WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Maria Marcotte rejected claims that fiancé Jason Turkish pressured Rep. Haley Stevens into endorsing Republican Mike Rogers.
  • Stevens said El-Sayed’s focus on Israel had become “obsessive” and that she had not been honest with herself.
  • The endorsement came two days before the midterm elections and followed El-Sayed’s refusal to denounce a Rebellion PAC advertisement.
  • National Democrats erupted over the endorsement, with Sen. Chuck Schumer calling it a “despicable betrayal.”

HUNTINGTON WOODS, MICH. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, made the decision to break with her party and endorse Republican Mike Rogers without being pushed by her fiancé, according to the congresswoman’s mother.

Maria Marcotte rejected claims that Jason Turkish manipulated her daughter into the political bombshell, as reported by The New  York Post.

Turkish, a Jewish Democrat and disability rights advocate, was the first to denounce Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. He said El-Sayed’s rhetoric was putting the safety of Jewish people at risk.

Stevens had supported El-Sayed until Sunday, when she dramatically endorsed Rogers outside a Detroit church. The move unleashed accusations that Turkish had somehow controlled her decision, a theory Marcotte flatly dismissed.

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A Post reporter reached Marcotte at Turkish’s home on Monday. Asked about claims that Stevens had been “brainwashed” by the man she plans to marry, Marcotte delivered a blunt response.

“We’re not the kind of women to be brainwashed,” Marcotte said.

Turkish declined to be interviewed, but Marcotte continued defending her daughter’s independence. She said nobody had pressured Stevens into making the endorsement.

Former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard, a Democrat, offered a much different assessment to a local news outlet. Blanchard told Gongwer News Service that Stevens “snapped.”

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Blanchard described a dinner with Stevens and Turkish a few days before her public announcement. He claimed Turkish, who is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, had been pressuring Stevens to switch sides in the race.

“He was working her over,” Blanchard said of Turkish’s behavior.

Blanchard also recounted what he said Turkish told Stevens during that dinner.

“The way he was saying it was, ‘Everyone is disappointed in you, they did everything they could to help you, and then immediately after you lose the primary, you endorsed him,’” Blanchard said.

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El-Sayed has taken strong positions against Israel, and Stevens later said her decision was based partly on what she viewed as his fixation on the country. Her explanation placed the dispute squarely on El-Sayed’s own rhetoric rather than the conspiracy theories surrounding her fiancé.

“It was obsessive, obsessive, obsessive,” Stevens told the Free Press in an interview published Monday.

Stevens also said that, after reflecting on her continued support for El-Sayed, she realized she “wasn’t being honest” with herself. Her comments portrayed the endorsement as a personal reassessment, not some command handed down by Turkish.

“I was like, ‘Wait a moment, what am I doing?” she asked. “God, I wanted to vote for him, but he just kind of said ‘Forget it.’”

The surprise endorsement arrived two days before the midterm elections. Rogers was seeking to become the first Republican elected to the Senate from Michigan since Spencer Abraham in 1994.

Tensions between Stevens and El-Sayed had been running high since he defeated her in the August Senate primary. The fight intensified after El-Sayed declined to denounce a video advertisement from Rebellion PAC, which was created by “Young Turks” host Cenk Uyghur.

Abdul El-Sayed's Latest Cringe Campaign Move Reeks of Desperation
Image Credit: Beachside Stock

The advertisement showed a couple discussing how they would have to “put those eggs back” on a grocery store shelf so they could “set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.” Both Stevens and Turkish publicly condemned the ad.

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Turkish said El-Sayed was making Jewish Michigan residents feel “unsafe.” He also connected El-Sayed’s rhetoric to threats against Jewish people, saying, “Every time he talks about genocide, Jews get death threats.”

National Democrats erupted over Stevens’ decision to endorse the Republican candidate. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called the move a “despicable betrayal,” while Stevens and her mother stood by her independence in making the choice.

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