Michigan Democratic Senate primary loser Rep. Haley Stevens on Sunday released a video that will place her in an ignominious legacy of establishment Democrats who act against the collective good.
asserted
who → release → good
And, like others on the list, she did it for the sake of one thing only: Israel.
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she → do → thing
In the video — filmed on her phone, in her car, and at an awkward angle — Stevens announced her endorsement of Republican candidate Mike Rogers against the Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
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Stevens → film → nominee
Stevens had previously called Rogers a “rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda.
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Stevens → call → agenda
”
“I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign,” said Stevens about El-Sayed, the candidate who currently enjoys 95 percent of Democratic voters’ support in Michigan, according to polls.
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who → belong → polls
Stevens’s defection follows a pathetic, Islamophobic, and chaotic effort over the last weeks to suggest that El-Sayed must make greater overtures to Israel supporters.
asserted
Sayed → follow → supporters
Stevens now follows in the footsteps of other conservative Democrats who have shown an extreme disregard for the welfare of people in this country and beyond.
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who → follow → country
We might recall former Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona, who left the Democratic Party while still in office and notoriously delivered a dramatic thumbs down and curtsy when voting against a raised minimum-wage provision during the height of the Covid pandemic.
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who → recall → pandemic
Sinema and fellow then-Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia also joined with Republicans to effectively tank major voting rights legislation in 2022.
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Sinema → join → 2022
And, of course, there is the entire Senate career of conservative pro-Israel fanatic, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who still remains a nominal Democrat.
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who → be → fanatic
Fetterman offers a consistent master class in dangerous extremism and should be seen as a profound political liability by his own party.
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Fetterman → offer → party
It is, after all, so-called moderates like Stevens who are the radicals.
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who → call → Stevens
As writer Eoin Higgins noted, an array of Democrats have revealed themselves more willing to see Republicans win than allow the party’s left-wing flank — or, more to the point, criticism of Israel’s genocide — to gain further ground.
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Republicans → note → ground
And while there is little political agreement between the right and left wings of the Democratic Party on a whole array of issues, defeating Republicans, particularly Donald Trump’s Republican Party, was at least the stated goal of even the most conservative of Democrats.
To so openly fail on even those basic electoral terms should be the very definition of a political liability for a party.
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fail → be → party
Meanwhile, left-wing candidates running on popular policies with support networks built from the ground up have again and again been treated as the primary internal enemy by the party establishment.
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candidates → run → establishment
Shifting Winds
Stevens had perhaps thought she could rely on this pattern.
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she → shift → pattern
Numerous powerful Democrats and Israel apologists like Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., were slow to get behind El-Sayed and have continued to pick fights over his policies on Israel.
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Democrats → get → Israel
Stevens’s Rogers endorsement was not, however, met with the tolerance that Democratic rightward lurches have typically enjoyed.
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lurches → meet → that
In a bellwether moment, another strong supporter of Israel, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called her endorsement of the Republican candidate “a despicable betrayal.”
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supporter → call → candidate
The condemnation is the correct response of a party leader to a member taking active steps to thwart a crucial Senate race.
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condemnation → take → race
It may not mark a shift for Schumer away from his own reliable conservatism and support for Israel’s genocide, but it nonetheless reflects a shifting political landscape when a figure like Schumer sees greater political expediency in standing with a progressive, Israel-critical, Muslim candidate, than with the radical centrist wrecker with whom Schumer is more ideologically aligned.
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Schumer → mark → whom
Stevens’s theatrics are unlikely to make a significant difference to Tuesday’s election results.
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theatrics → make → results
Voters who elevate support for the Israeli state over human lives in Palestine and in the U.S. were already not going to vote for El-Sayed.
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who → elevate → Sayed
It’s unclear, then, who would be swayed by Stevens’s erratic actions two days before the election.
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who → ’ → election
In a close race like this, however, pulling any support away from the Democratic candidate reveals the extremism of the purported center.
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pulling → pull → center
We can welcome what looks to be a long overdue shift in political common sense and hope that positions like Stevens’s are seen as a liability before they reach their most extreme iterations.
Yet it shouldn’t take so-called centrists quite literally choosing Trumpian Republicans over progressive and left-wing Democrats to make clear who the real threat to the Democratic Party is — if winning elections and delivering policies to improve the lives of constituents is, in fact, their goal.
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winning → welcome → fact
He has dismissed Stevens’s performance as a distraction.
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He → dismiss → distraction
“None of this matters,” he told reporters on Sunday, and insisted instead on speaking about the state of schools, healthcare, and the cost of food for Michigan residents.
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he → matter → residents
Midterms 2026
Warnings About ICE at the Polls Risk Their Own Kind of Voter Suppression
Voting rights advocates in Texas warn that spreading awareness of voter intimidation could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Voices
The CIA Is Resorting to an Open Casting Call for Would-Be Cuban Assets
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CIA → risk → Assets
With Marco Rubio’s public plea for Cubans to work with the CIA, the administration is eyeing its next imperial conquest.
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administration → work → conquest
Centrist Democrats Would Rather Lose the Senate Than Win With El-Sayed
With Haley Stevens’s demand for an apology from the candidate who beat her, the party’s moderates are making clear they’d rather lose than empower a progressive wing critical of Israel.
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lose → lose → Israel
The Aporia
