Michigan Democrat makes shock U-turn to back Republican as her party gets Senate poll boost

A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSWOMAN in Michigan has endorsed a Republican candidate for the US Senate amid party infighting.

Polls showed Democrats are all but certain to take the majority from Republicans in the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s vote and have a real shot at winning the Senate.

However, Haley Stevens, who is a representative in the key swing state of Michigan, has said she wants to endorse Republican nominee Mike Rogers.

She said the decision followed comments by the Democratic nominee Abdul Al-Sayed that Stevens was “no longer welcome” on his campaign. The two had differing views on Israel.

“I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign,” she said.

Stevens was defeated by Al-Sayed in the contest to become the Democratic Senate candidate and had said she would support him before a shock decision yesterday to back his Republican challenger. 

I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. https://t.co/pQgfSBuhOJ

— Haley Stevens (@HaleyforMI) November 1, 2026

Stevens went on to say that she takes issue with Hasan Piker, a left-wing commentator and influencer who regularly speaks at universities.

“What our students see, what our children see, and who we are as Michiganders is not hate,” she said.

“It’s not what we’re getting out of our Democratic nominee right now.”

Abdul El-Sayed Alamy Stock Photo

A number of people on Stevens’s team have resigned over the shock move, with her former chief of staff saying the election is “too important to sow political division”.

On Sunday, Republicans made a final push to prevent a predicted thumping in the midterm elections.

Democrats are gunning to win control of Congress and impose a first political check on Donald Trump’s unprecedented pursuit of power.

But after a decade of him defying political gravity and two years of a second presidency in which he has ridden roughshod over every norm, Democrats remain nervous.

“Nauseously optimistic,” Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN to describe the mood.

Those jitters increased Stevens’ abandonment of her party’s candidate.

The consensus among analysts, however, is that Democrats are still surging.

In a series of polls released last night from the New York Times/Siena, Democrats are leading in seven swing state seats, more than the four they need to flip to take control of the Senate. 

The final Times/Siena polls of the campaign find Democrats ahead in all seven of the states likeliest to decide the Senate https://t.co/y1WTRFHnUT https://t.co/UG7mrpLUlW

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 2, 2026

$5k for everyone?

Trump headlined the Republicans’ last-ditch charge, holding rallies for candidates in Iowa and Kansas – states where ordinarily his party should be confident of victory and not require presidential boosts.

Along with making lurid claims that Democrats will turn the country communist, Trump is dangling the promise of $5,000 (€4,000) payments to everyone in the country if his party wins.

“We’re going to win,” he told the crowd in Iowa, painting Democrats as “extreme and dangerous radicals” who will “steal your wealth” and let in migrants to “ransack, rape and plunder.”

But it seems Americans have soured on Trump’s wrecking-ball presidency.

An NBC News poll released Sunday showed 60% disapprove of Trump’s performance, particularly over high prices exacerbated by his now eight-month, sputtering war against Iran.

While Tuesday is election day, early voting has already seen a record 54 million people cast ballots around the country, reflecting the intense political fervour.

With reporting by AFP