Mamdani Says Haley Stevens “Betrayed” Working Families by Endorsing Republican Mike Rogers

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused Rep. Haley Stevens of betraying working families after the Michigan Democrat endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the U.S. Senate less than 48 hours before Election Day. “Working class people’s lives are on the ballot on Tuesday—their healthcare, their rent, their bills,” Mamdani wrote on X. “Haley Stevens just betrayed them by endorsing the very Republican she said she wanted to run against.”

Mamdani’s post put the country’s most prominent democratic socialist at the center of a wave of left-wing fury over Stevens’ decision. Stevens announced the endorsement in a video posted to X on Sunday, Nov. 1, after attending a Detroit church service with Rogers that morning. “I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,” she said. “I am just one person. I love this state. I’m just letting you know where I am. I’m still a very proud Democrat.” Rogers faces Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in a race that could help decide control of the Senate.

Details & Background

Stevens narrowly lost the Aug. 4 Democratic primary to El-Sayed and leaves Congress in January. According to Fox News, she had said she would appear at a campaign event with El-Sayed if he denounced an ad from the Rebellion PAC that she viewed as antisemitic. The PAC is run by Cenk Uygur, the uncle of left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, whom El-Sayed has campaigned with. Instead of denouncing the ad, El-Sayed’s campaign disinvited her. “Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome on his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said.

Mamdani’s charge that Stevens backed the man she once ran against is grounded in her own past words. Newsweek reported that Stevens had repeatedly called Rogers a “rubber stamp” for President Donald Trump and had attacked him in social media posts as “Millionaire Mike Rogers” and a “Trump crony.” In a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper on Sunday night, Stevens said she felt relieved by the decision and insisted she would not reverse course again. “My mind is made up. I’m rock solid,” she said.

Reactions

Mamdani was far from alone. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move “a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens,” and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Stevens “made a terrible decision, blindsided everyone and isolated herself from the House Democratic caucus.” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel wrote that Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” Brad Lander, a Mamdani ally and the Democratic nominee in New York’s 10th Congressional District, accused Stevens of combining “primary-loser-sour-grapes & Islamophobia” into a “toxic cocktail.” Stevens’ longtime chief of staff, Justin German, said he and other staffers resigned. “We are shocked and heartbroken by Congresswoman Stevens’ decision to support Mike Rogers,” he said.

Republicans welcomed the endorsement. President Trump praised Stevens on Truth Social, writing, “It’s a thing called bravery, and few people have it like just displayed by Congresswoman Haley Stevens!” He later said he would welcome her into the Republican Party. “I’d love to have her,” Trump said. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., offered her own office to help Stevens with constituent services after the staff departures. El-Sayed, for his part, brushed the controversy aside. “None of this matters,” he said, according to CBS News. His campaign said it raised more than $1.2 million after the endorsement, and it later told Fox News that it had pulled in more than $2.4 million in a single day.

Why This Matters to You

The fight is about more than one congresswoman. Republicans currently hold the Senate 53 to 47, and CBS News lists Michigan among about a dozen races that could decide which party controls the chamber. That control determines whether President Trump’s judicial nominees, border security priorities and tax policies move forward or stall for the next two years. More than 1.8 million Michiganders had already voted early as of Monday morning, according to Fox News, so the remaining Election Day turnout will be decisive.

Mamdani’s intervention also shows how far the national left has gone in claiming Michigan’s Senate race as its own. When the mayor of New York City weighs in on a Michigan Senate race whose Democratic nominee has campaigned alongside Hasan Piker, and a sitting Democratic congresswoman says her own party’s nominee told her to stay away, voters are seeing a party in open conflict over its direction. On Tuesday, Michigan voters will decide whether Mamdani’s brand of politics wins a Senate seat in the heart of the Midwest, and the answer could shape the balance of power in Washington for years to come.