to federal records. He gave nearly $200,000 to federal Democratic candidates and committees this cycle.
Turkish said that three months ago he hoped El-Sayed would overcome divisions over Israel from the primary, move to the middle and unite the party behind him. But that’s not what happened, Turkish said.
“In the end, it wasn’t close at all,” Turkish told The News.
In explaining his decision to vote for Rogers, Turkish pointed in part to El-Sayed’s remark that Israel is not a U.S. ally and his refusal, in a debate, to answer the question of whether Iran or Israel poses a greater threat to the United States.
Turks were also disappointed by El-Sayed’s response this week to a viral social media ad set in a grocery store that Turks and other critics say is scapegoating Israel and Jews for cost-of-living problems.
El-Sayed distanced himself from advertising from the outside group Rebellion PAC. But Turkey criticized the Democratic candidate for not explicitly disavowing his message or calling for it to be removed after being given days to do so.
“This amounts to blaming Jews for problems that are in no way their fault: it is a centuries-old anti-Semitic trope,” Turkish said.
In Turkey’s fundraising appeals, El-Sayed has continued to criticize the pro-Israeli American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the reason it lacks funding. The group spent more than $30 million against El-Sayed in the primary.
El-Sayed also appeared defensive when reporters asked him about his association with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has faced accusations of anti-Semitism, Turkish noted. El-Sayed has not severed ties with Piker but has also not appeared or campaigned with him since the August primaries.
“I’m going to vote for Mike Rogers. It’s the best measure of support I can give to someone, it’s my vote, and that’s what I intend to do. But it’s not a decision I ever thought I would have to make,” Turkish said, noting that he did not vote for Rogers when he ran for Senate in 2024.
“The fact that I may disagree with Mike Rogers on a whole host of policy issues, but I have absolutely no reason to believe that he’s not a patriot, that he doesn’t love this country, and that he doesn’t care about keeping the Jewish people safe. And, you know, at the end of the day, that has to be the math that matters most, at least this time.”
Turkish acknowledged that, if Rogers wins, President Donald Trump might find it easier to push through judicial nominees.
“It’s not easy. I’m a lawyer. I’m a civil rights lawyer. I care a lot about our courts. I care about the federal court system,” Turkish said. “This is not an easy decision for me as an individual voter, but I saw what happened, and it got much worse.”
Turkish said he graduated from the University of Michigan with El-Sayed and was in the audience when El-Sayed gave their class’s commencement speech. This initiative was highly praised by former President Bill Clinton, who followed El-Sayed’s remarks on stage.
“Clinton saw the obvious political talent in Abdul El-Sayed. I see it too. It’s obvious that he is a talented politician, an eloquent speaker,” Turkish said.
“Abdul knows how to bring people together. He just chose not to.”
mburke@detroitnews.com
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