Haley Stevens’ Fiancé Says He Will Vote for Rogers Over El-Sayed in Michigan Senate Race

Congresswoman Haley Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, will vote for the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Mike Rogers, over Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee. Ms. Stevens narrowly lost the Democratic primary to Dr. El-Sayed over the summer. Mr. Turkish, who became engaged to the four-term congresswoman earlier this year, told The Detroit News in an interview on Wednesday that he believes Dr. El-Sayed is an antisemite. He cited Dr. El-Sayed’s inability to condemn an ad from an outside group that blamed Israel for high grocery prices, his decision to blame Israel for the war in Iran, and his intense and persistent criticisms of the Israeli government as reasons that he came to his conclusion. “I’ve just seen an escalation in his rhetoric since the primary, and it makes folks unsafe. Every time he talks about genocide … Jews get death threats,” Mr. Turkish, who is Jewish, said. Ms. Stevens, who is not Jewish, has endorsed Dr. El-Sayed, though during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, she would only say that she was on the Democratic “team” when asked if she was still supporting Dr. El-Sayed. She did not mention him by name, though she did praise her party’s nominee for Michigan governor and the House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. She also praised Mr. Rogers for “rigorously” campaigning in the heavily Black city of Detroit, where Ms. Stevens says Dr. El-Sayed has failed to connect with some members of the community. During an appearance on CNN’s “The Source” on Wednesday night, Ms. Stevens said “of course” she is supporting Dr. El-Sayed. “Like a lot of households across America, we’re a household divided,” she said with a smile of her fiancé.“We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul,” Mr. Turkish told The News on Wednesday, saying that his vote for Mr. Rogers is “putting country before party.”Mr. Turkish has given more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates and outside spending groups during the 2026 midterm cycle, though critics were quick to jump on Mr. Turkish’s support for Senator Susan Collins, the moderate Republican from Maine who is running for re-election. Mr. Turkish has given $24,000 to groups supporting Ms. Collins this year. On Wednesday, Mr. Turkish attended an event with Mr. Rogers which focused on the aftermath of the March terrorist attack on Temple Israel, a synagogue located at West Bloomfield Township, a locality with a large Jewish population that Ms. Stevens represents in Congress. The perpetrator was Lebanese-American Ayman Mohamed Ghazali who lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, including a brother who was accused by Israel of being a Hezbollah commander. Ghazali attacked the synagogue in response to the Israel airstrike, according to the FBI.As part of the attack, Ghazali rammed his car through the building, hitting a security guard before lodging himself inside of the vehicle once stuck inside of a hallway. He opened fire on security personnel and later committed suicide inside the car. Dozens of law enforcement officers were later treated for smoke inhalation after the attack. Dr. El-Sayed later implied that he understood why Ghazali carried out the attack, declaring that, “Hurt people do hurt people.” He condemned the violence and made the comments at a press event alongside Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. “In the end, this ended up not being a close call at all,” Mr. Turkish said of his decision to support Mr. Rogers. Mr. Turkish is not the only Democrat either supporting Mr. Rogers or urging Democrats to leave the Senate section of their ballots blank next week. David Kramer, Ms. Stevens’ Senate campaign chairman and the finance chairman for Senator Elissa Slotkin’s 2024 Senate race, is supporting Mr. Rogers. A former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, Lon Johnson, wrote on X that Democrats should not cast a Senate vote this year, saying that they should not be “complicit in excusing or accepting extremism to beat extremism.”Mr. Turkish pointed to an ad that recently ran blaming Israel for higher prices here in the United States. Mr. Turkish said that ad is “blaming Jews for problems that are in no way traceable to them,” calling it “an ages-old antisemitic trope.”Ms. Stevens condemned the ad, saying it was “blaming the high costs of our goods on the only Jewish homeland in the world.” Dr. El-Sayed did not condemn the ad, saying only that it was not affiliated with his campaign.Mr. Turkish also pointed to Dr. El-Sayed’s comments during a debate with Mr. Rogers earlier this month in which he refused to say if Israel or Iran was a greater threat to the United States. Dr. El-Sayed called the question “a ridiculous hypothetical.” He said at the time that Israel “pushed” America into war with Iran. “Both of them have proven dangerous in their own way,” he said when pressed on which country was a greater threat. Mr. Turkish — a civil rights attorney — told The News that his vote is the most sacred thing to him and that he wrestled with how he would vote in November. He said his vote is “the highest measure of the support I can give somebody … and that’s what I intend to do.” Mr. Turkish did not vote for Mr. Rogers two years ago, when he narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race to Ms. Slotkin. “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 isn’t a patriot, that he doesn’t love this country, and that he doesn’t care about keeping the Jewish people safe,” Mr. Turkish said. “And, you know, at the end of the day, that’s just got to be the math that matters more, at least this time.”Mr. Turkish and Dr. El-Sayed were actually students together at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor for their undergraduate years, and Mr. Turkish said he remembers Dr. El-Sayed’s rousing commencement speech that was delivered from the same stage on which President Clinton stood. Mr. Turkish said both he and Mr. Clinton understand that Dr. El-Sayed is a political talent, but Mr. Turek says the Senate nominee is purposefully not attempting to unify the Democratic Party and Michigan more broadly. “Abdul knows how to bring people together. He’s just chosen not to,” Mr. Turkish said.

Haley Stevens’ Fiancé Says He Will Vote for Rogers Over El-Sayed in Michigan Senate Race

Haley Stevens’ Fiancé Says He Will Vote for Rogers Over El-Sayed in Michigan Senate Race

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