Finally, after years of the “Democrats in disarray” narrative, after years of factional infighting over the party’s direction between the left and the center-left, between progressives and moderates, between the Democratic Socialists and the self-described pragmatists and the pundit class and the (allegedly!) cringe wine moms, it was so nice to watch everyone come together the weekend before this important, possibly history-shifting midterm election, and agree on one thing: Haley Stevens sucks.
Oh lord, does she suck. Whether you have understood that for a long time or you are a new realizer of this fact, welcome to the Haley Stevens Sucks party!
Yes, this was the weekend that Stevens, a four-term backbencher of a congresswoman who lost the Michigan Democratic primary for the Senate to Abdul El-Sayed and has apparently not gotten over it three months later, immolated her political career in one of those spectacular wildfires that draws a certain amount of horrified awe. And what was burning down here was every relationship that Haley Stevens has ever built in Democratic politics.
To recap: on Sunday, Stevens was supposed to attend church with El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn as a sort of “unity event” that would show Michigan Democrats are all in on getting El-Sayed across the finish line and into the Senate. She had said publicly that she would be there. She told people close to her she would be there. Members of her staff were there awaiting her arrival. She had assured multiple people as recently as the day before that she remained a committed member of Team Go Fight Win.
But Stevens was secretly busy stewing. Ostensibly, the reason was that she asked El-Sayed to denounce an anti-Israel ad produced by Rebellion PAC. The ad showed a Michigan couple shopping for groceries and complaining that they can’t afford $7 for a dozen eggs for their kids because they have to send that money to Israel so it can keep blowing up Palestinians.
It is an ugly and grotesque and below-the-belt ad that some people felt had anti-semitic undertones, to say nothing of it being untrue. But it’s what you would expect from a PAC founded by old friend of Wonkette Cenk Uygur, a smarmy toxic waste site of a person who would lose a battle of wits with a cabbage. Sorry Cenk, guess we’re still up the ass of the establishment, you doughy crap weasel.
El-Sayed had distanced himself from the ad, which his campaign had no role in producing. But Stevens pushed him to denounce it more forcefully. Why she thought she had the right to demand this is beyond us. She lost the primary and El-Sayed has consolidated support to the point where he is consistently ahead by several points in every poll. Given the stakes of this election, it was more than reasonable to expect losing candidates to set aside their egos. Unless they have no beliefs beyond their own self-aggrandizement, in which case you would expect them to do exactly what Stevens has done.
On Friday, El-Sayed said he no longer wanted Stevens to show up at the unity event, presumably because she was making the whole thing about herself instead of his campaign. Still, she spent the weekend telling friends she would be there, and she would vote for El-Sayed on Tuesday.
Then on Sunday morning, Stevens blindsided everyone by taking it back. She posted a video on X announcing she was endorsing El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, the execrable Mike Rogers, for the Senate seat. She then joined Rogers for services at a Black church. Afterwards, she and Rogers stood outside the church to take questions from the press, with Stevens complaining that El-Sayed had allegedly made her feel unwelcome in his campaign.
Stevens’s cancelation was immediate. Her state’s Democratic party announced she was no longer a member and yanked her name off their website. Most of her staff resigned while posting their disappointment on social media. House Democrats are beginning to call for her to be kicked her out of the caucus for the two months she has left in her term. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who had supported Stevens’s primary bid, called her actions “a despicable betrayal,” which is about as contentious as Chuck Schumer gets about anything. Democrats from Rashida Tlaib to Neera Tanden denounced her actions.
Frankly, this was the greatest Democratic unity event we can recall seeing. It’s way better than if Stevens had simply kept her word, because nobody outside of maybe a few political nerds in Michigan would have noted or cared. In this sense, we should thank Haley Stevens.
In fact, we think she should, after the election, make a desperate attempt to salvage her reputation by claiming this was her secret plan all along to unite the party. Talk about chutzpah. (Note to Stevens: if you are really converting to Judaism like you claim to be contemplating, you’re going to want to know that word.)
All this culminated in Stevens going on CNN to talk to Anderson Cooper on Sunday night, resulting in one of the most cringe-inducing, awkward interviews you will ever see. Seriously, we may have done severe psychological damage to ourselves watching this thing:
So she wants Democrats to win everything, but she’s just one smol bean casting her vote for a Republican she has previously denounced as evil. Why does anyone care what she, a public politician whose opinion apparently shouldn’t mean anything to her supporters, thinks? She just couldn’t bring herself to vote for El-Sayed. But she hopes everyone else votes for the unkind guy who hangs out with hateful bigots!
What a ringing endorsement.
Afterwards, Cooper talked to Debbie Dingell, doyenne of Democratic Michigan politics, who was visibly upset and admitted to being worried about the emotional and mental state of Haley Stevens. She was even more forceful on a local Detroit station on Sunday night in an appearance with Mallory McMorrow, who you remember came in third in August’s primary and has been all in on El-Sayed ever since. Dingell claimed she was the one who told Stevens not to come to the unity event and she and McMorrow both claimed to be concerned about Stevens’s mental state.
Meanwhile, various Michigan figures were putting out statements about the Haley Stevens the rest of us don’t know about. Here, for example, is Ray Wertz, husband of Mallory McMorrow:
Stevens’s longtime chief of staff posted that he and much of her staff had resigned in disappointment. Her friend Jordan Acker, a University of Michigan regent who once worked in the Obama administration, posted a long message about his pain at watching Stevens spin out.
Acker also put some of the blame on Stevens’s fiancé, Justin Turkish, whom he alleged had taken away her phone so no one could get hold of her. Suspicion of Turkish was pretty rampant, with quite a few people saying they think he’s a malign influence with the political instincts of used Kleenex and a head that looks like a marshmallow someone inflated with a bicycle pump and then drew weird eyebrows on.
Okay, us. We said that last one.
To his great credit, Abdul El-Sayed has been the one person who seems to have the right perspective on the weekend’s events. On Sunday, he was interviewed by Chris Hayes on MS NOW, where he made it clear that his campaign is about much more important issues than Haley Stevens’s ridiculous ego:
In the end, we doubt this whole kerfuffle will have a significant impact on the election. And if it does, it will be to El-Sayed’s benefit. Meanwhile, Haley Stevens should start prepping for her speaking slot at the 2028 GOP convention. Maybe she, John Fetterman, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema can carpool.
This holiday season, give yourself the gift of giving to Wonkette so we can keep the lights on and the eggnog flowing.
From The Lever Daily:
“Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign raised more than $2.4 million in the hours after his former primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, turned on her party and delivered a shock endorsement of Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in tomorrow’s election. Those donations came from roughly 65,000 people with an average gift of $37. More than 29,000 donors gave to the El-Sayed campaign for the first time — a damning indictment of Stevens’ “despicable betrayal,” which was widely condemned by a united front of Democratic Party leaders. “
Money talks. Sixty-five THOUSAND donors, 29,000 of them FIRST-TIME donors.
That’s one hella big rake to step on.
https://substack.com/@maximumcanes/note/c-376723165
That header pic makes her look somewhat like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, of Arkansas and the renowned family of grifters, shady-ass preachers and child molesters fame.
Stevens would be best served now by going off into the woods to live.