Chuck Schumer spent the weekend promising Senate Democrats were united behind Abdul El-Sayed.
Then a sitting Democrat congresswoman picked up the phone and blew that promise apart.
What a Michigan rabbi said next is why Schumer is now calling his own voters traitors.
Stevens Endorsed Mike Rogers for Michigan Senate After Sunday Church Call
Haley Stevens represented Michigan's 11th District for four terms before losing her Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed in August.
She spent the months after that loss dodging every question about whether she actually backed him.
On Sunday, Stevens called Rogers, attended a church service with him, and posted her endorsement before the day was out.
Rogers told Brian Kilmeade the call "flipped this thing upside down."
Stevens didn't just withhold her endorsement from El-Sayed – she handed it to the Republican running against him, one day before Michigan voters pick who replaces retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
She said El-Sayed personally told her to "stay away" from his campaign, and that his "anger" and "lack of kindness" made her decision easy.
El-Sayed spent his primary campaigning alongside livestreamer Hasan Piker, whom Michigan GOP Communications Director Ted Goodman says once claimed America "deserved" the September 11 attacks.
Stevens looked at that and called Rogers "a patriot" instead.
She wasn't exactly hiding how she felt before Sunday, either.
A CNN interview in October couldn't get a straight answer out of her either – the closest Stevens came was saying she was "still on the team."
That's not a woman who got talked into a surprise endorsement at the last minute, that's a woman who spent a month deciding how to leave quietly before she decided to leave loudly instead.
Democrats Attack Stevens While Jewish Voters Abandon Abdul El-Sayed
Schumer called the endorsement a "despicable betrayal" within hours of the video going up.
Nancy Pelosi said Stevens was "dangerously" betraying Michigan families.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused her of selling out working people's healthcare and rent.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel announced Stevens was no longer a member of his party, "nor will she be in the future."
Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch had a very different reaction.
He said the party's embrace of El-Sayed, and then its treatment of Stevens for breaking with him, is why his family is switching their registration.
"This is a signal to Jews that we're no longer safe in the Democratic party," Schonbuch said.
Goodman made his case at a joint news conference where Michigan Republicans and Jewish community leaders both came out against El-Sayed.
Vice President JD Vance said the endorsement gives "certain voters who … wouldn't normally vote for a Republican" permission to do exactly that.
Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman Already Wrote This Playbook
Stevens isn't even the only major labor or political figure breaking ranks for Republicans this cycle.
Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien, a "self-described lifelong Democrat," endorsed Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in Florida this weekend, crediting her with protecting union pension funds.
Zell Miller, a Democrat senator from Georgia, crossed the aisle to campaign for George W. Bush in 2004 because he said his own party had drifted too far left to recognize.
Joe Lieberman did the same thing in 2008, backing John McCain after national Democrats tried to run him out of the party entirely.
Both men lived out the same story Stevens just did – the party moved left, and they didn't move with it.
Washington Examiner reporting confirms this isn't just a Michigan problem – national Democrats are trying to distance themselves from the same Piker because he's become too toxic to defend.
A party that can't say no to a guy who talks like that isn't a coalition anymore – it's a hostage situation, and Stevens just walked out of the building before Schumer could stop her.
Rabbi Schonbuch didn't say Jewish voters are leaving over policy disagreements – he said they're leaving because their own party won't defend them, and that's a sentence Democrats should sit with long after Tuesday.
Sources:
- Alec Schemmel, "Mike Rogers Dishes on How Shock Haley Stevens Endorsement Unfolded Hours Before Election Day," Fox News, November 2, 2026.
- Peter D'Abrosca, "Mamdani, Hasan Piker Among Radical Left-Wing Voices Erupting Over Haley Stevens' Endorsement Switch," Fox News, November 2, 2026.
- Louis Casiano, "Michigan GOP, Jewish Leaders Condemn El-Sayed, Back Rogers in Senate Race," Fox News, November 2, 2026.
- Joe Concha, "Democrats Try to Divorce Themselves From a Toxic Hasan Piker," Washington Examiner, August 29, 2026.
- Novi Zhukovsky, "Jewish Voters Desert Democratic Party Over the Left's Anti-Israel Fanaticism, Says Pro-Israel Democratic Representative," New York Sun, November 6, 2024.
- Fox News Staff, "Zell Miller Kicks Off Democrats for Bush," Fox News, 2004.
- Charles Creitz, "Union Boss Stuns With Major Republican Endorsement as Election Nears," Fox News, November 2, 2026.
