Stevens' Staff Walks Out: More Than Half Quit Over Rogers Endorsement

More than half of Rep. Haley Stevens' congressional staff quit on Sunday in protest of her endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers over Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, according to the Detroit Free Press. Her longtime chief of staff, Justin German, said many members of the team had resigned, including himself, and urged voters to back El-Sayed and Democrats down the ballot.

She recorded it after attending a church service with him at the predominantly Black Perfecting Church in Detroit. "I don't belong in Abdul's campaign," Stevens said in the video.

El-Sayed dropped Stevens from a planned campaign event on Sunday before she endorsed Rogers, and the break followed an escalating feud between the former primary rivals, primarily over support for Israel.

Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel said Stevens is no longer a member of the state party. "Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future," he said.

Stevens told CNN her decision to back Rogers is "rock solid," but declined to explain why she changed her mind.

The defection lands days before the election, with control of the Senate at stake. El-Sayed raised $1.2 million after the switch, his second-largest single-day total, and led Rogers by 11 points in a New York Times poll cited by CNN.

What remains unclear is the precise number of staffers who resigned and the roles they held. German said "many" members of the team had left; the Free Press reported well over half of the congressional staff quit.

The episode tests how far a party will go to punish internal dissent — and whether a staff walkout and state-party expulsion become a template for handling defectors in the final days of a closely watched race.