Haley Stevens Just Torched Her Political Career

Hey, everyone. It's me, Sam Steinman. I'm at the board. I'm joined by Lauren Egan, author of the opposition newsletter. She already submitted a draft of her newsletter tonight that does not deal with the Haley Stevens drama, but we're here to talk about that. We're recording right about 130-ish on Sunday, about a little over an hour ago. Haley Stevens, the Democrat from Michigan who ran against Abdul-Assad and lost in the primary, announced that she was endorsing Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Senator in Michigan. This has been sort of building up for a couple days now, and yet it's still a very shocking development because two days ago or three days ago, Haley Stevens was on CNN, reaffirming that she was going to vote for Abdul-Assad, and yet here she is. There's a lot to unpack about how we got to this point and also what it means for the election if anything, but Lauren, I just wanted to hear your thoughts first and then we can get into it. My phone, sorry. I need to put my phone on silent. It's blowing up with people being like, holy shit. What a disaster. What the fuck is going on? I mean, I think like what I've heard from people in the past hour is just a lot of shock. I think there was some concern over the past couple days as like the tensions were high between the two campaigns that maybe she was going to go on that CNN interview and endorse Rogers, and she didn't, and so there was a sense that like, okay, maybe we're in the clear. And so, yeah, it's just a ton of shock and frustration and like disappointment with her frankly. Yeah. So she showed up with Mike Rogers at Black Church and Detroit today. That dual said was at another Black church and Detroit. Basic backstory here is that they were supposed to be a unity event with Stevens and Abdulla said at that event, brokered by Jim Clyburn, but Hayley Stevens put out a list of demands more or less for Al Sayed to have her appear there and then he just said no and kind of rebuked her and kind of dug in a lot. And then I'm pronounced to basically anyone, but a few people like, looks like she showed up with Mike Rogers at the church and then she cut a video from her car announcing the endorsement that she released after she appeared at the church with Mike Rogers. Let's play that video. We don't have to play the whole thing, but let's play some of it. Hey, Michigan. As you may have seen, our democratic nominee for US Senate Abdul said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away. And he's right and that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don't belong in Abdul's campaign. I do not stand with Hassan Piker who gets trafficked on our college campuses. A dear friend of mine earlier today was saying that education is on the ballot and she's absolutely right. And what our students see, what our children see and who we are as Michiganders is not hate and is not what we are getting out from our democratic nominee right now. So I am just one person. I love this state as some of you know, I've, you know, run a campaign saying that it was a love letter to Michigan and I'm here to declare who we are as Michiganders. This is Phil Hart seat for the US Senate. This is the conscience of the Senate right now. All right. So look, putting aside the weird kind of crookedness of the video, which I don't know why she just didn't do straight on, it just is illogical the kind of endorsement here because if she's not welcomed on L side's campaign, which maybe she's not. I mean, L side didn't make really any overtures for her, although he did actually denounce the I that set the center of this. It doesn't mean you have to endorse Rogers like you could, you could just say I'm leaving the ballot blank. I'm leaving the ballot blank, you know, I don't like any of these candidates. Don't worry about them, vote Democrat down the ballot everywhere else, which she apparently is doing. And then to say it's about education, like what, what is exactly, I very curious what her, her point about education policy is because it didn't really come up unless she thinks L side's going to like dispatch us on Piker to every, you know, college campus in America. Is that like something he's asked for? I'm unaware of that. So this doesn't make any sense, like none of them make sense. Nothing about it makes sense. The education board was weird. It's also, she's trying to make it into this like moral statement, which is just so troubling because it completely ignores the incredibly Islamophobic campaign that Mike Rogers is running. And like you can't even win on those grounds either. I think that there are a lot of people obviously in the Democratic Party who are sympathetic to some of her positions and her points about a duel and how she feels about his rhetoric on Israel. And there's a world in which she could have really banned kind of, you know, someone who is in a duel's ear about this throughout the rest of the campaign and like a leading voice on some of that stuff. But the selfish way that she's gone about doing this is just completely torched her entire career in Democratic politics and it makes no sense because let's say a duel wins. She has no future in Democratic politics. Right. Let's say Abdul loses. She is going to get blamed for that loss and has no future in Democratic politics. Like I don't understand it at all. Yeah, I think that's what everyone's sort of trying to figure out what the motivations are here. And I've heard a lot of speculation from ego to a desire for attention to maybe she wants to get some sort of gig in Republican politics or a position with Trump. I've heard all that from people, but no one has really good definitive idea of what's happening here. There's just a lot of speculation. But that's what you just said is not like personal opinion. If you call around today, there is real hatred for what she is doing among basically 98% of Democrats. I do think two or three percent are like happy to see it. It's a moral stand for them. But I mean, look, let's put up some of these tweets. This is one from Nicholas Wu at Semifor. He says, you know, a few of Haley staff reached out to her earlier this week encouraging her not to endorse Mike Rogers according to a source who worked on a race. And she replied, OMG, why would you think I would