(Note: This article was written before any election results were announced.)
In an act of political courage, two days before Michigan voters choose their next senator, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens walked into a Detroit church alongside Republican Mike Rogers and then posted a video endorsing him. This was a moment that drove Democrats around the country into fits of hysteria, as Stevens chose not to put her support behind a jihadist Marxist who signed letters on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood and justified a terrorist attack on a Jewish day school. Democratic leadership and the extremists who have taken over their party are showing every elected official with a D next to their name exactly what happens if they step out of line.
Upon leaving the church, Stevens explained her reasoning. “Abdul said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away. And he’s right,” she said. “And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.” She added that “who we are as Michiganders is not hate, and it is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” and that she does not stand with the streamer Hasan Piker, who had appeared with El-Sayed on campuses.
Stevens, who lost the August primary to Abdul El-Sayed, had previously said she would back the nominee. She told reporters she woke up Sunday, called Rogers, and decided. In interviews that followed, including with Anderson Cooper, she described the choice as a “weight off my shoulders” and said she was putting country first. “We have to stand with country. We can’t stand with hate,” she repeated. She noted that 90 percent of her other votes would still go to Democrats, but this Senate race was different.
The Democratic reaction was immediate and uniform. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had backed Stevens in the primary, called the move a “despicable betrayal.” He insisted Senate Democrats remained “united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed” and condemned what he labeled “racist, Islamophobic, and over-the-top false attacks” on the nominee. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Stevens had “dangerously betray[ed] Michigan families’ healthcare, freedoms and future” with her “horrific endorsement.” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel declared that “Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” House Democrats texted reporters variations of “pathetic, petty, selfish” and “dumbfounded.” Several of Stevens’ own congressional staffers, including her longtime chief of staff, resigned in protest.
The party’s message was clear: No Democrat may break ranks, even when the nominee’s record includes documented support for terrorism and the campaign wouldn’t denounce an ad on its behalf blaming Jews for the price of eggs and bananas. It should make every voter wonder: If they are voting for a Democrat, will their chosen politician be able to stand up to that type of pressure?
This is not the first time a Democrat has broken ranks with the party for principled reasons. The current outcasts are John Fetterman and Ritchie Torres because they stand with Israel over the jihadist wing of the Democrats. In the past, former Senator Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona was chased into a bathroom by activists because she wouldn’t join Democrats in nuking the Senate filibuster. Multiple former Democrats, like Robert Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, have left the party over its radicalism, eventually landing in the Trump administration.
Stevens’ example is the latest in a series of anecdotes illustrating how “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party; the Democrat Party left me.” As more and more Democratic Socialists of America gain seats in state and federal government, the party of Kennedy and Clinton is becoming a distant memory. Ritchie Torres is leading the Democratic Party in the House and is kowtowing to everything the far left says and does. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading the pack in the race for the 2028 presidential nomination. With each passing election year, Democrats are getting pulled further to the left. Anyone who speaks out against this will be treated with the same hatred and contempt as Haley Stevens was. Maybe the American people should refrain from giving those people power.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
