NY Times Highly Perturbed by Haley Stevens Dumping El-Sayed for GOP's Mike Rogers

The day before Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost Michigan's Democratic U.S. Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, startled the political world by switching her general election endorsement to EL-Sayed's Republican opponent Rep. Mike Rogers, New York Times reporter Reid Epstein wrote a hostile story, "Why Haley Stevens Can't Stop Talking About Abdul El-Sayed," in defense of El-Sayed – excuse us, Dr. El-Sayed.

Perhaps there are reasons of style policy involved, but reading New York Times coverage of Dr. El-Sayed, and remembering Times 2016 coverage of renowned brain surgeon Ben Carson makes you wonder: Did Carson ever get an MD? pic.twitter.com/E5Ol6LV8Fx

— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 16, 2026

A "how dare she!" tone permeated this early account of Stevens' misgivings about El-Sayed's hostility toward Israel. No brave post-partisan heroine like Rep. Liz Cheney here, just an outrageous party turncoat.

In his lede, Epstein used matzo ball soup as a clumsy stand in to represent Stevens' quasi-Jewish outlook.

Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan stood up from her dining table, where the tuna fish and matzo ball soup sat half-eaten, and let loose about the moment she grew disillusioned with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.

It happened this month, during her state's first Senate debate between Dr. El-Sayed, who defeated her in a bitter Democratic primary in August, and former Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee. Dr. El-Sayed, an outspoken critic of Israel, was asked if Iran or Israel posed a greater threat to the United States. He dodged the question, calling it a "ridiculous hypothetical."

This was unacceptable to Ms. Stevens.

Since the debate, Ms. Stevens has sat for a procession of cable television interviews that have been increasingly critical of Dr. El-Sayed, her endorsement of him becoming shakier by the day. Their hug at a party unity brunch in August has faded into distant memory.

On Friday, Ms. Stevens announced that she would attend a Sunday church service in Detroit with Dr. El-Sayed, a peace offering brokered by Representatives Debbie Dingell of Michigan and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina. But Ms. Stevens's statement came with a caveat: a demand that Dr. El-Sayed publicly disavow an ad that one of his allies posted online. She called the ad antisemitic because it blamed U.S. support for Israel for high grocery prices.

....

Whether their planned joint appearance on Sunday will go ahead seems up in the air.

Update: Not only would Stevens in fact not appear with El-Sayed, she did appear at a church with his election opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers.

El-Sayed eventually asked Stevens not to attend the "unity rally."

Several times in the interviews, she returned to her anger over the online ad, made by Rebellion PAC, a left-wing group that backed Dr. El-Sayed, and his refusal to publicly disavow it. The El-Sayed campaign has said it did not make and is not responsible for the ad.

"Maybe it's how you fund-raise, maybe it is what you want people to believe, but the reality is that we are not going to say that the cost of groceries is because of Jews and the Jewish state," Ms. Stevens said. "We're not going to say we don't have health care because of Jews and the Jewish state."

Epstein dove deep into Stevens' history related to Judaism, like her attendance at a Jewish sleep-away camp as a teenager and large donations to her campaign from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Her "Jewish lawyer" fiance also came under scrutiny, having previously "gone even further than she has in criticizing Dr. El-Sayed" and endorsing Rogers ("Then there is the matter of Mr. Turkish," in Epstein's ominous phrasing).

Epstein ended the story with a statement seemingly meant to be ridiculed by liberal Democrats.

Mr. Turkish said he believed Ms. Stevens, 43, still had a bright future in politics.

Indeed, liberals are out in force on social media confidently proclaiming Stevens' political career over.

When her hesitation to back El-Sayed was shockingly confirmed on Sunday, the Times treated the turnaround with a flurry of campaign stories gathered under the blunt headline, "Democratic Senate Primary Loser Endorses Republican in Michigan." "Runner-up" wouldn't have sufficed?