do that? That's this week. Then after this whole thing happens, the staff looks like they've resigned to mass. Let's put up a bigger public's tweet here at the Washington Sun. Egor says he got an auto reply from Stevens and his comms director. Hello, as of November 1st, I am no longer with the office of Congresswoman Haley Stevens. Oops. Not great. And then you had a little bit of reporting that you could relate to from your conversations. And then I could talk to you about what I've heard. Yeah. Yeah. Right before Sam and I got on, I just talked to someone that was working on her, her primary race, who basically like, look, this doesn't make sense to any of us. And it's actually really sad to watch it happen. And this person was basically like, she's having a bit of a manic episode and kind of like, they characterize it as almost like a psychotic breakdown. And it's fraught to talk about, but a lot of people in her campaign and her former AIDS point to the relationship she has with her fiance, Jason, as kind of like, the origin point in this trajectory of her just kind of losing it on this, on some of these things. You know, he shows up in the spring. They start dating fairly quickly. They get engaged very quickly. She had views on Israel beforehand, but all of a sudden, this has kind of become like a really big defining issue for her. She may convert. And so when you talk to people in her, you know, in her orbit, in her former orbit, like they just say that he's kind of pushed her to be sort of like, almost like more isolated and dependent on him as a political advice. And it's, I don't know, it's just like a really, really sad kind of, I don't want to, you know, characterize someone else's relationship too much, but people that work for, you sort of, like, yeah, it's a weird relationship and we blame him for a lot of shit. Yeah. There's a lot of that going around. It's not just your source. A lot of people are blaming the husband for this. I don't want to, sorry, fiance, I don't want to, you know, she has her own agency, like she's her own human being. She makes her own choices, so it's not like she's captive to this man, but that is a lot of the scuttle but right now, among the reactions, not on her staff, Debbie Dingel, who's kind of the dean now of the Michigan delegation. She writes in part this, "Micheganders are worried about how they are going to pay their mortgage and fill up their gas tanks and the ability for groceries, healthcare, and housing. They want leaders focused on making their lives more affordable." That's what they're talking about, not Congress, women's Stevens continue efforts to get attention. That's pretty biting. The other one that I want to talk about is I was talking with Senate staffer today because I'm just sort of curious, like, if you're a Democrat on the Hill, obviously you have a lot going on right now, but like this is paramount for you, it was holding the seat. You know, are they freaking out? Like, are they worried about this? This person says, "I haven't heard much beyond that she's attention-seeking weirdo again." And that's pretty plain for everyone to see, including for the voters who haven't made up their mind yet. So basically, we think that this is performative and we think voters are going to think This is performed with two Donald Trump weighed in. Wow, this is big Congresswoman Hailey Stevens, a highly respected Democrat who nearly lost in the primary to Abdul Mohammed, he always says that, Elsa Edd, and who has been breathlessly winded and dying by Democrats to help when their Michigan campaign for the United States Senate against microaggressors has just endorsed microaggressors for Senate. Her following is huge, and the level of respect from the people of Michigan especially are African-American and Jewish populations is virtually unparalleled. She has an unparalleled following among the African-Americans and Jews. I will just know she gave a little presser with microaggressors after leaving the church, and this is how it went. For Hailey Stevens, how are you supporting a candidate that stands so firmly with some of the policies that you've set so firmly against? Look, nothing is perfect, nothing is perfect. Congresswoman Stevens, the American university student. Did you get Jim Piverna head up? So that's someone in the audience screaming at her that she's a traitor. Yeah, I guess the question is, how do you see this playing out now? We have two days before the election. So I don't know. I mean, my gut is that this doesn't make that much of a difference in this election. I mean, I think she's in some ways sort of overreading her influence in this race a bit. I mean, it's not like she had some massive dedicated loyal following who just really loved Hailey Stevens. That was a close race in part because people were worried about a duel, not because they loved Hailey so much. Not because black voters are just like, you know, it's not like she has like some like Obama coalition in Michigan that's incredibly dedicated to her and what she says. That is my read of the situation. So my gut says it doesn't make that much of a difference in the race. But like, you know, it's going into this week. Democrats were feeling pretty confident about this race. I thought a duel was, you know, a couple points ahead. Wasn't a huge nail-biter. Obviously, closer than you would want a race in Michigan to be. But like, it could come down to half a percentage point, in which case, who's to say whether it does make a difference? Yeah, I'm looking at right now the Michigan 2024 election is up between a list of slack and a microadjust. Okay. She won 48.6%. He got 48.3%. That's 2024. A good year for Republicans. Trump won this date. The number of votes that she got was 2,708,000. The number of votes he got was 2,687,000. Or 88,000, okay? So about 20,000 votes separates the two of them in Michigan that year, okay? So could Hailey Stevens turn 10,000 votes with her endorsement? I would be surprised by that. I don't think 10,000 people are like going to change a vote because they saw Hailey Stevens endorsed microadjust. My theory of the case, not that it doesn't matter. Is that it would amplify whatever result was already going to happen. So if Abdul Hussain was going to lose this race, it's not because of Hailey Stevens endorsing. It's because