Haley Stevens supports Mike Rogers in Michigan two days before 3-N: expelled from the party and her chief of staff resigns

IN 30 SECONDS

• What has happened? Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens on Sunday, November 1, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race, 48 hours before the November 3 elections.
• Who is behind? Stevens herself, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, the leadership of the Michigan Democratic Party and the national leadership, with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi at the helm.
• What impact does it have? Two resignations in his office, the expulsion of the state party and an open flank in the seat that the Democrats need to recover the Senate, decisive for the tariff policy that affects Spanish automobile suppliers.

Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday and the Michigan Democratic Party expelled her 48 hours before the vote.

The setting was a church detroitthe Perfecting Church. The congresswoman announced on video her support for the Republican candidate for the Senate while, a few kilometers away, her own party held a unity rally with the Democratic candidate, Abdul El-Sayed. ‘Today I endorse Mike Rogers for the United States Senate,’ he said. ‘I don’t belong to Abdul’s campaign.’

The reaction was instantaneous. Curtis Hertelchairman of the state party, announced that Stevens was no longer a member of the party and would not be welcome back. Two of his closest collaborators resigned in protest: Chief of Staff, Justin German, and Communications Director, Logan Basch. German said he spoke on behalf of the entire squad and that they were ‘shocked and heartbroken.’

From the embrace of August to the expulsion of November

The shock wave reached Washington within hours. The Democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumerdescribed the support as a ‘despicable betrayal’. The former president of the House, Nancy Pelosiwrote that Stevens has ‘dangerously betrayed’ the health care, liberties and future of Michigan families.

Stevens insists he remains a Democrat. ‘I am still a very proud democrat,’ she says in the same video. ‘I’m just telling you where I am.’ This is the same congresswoman who a few months ago described Rogers as a ‘rubber stamp’ of Trump’s agenda.

The wound comes from afar. In the August primary, El-Sayed narrowly defeated Stevens after a campaign dominated by disagreement over US policy toward Israel. A plan to stage reconciliation this weekend fell apart, leading to the congresswoman’s appearance with Rogers at the church.

In Michigan, not only one seat is being decided: they are voting on who is in charge of the Democratic Party and with what language they speak about Israel.

El-Sayed downplayed the matter. ‘At the end of the day, I don’t really think about Haley Stevens,’ he said in Detroit. ‘None of this matters.’ The journalists continued asking him about her. At his rally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez She defended that what is at stake ‘is women’s right to our own bodies, the Constitution.’ In the audience, a voter who had supported Stevens summed it up this way: ‘We don’t have time for pettiness.’ Another was more direct: ‘She’s crazy.’

From the Michigan seat to automobile tariffs: what is at stake in Spain

Michigan is not just any state. It is the capital of the American automobile, and the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters is one of the most coveted pieces on the map. Democrats have a narrow path to regaining the majority of the Senate; without Michigan, that path is closed.

For Spain, the connection is industrial rather than ideological. Gestamp and CIE Automotive They operate plants and engineering centers in the Midwest, and also in Tennessee and Alabama, integrated into the supply chain of large manufacturers. The American market absorbs around 3.8 billion euros annually in Spanish vehicles and components.

The Senate confirms the Trade Representative (USTR) and the Secretary of Commerce, and its Finance and Commerce committees decide whether the projects that require Congress’ approval of the tariffs dictated by the Section 232 (the 1962 trade law that allows the president to tax imports for national security reasons without going through Capitol Hill). Who controls that Chamber changes the equation for Brussels and for Madrid.

The calendar rules.

Washington Logic

Seen from Washington, what happened on Sunday is not an anomaly. It is the umpteenth eruption of a fault that the Democratic Party has not closed for two years: the coalition that won in 2020—moderate suburbs, automobile unions, Detroit’s black vote and a young left mobilized by Gaza— it no longer fits in the same speech. In Michigan, disagreement over Israel stopped being foreign policy and became the line that separates two parties within the same party.

There are precedents that the Capitol knows by heart. In 2006, Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut Democratic primary to Ned Lamont and remained in the race as an independent, and won. In 2004, Democratic Senator Zell Miller took the stage at the Republican convention to endorse George W. Bush. The American system does not expel dissidents: it lets them compete on their own and then passes the bill on them at the polls.

The Republican logic is just as simple. Each democrat who drops out at the last minute is worth two announcements: he demobilizes the rival and confirms the message that El-Sayed’s party is not prepared to govern. Of course, the calculation has risk. Such a late endorsement can mobilize the progressive base out of sheer outrage, and Tuesday night polls will tell whether the gesture was a masterstroke or a shot in the foot.

The countdown is underway: the polls open on November 3, the organizational session of the new Senate arrives in January and, with it, the distribution of commissions that decides which tariff projects move and which sleep. For Spanish companies that manufacture in America, the difference between one Chamber and another is not measured in speeches, but in the probability that the Capitol will regain power over tariffs.

Case File

• The case: Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens endorses Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race with 48 hours to go before the vote; Her state party expels her and her chief of staff resigns.
• Key data: Backup announced November 1; elections on November 3; two resignations in his office (chief of staff and director of communications); seat vacated by Senator Gary Peters.
• For Spain: The control of the Senate conditions the automobile tariff policy and the margin of the Capitol regarding Section 232, with Gestamp and CIE Automotive integrated into the American supply chain.