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By Hollie Silverman
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Jason Turkish, the fiancé of former Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Haley Stevens, accused the party's Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of escalating rhetoric that makes Jewish people unsafe, deepening an intraparty feud days before the midterms.
The immediate fight centers partly on a digital advertisement produced by Rebellion PAC, an outside group supporting El-Sayed that describes itself as a movement that rejects “the corporate-driven status quo” and stands “against the establishment.”
The advertisement shows a couple grocery shopping and talking about putting back a carton of eggs because “we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians,” before criticizing U.S. military assistance to Israel in its war in Gaza. Stevens, a U.S. Representative who lost to El-Sayed in the August primary, characterized the advertisement as antisemitic and called on him to condemn it.
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The ad was not broadcast but was shared widely on social media.
A spokesperson for his Republican opponent Mike Rogers accused El-Sayed’s allies of “anti-Israel hate,” while the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the ad a “case study in antisemitism.”
El-Sayed did not produce or approve the ad, however, and has distanced himself from it.
“Abdul is focused on pushing back against Trump’s agenda that is raising prices for Michiganders. No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign,” a spokesperson previously told Newsweek.
Stevens also called on El-Sayed, who would become the nation's first Muslim U.S. senator if elected, to apologize for his own comments connecting U.S. spending on Israel with Michigan’s affordability problems and to remove a separate campaign advertisement featuring conservative commentator Tucker Carlson “out of the same respect for Michigan’s Black community.”
“Abdul promises to get money out of politics,” Stevens said in a statement. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”
Despite the public dispute, Stevens continues to support El-Sayed and has said she intends to vote for him over Rogers. However, Turkish said he's voting for the Republican.
“Like a lot of households across America, we're a household divided,” the congresswoman said on CNN. “I still very much want our Democratic nominee, his name is Abdul, to win this race, there's so much on the line. I want our Democrats to win; I want to see Abdul do the right thing here.”
Meanwhile, El-Sayed's campaign has reportedly asked Stevens not to attend his remaining campaign events, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Politico.
Newsweek reached out to El-Sayed's campaign by email Saturday for comment.
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What Jason Turkish Said
During an interview appearance on Fox & Friends on Saturday, Turkish, who is Jewish and a civil rights attorney, said his fiancé "has made it clear to anyone who will listen that she remains on Team Dem,” adding that Stevens' "only ask, small ask, was to say that we not blame all of society’s high costs on one group of people.”
“We spend only a few billion dollars a year, and I say that in quotes, on support for a very strategic ally in the Middle East,” Turkish said. “If we chose not to do that tomorrow, that's not enough money to solve hunger in America, or healthcare in America or rebuild our schools in America. But yet, Abdul tells folks that that's what stands in our way.”
Turkish also accused the Senate hopeful of using rhetoric that endangers Jewish people.
“And it puts Jews at risk,” he said. “And my phone has just rung off the hook for days and days now with Jewish friends and family members in Michigan and beyond, around the world, just besides themselves, that it has come to this.”
Earlier this week, Turkish told The Detroit News that he had seen what he described as “an escalation” in El-Sayed’s rhetoric since the primary and argued that it was making Jewish residents less safe. He added: “Every time he talks about genocide [in Gaza], Jews get death threats.”
Turkish also told the newspaper that he would vote for Rogers in what he described as a decision to put “country before party.”
El-Sayed has rejected suggestions that his criticism of Israel is antisemitic, saying his “commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids.”
Jewish Opposition to Abdul El-Sayed May Not Matter in Michigan Race
The Muslim voter advocacy group Emgage estimates that there are more than 200,000 registered Muslim voters in Michigan. By comparison, Michigan is home to roughly 105,000 Jewish adults, about 1.4 percent of the state's electorate, according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University. Republican-aligned estimates run higher, up to 130,000.
"It is important to remember that no state has a higher percentage of Arab-American residents in the U.S. than Michigan. The Jewish population is less than half that of the Arab-American population there," Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way*,* previously told Newsweek.
Turnout narrows the gap, Kessler warned. Jewish voters participate at high rates, while Muslim turnout has historically lagged. In the 2018 midterms, 50 percent of registered Muslim voters in Michigan cast ballots, according to Emgage.
In 2024, a Council on American-Islamic Relations exit poll of Michigan Muslim voters found that Green Party nominee Jill Stein received 59 percent support, President Donald Trump 22 percent and former Vice President Kamala Harris 14 percent. Trump won more than 42 percent of the vote in Dearborn, where more than 55 percent of residents are of Middle Eastern descent, up from 30 percent four years earlier. Many others sat out. Early voting turnout was 25 percent in Dearborn and 24 percent in Hamtramck, against 44 percent statewide.
Those voters already delivered for El-Sayed once. In the August primary, he received 16,265 more votes than Stevens across Dearborn and Dearborn Heights alone, more than his statewide margin over her of a little more than 14,000 votes, in unofficial results.
Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed: What the Polls Show
The feud is erupting at a critical moment in Michigan’s Senate race, one of the contests that could help determine control of the chamber. Republicans have sought to capitalize on Democratic divisions in Michigan, with Rogers seeking support from centrist voters who backed Stevens during the Democratic primary.
El-Sayed has led every major public poll released in the last two weeks, mostly by margins inside the error range.
His best number came from Glengariff Group, which surveyed 600 likely voters for The Detroit News and WDIV-TV from October 19-22 and found him ahead 51 percent to 45 percent. Four percent were undecided.
Independents moved, too. For the first time this cycle, Glengariff had El-Sayed winning them, 45.5 percent to 40 percent.
Other polls are closer. Marist University had the race at 50 percent for El-Sayed to Rogers' 48 percent among 1,185 likely voters polled October 15-18. InsiderAdvantage, surveying 1,200 likely voters October 21-22, found El-Sayed up by a point, 47 percent to 46 percent, with four minor-party candidates at 1 percent apiece.
A Michigan State University Institute for Public Policy and Social Research survey conducted with YouGov over a longer window, October 2-19, showed El-Sayed up 48 percent to 46 percent among 836 likely voters.
Why Is the Michigan Senate Race Important in the 2026 Midterms?
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to flip the Senate, where Republicans hold 53.
The Cook Political Report rates Michigan a toss-up, the only Democratic-held seat with that rating, which makes it the likeliest place for Republicans to make up ground lost elsewhere.
Election Day is November 3.
Newsweek*’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.* Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Anthony Murray and Steve Mollman.
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