there's just not enough trust for him among Democrats, the Jewish Democrats specifically. He also energizes Republicans in ways that other Democrats don't. And Hailey Stevens kind of amplifies that and he loses by a bigger margin than he already was going to lose. If he was going to win this race, it probably would have been much more narrow than the top of the ticket. But he was going to win by more than 20,000 votes. Let's be real. Like this is not 2024. And I don't think Hailey Stevens turns 10,000 votes to begin with. So I'm with you, which is to say, I don't think it's inconsequential, but I just think there's like an impulse at this point in time to overreade these dramatic last-minute developments because this is it. Now, we'll see. Right? Like we'll see. No one's happy about it among Democrats. So there's that. But yeah. No, it's crazy. It's crazy. And like I think you and I recorded a take a couple of months after right after the primary, talking about how good of a job she was doing, unifying the party. And like this was a real example of how you do it right when she was like, "There's no salty grapes between me and Abdul." And it is kind of remarkable that it's only been what that primary was early August. Like that's not that much time. It's to end up where we are now. How do you, yeah, I mean, there's something happened here to go from. I mean, her pinch week this morning, I just want to be clear. Her pinned tweet this morning before she endorsed. Mike Rogers was friends. And this was on August 6th. So this is the day after primary. Friends, I want to thank you for your support in this race. I'm so grateful for each and every one of you who stepped up to fight for a stronger Michigan. Now it's time to come together and make sure we beat Mike Rogers and keep Michigan blue. Let's go in. This was her pinned tweet this morning. Three days ago, she was voting for Abdul Al-Sahead. According to her interview with CNN. So something has happened here. Like it could be her fiance. It could be something else. But no one just never just doesn't happen ever. Yeah, I think it's just kind of a sad situation. Everyone is trying to say definitively what happened here. And right now, a lot of it is pointing to, you know, her kind of going through it. However, you want to describe it. And a lot of it being kind of like internal stuff with her and her relationship and her feeling isolated and her feeling hurt by how Abdul handled the situation is, you know, there were definitely were some hurt feelings there that she tried to work through. And that relationship was just never repaired. But it's confusing. And it's just frankly kind of sad to watch happen for someone who was really arising, you know, leader in the party. Was she a rising star? I don't know. I think it was convening to call her that. She was a simple politician. She was going to have a few German Democratic party. Yeah, sure. But I don't think she could. I mean, she like, she had, she worked in the Obama administration. She could have totally gone and worked. Depending on who is next Democratic president, she totally could have had a role in a future administration. And maybe she'll have a, maybe she still will have a role in future administration. The next two years of the Trump administration. I know. I asked people that. And they were just like, no, she's still a Democrat. She's just endorsed Rogers. But she endorsed Rogers and got an adaboy from Donald Trump, who by the way, she invited to impeach twice. It's funny how politics works. And of course, you know, convenient as well. Let me just say this because you brought it up the issue of bigotry and what it means and why our outrage is occasionally selective. Obviously, the subtext for a lot of this is that people believe Abdul Assad is too unwilling to denounce anti-Semitism. And that this ad from this group, which he had nothing to do with. It was actually a reared ad that he should have denounced it more forcefully. And that he shouldn't have brought a songpiker on the campaign trail. And yeah, like I understand that. I'm not going to pretend like that's nothing. And he probably should have done all that. And you know, maybe depending on how it goes on Tuesday, he'll look back and say, I wish I had done that because it cost me. But that, and I say this as someone who's Jewish, too, is like that's that is obviously an important issue, but it's an issue. And that you have to look holistically at what's happening here. And you cannot just simply say, man, he should have done that. It's really discussing to me and I'm offended by it. And I'm actually fearful of it, which I think a lot of Jews do honestly and earnestly feel fearful of this stuff. And then look at what's happening on the other side with the incredible anti-Muslim bigotry that's not part of some random pack, but is the feature of the campaign against this man, including by Mike Rogers. And for Stevens to sort of be selective there is troubling. And it's not just that. It's like she has a platform and didn't primary that touched on a whole host of very fundamental democratic issues and progressive issues. And none of them are in alignment with Mike Rogers. I don't care what she says about education. That's about a Sam Piker. This is nothing, there's nothing actually aligned with Mike Rogers. So what she's essentially doing is she's saying, you know, this issue to me matters more than literally everything else. And some people can make that calculation, some people do make that calculation. But to your point, I just to say, to do it and say, morality is my sole guide without acknowledging the other immorality that's happening. The bigotry that's happening is sad. It's remarkable. So we shall see. It's a crazy development. Again, we're recording this 130-ish. Now it's 155. We haven't heard from Abdullah Sayed. I'm eager to see what he says. I'm sure it's going to be hot. But we'll be covering all this stuff. And also, we're going live, again, at 830 for Bullwork members as we dissect not just this race, but all the races. coming up on Tuesday. So please become a subscriber so you can join the chat. We're gonna take questions from folks. Lauren will be there as well. All right, Lauren. Thank you for doing this. - Thank you for doing a couple hours. - See you in a couple hours. Thanks everyone.