Democrats are only now realizing they like Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) more than a week after deciding to nominate Abdul el Sayed, a former Michigan health official who ran to Stevens’s left in their primary election for the U.S. Senate.Less than a week after el Sayed won their primary election by 1 percentage point, Stevens’s quirkiness is earning her newfound fans as polls find el Sayed behind Republican opponent former Rep. Mike Rogers.During their primary, Stevens was mocked for her Michigan accent and enthusiastic delivery of a since-viral “stick it to ‘em” campaign address.
Michigan Democratic political consultant and commentator Adolph Mongo, for example, told the Washington Examiner that the “only voters that didn’t buy” el Sayed’s “bulls*** were black voters.”“He’s not going to get our support in November,” said Mongo, who is black.Stevens did outperform el Sayed last week in Detroit by 6 points, and a Fox News poll published this week reported that el Sayed is underperforming among black voters, women, and suburban voters compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris in Michigan in her 2024 presidential campaign.That Fox News poll also reported that Rogers has a polling advantage over el Sayed, 51% to 47%, though that edge is within the survey’s margin of error.At the same time, Stevens is going viral again for her post-primary election interviews and campaign appearances for other Democrats, including Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley, whose opponent is her colleague, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI). This time, however, she is receiving more positive reviews.“He’s deeply conservative, and his big priority is wolves,” she told CNN this week of Tiffany. “Crowley, on the other hand, is an executive operator, and I think he’s, you know, moving and grooving to this governorship, and it’s amazing. Also, 40-year-old black man … This is cool stuff. It’s a good time to be a Democrat.”
