Ex-Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard (D) — a longtime friend of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) — revealed that her stunning endorsement of U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers (R) occurred less than 48 hours after she told him over dinner that she planned to reiterate her support for Rogers’ opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
“Something snapped in her,” said Blanchard, who shared details about the dinner in an interview with Gongwer News Service.
Stevens — who fell to El-Sayed in the primaries before swiftly endorsing him in August — did a U-turn Sunday when she appeared with Rogers at a Black church service in Detroit and, not long after, endorsed him in a social media video, a move top Democrats called a potential career-ender.
She had been expected to attend a different church service with El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) in the city, an attempt to signal unity in the party.
But, in the lead-up to Sunday, the congresswoman — who is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — and her fiancé, Jason Turkish, ramped up their criticisms toward El-Sayed’s views on Israel, pressuring the progressive to denounce ads backing his bid that they called “hateful” and antisemitic.
With Election Day just around the corner, El-Sayed’s campaign, in response, asked Stevens last week to stay away from future campaign events.
Turkish — who is Jewish and has donated to AIPAC — had endorsed Rogers days before attending the dinner with Stevens on Friday.
Blanchard, speaking on Turkish’s behavior at the dinner, told Gongwer, “He was working her over.”
“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.
Blanchard said he pushed back, telling Turkish that Stevens was a “team player,” but he wasn’t having it.
Blanchard went on to question how he could hold his partner to a “higher standard” than Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who is Jewish and has thrown her support behind El-Sayed.
Turkish donated $15,000 toward a political action committee supporting Slotkin’s 2024 campaign, per federal election data.
Blanchard said of Turkish, “He was all distraught. He was all strung out about Abdul.”
“I let her know, he’s not a good influence. She said, ‘I’m fine.’”
Blanchard stressed in the interview that “this is not the Haley I know.”
“The only person who’s harmed in all this brouhaha is Haley Stevens. It’s tragic. I don’t know what happened. It’s irrational,” he said.
Blanchard, in a separate report by The Washington Post, revealed that Stevens texted him on Saturday and early Sunday confirming she’d attend the service with El-Sayed and Clyburn, adding that she said she was “happy” to join the Democrats and asked the former governor to join her.
In the hours since the Senate race shocker, Stevens has struggled to defend flipping her endorsement to Rogers, someone she once described as the “worst kind of politician” and another “rubber stamp” for President Donald Trump’s agenda.
El-Sayed saw his biggest fundraising day on Sunday, raising $2.4 million with contributions from over 29,000 first-time donors.
The Democrat leads Rogers by 11 percentage points among likely voters in Michigan, per a new poll shared by The New York Times/Siena University.