Some Michigan Jewish Democrats disavow Stevens over endorsement of El-Sayed’s GOP rival

JTA — Key Jewish Democratic figures denounced pro-Israel US Rep. Haley Stevens’ endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open US Senate seat on Sunday.

Some, including Michigan congressional candidate Jeremy Moss, spoke at a press conference at the United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit to support Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed hours after Stevens, a Democrat, endorsed Rogers across town.

“There are people who are looking at their ballot right now and feeling genuine anguish. I understand this,” Moss told the crowd, naming the spring’s Temple Israel attack in the state. “But Mike Rogers is not the solution to this problem.”

Moss has had his own public disagreements with El-Sayed, and has not formally endorsed him. He dropped a subtle dig Sunday at anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker, a former campaign ally of El-Sayed’s who has disparaged both Moss and Jewish voters in his suburban district: “There have been people who have trafficked in antisemitism and have beleaguered Oakland County voters.”

Yet Moss also stated: “I would rather debate our disagreements in a democratic institution than one that has been eroded by Trump and Rogers.”

Moss is running for the seat in the US House that Stevens abandoned for her unsuccessful run against El-Sayed for the Democratic Senate nomination.

Moss appeared with Jewish former congressman Andy Levin, who has backed El-Sayed for months and told the crowd that the candidate “deeply respects Judaism and the Jewish people.”

Also present were Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow, who also ran in the Democratic primary against El-Sayed; and pro-Palestinian politicians including Michigan state Senate candidate Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the “Uncommitted” movement in 2024 that targeted then-president Joe Biden at the ballot box over Gaza.

Their joint message: All Democrats, Jewish and not, should back El-Sayed and reject Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers.

Simultaneously, another Democrat, Michigan Rep. Hillary Scholten, appeared with several rabbis to address a different audience of Jews uncomfortable with El-Sayed’s rhetoric on Israel. On that Zoom following Scholten’s appearance, some leaders of the Nonnegotiable movement urged their group of Jewish voters to write in “Emma Lazarus,” the 19th-century Jewish poet and activist whose words grace the base of the Statue of Liberty, on their ballots instead.

Scholten did not urge the Jews on the call in one direction or another, nor did she mention Stevens. But she has publicly voiced her own disapproval of El-Sayed and refused to endorse him.

“We know that in this moment, it has never, ever been more important to stand up and push back against antisemitism that has been given far, far too much of a platform in American politics,” she told the Zoom crowd.

One of Nonnegotiable’s organizers, Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, told people on the call that he has “profound respect for Haley Stevens.”

“I have profound respect for her willingness to put herself out there,” Starr said. “I have deep respect for her willingness to stand up, to speak out and take a stand in this difficult moment.”

The dual perspectives epitomized the dilemma many of Michigan’s Jewish voters are facing in the campaign’s final days. A sizable contingent of the state’s Jews are increasingly troubled by El-Sayed’s statements on Israel and antisemitic acts, including his recent refusal to name whether Israel or Iran posed a greater threat to the United States. Some, including Stevens’ fiancé Jason Turkish, a Democratic megadonor, have publicly said they would vote for Rogers.

Yet the race, which is one of several pivotal to Democrats taking control of the Senate, has also troubled many liberal Jews who see GOP policies as deeply antithetical to their beliefs. Many for that reason view Stevens’ endorsement, which she said was meant to stand against hate, as a betrayal.

New York Jewish progressive congressional candidate Brad Lander castigated Stevens in a video from Brooklyn.

“Maybe she doesn’t care about throwing away reproductive rights, throwing away civil rights,” said Lander, who has spoken to Michigan Jews in support of El-Sayed. “But to do it all in the name of so-called Jewish safety, boy, as an American Jew I can tell you that’s not the way that anybody, Jews or Muslims or anybody else, will be saved.”

Ray Wert, McMorrow’s Jewish husband, said on X that he had urged Stevens to sign her name to an op-ed condemning Rogers for his own interactions with antisemitic individuals, including a major donor who promotes Christian nationalism and a former student campaign organizer who had tweeted about wanting to send Jews to North Korea. She refused, Wert claimed.

He posted a copy of the op-ed, which included the line: “I can’t hold one standard for Democrats and a softer one for Republicans and still claim to have a standard at all.”