El Sayed asks Haley Stevens to stay away from campaign events

The campaign for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El Sayed has asked Representative Haley Stevens to stay away from his remaining campaign events. According to reports by the Washington Examiner, the New York Post, Mediaite, and CBS News, the decision comes as an escalation of a feud between the two Democrats days before Election Day. El Sayed is an epidemiologist and public health administrator who won the Democratic nomination for the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan. [1][3][4][5][10][12][13][14]

The conflict between the two politicians reopened past disputes over Israel. The Washington Examiner, the Washington Times, and NBC News reported that Stevens and El Sayed clashed over an advertisement attacking United States aid to Israel. The Washington Examiner noted that Stevens called the advertisement antisemitic and asked El Sayed to condemn it, while the New York Post reported that Stevens demanded an apology over El Sayed's comments regarding Israel. [2][3][5][9]

Stevens serves as the United States representative from Michigan's 11th congressional district, representing urbanized Oakland County and Detroit's northern suburbs. She ran against El Sayed for the Democratic Senate nomination before losing to him in the primary. As FTMQ News reported earlier, El Sayed narrowly defeated Stevens in the August primary, and the two had been scheduled to campaign together just prior to Election Day in their first shared appearance since a post-primary unity breakfast. [13][14][16]

The request for Stevens to stay away threatens efforts by Democrats to present a unified front to flip the critical Senate seat. As FTMQ News reported earlier, recent polling had shown El Sayed leading Republican candidate Mike Rogers by 7 points, though Stevens' fiance, Jason Turkish, recently announced he would vote for Rogers in the election due to concerns about El Sayed. [1][3][16][17]