El-Sayed Primary Challenger Credits Republican Rogers With Courting Detroit’s Black Community

Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate, Mike Rogers, is boosting comments made by his rival Abdul El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Haley Stevens, after the congresswoman offered faint praise on Sunday of her Democratic compatriot. Ms. Stevens, who gave up her seat to run for the Senate post, is out campaigning for several congressional candidates after calling for unity following the bruising summer battle that she lost by less than one point to Dr. El-Sayed. The race also exposed some of Dr. El-Sayed’s vulnerabilities with Democratic voters as Ms. Stevens performed far better than her rival in counties and cities with large black populations.Speaking Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ms. Stevens said that she has been “on the horn” on behalf of her colleagues, doing what she can to promote their candidacies. “That’s what I do is, I win House races. And there’s — yes, there’s a lot at stake, a lot on the line, but I’m fired up for Democrats in Michigan,” Ms. Stevens said During that same appearance, however, she implicitly criticized Dr. El-Sayed for focusing too much on foreign policy, especially Israel, to the detriment of the state’s residents even as she credited him for campaigning in the predominantly white, oft-neglected Lower Peninsula. She then praised Mr. Rogers for hosting campaign events at cities like Detroit in a bid to win over more moderate, older black voters who backed Ms. Stevens. “To be fair, Mike Rogers is also campaigning rigorously in Detroit. I mean, every time you turn around, the guy is in Detroit,” Ms. Stevens said. She added that she spoke to the Michigan Democrats’ coordinated campaign about having Dr. El-Sayed address black Detroiters, but it has so far fallen on deaf ears.“I’m like, ‘Hey, give a speech in the black community,’ right? I mean, make a note of recognition for some of the pain, some of the struggles, the things that folks are going through,” she said. “That didn’t happen. That speech hasn’t happened.” Mr. Rogers’ campaign shared a clip of those comments on its Instagram account, Sunday, claiming that Ms. Stevens was articulating what Mr. Rogers has been saying on the campaign trail — that Dr. El-Sayed has made this race about something other than Michigan. “We have a ‘Democrats for Mike’ sign waiting for you, Haley Stevens!” the Rogers campaign wrote in the caption of the clip it shared on Instagram. Shortly after the August primary, Mr. Rogers launched a group called “Democrats for Mike Rogers,” though campaign finance records show that the effort is largely bankrolled by Republicans. As part of that campaign, Mr. Rogers is running an ad featuring black Detroiters who say that Dr. El-Sayed is more focused on Israel and Palestinians than the economic hardships of Michiganders. The speakers then say Mr. Rogers is the person who is focused on issues that matter to them. “Abdul El-Sayed is for Palestine, but Mike Rogers is for Michigan,” an older black woman says in an ad being run by “Democrats For Mike Rogers.” “I think Abdul cares more about the West Bank than West Detroit,” another black voter says in the ad. “We need someone who is speaking for us first,” says a third. In a follow-up question during her appearance, Ms. Stevens did not explicitly say that she is supporting Dr. El-Sayed, but that she backs the Democratic ticket as a whole, including gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who represents New York’s 8th District.“Look, I’m on the Democratic ticket. I can’t say that I agree with everything that’s gone on,” Ms. Stevens said, lamenting Dr. El-Sayed’s failure to mention Mr. Rogers’s relationship with President Trump or to recognize that Israel is an ally to the United States. On the other hand, she said, Mr. Rogers should not be questioning Dr. El-Sayed’s commitment to the United States.According to polling, Dr. El-Sayed is winning more than 95 percent of the Democratic vote, which is around the same margin Mr. Rogers is winning from Republicans in the state. Early voting tallies from the University of Florida Election Lab notes that more than 986,000 mail-in ballots have been returned so far in pre-Election Day voting. Early in-person voting began on Saturday.

El-Sayed Primary Challenger Credits Republican Rogers With Courting Detroit’s Black Community

El-Sayed Primary Challenger Credits Republican Rogers With Courting Detroit’s Black Community

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