This race could help decide who controls the Senate.

Transcript

1. One group spent 30 million dollars
2. on Haley Stevens's side of Michigan's Democratic Senate primary.
3. She still lost.
4. On Sunday, two days before the election, she endorsed the Republican.
5. The group is United Democracy Project, the spending arm of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.
6. It reported 10.5 million backing Stevens, and 20.1 million against Abdul El-Sayed.
7. El-Sayed won it by 13,792 votes.
8. Since then, filings through early October show
9. 10.7 million for El-Sayed or against Mike Rogers,
10. and 3.1 million for Rogers or against El-Sayed.
11. Rogers, who lost Michigan's other Senate seat in 2024 by 19,006 votes,
12. is running for the seat Gary Peters is leaving.
13. On Sunday, Democrats had planned to put Stevens and El-Sayed together at a church.
14. It fell apart over an ad.
15. On Friday, Stevens asked El-Sayed to condemn it.
16. An outside group made it, not his campaign.
17. In it, a shopper blames grocery prices on American money going to Israel,
18. for, quote, "killing Palestinians".
19. Stevens said it echoed El-Sayed's own words.
20. El-Sayed said he did not make it, and disagreed with it.
21. Debbie Dingell, who organized the church event,
22. says she told Stevens not to come: the fight had become a distraction.
23. Stevens went to a different church, with Rogers.
24. Then she posted this.
25. "Our Democratic nominee for U.S.
26. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign,
27. and that I should stay away.
28. And he's right.
29. And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today."
30. This race could help decide who controls the Senate.
31. Republicans hold 53 of its 100 seats.
32. Democrats and two independents who join them hold 47.
33. A majority is 51.
34. So Democrats need a net gain of four seats.
35. Michigan's seat is currently held by a Democrat.
36. If Republicans win it, Democrats would need five gains elsewhere.
37. This is why Democrats are furious at Stevens, and lined up against her.
38. Chuck Schumer, who backed her in the primary, called it "a despicable betrayal".
39. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan's other senator,
40. said anyone who makes "an election
41. this important" about themselves should think hard.
42. The state party's chair said she had
43. "abandoned everything she claims to care about".
44. Stevens told reporters, "I'm not turning my back on Democrats.
45. It is this one vote."
46. Donald Trump praised her bravery.
47. However, in August,
48. she called Rogers "another rubber stamp for Donald Trump's dangerous agenda."