BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Jason Turkish, the fiancé of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and a prominent Jewish Democrat in Michigan, said he plans to vote for Republican Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s closely watched and bitterly fought Senate race. 

Hours later, Stevens herself affirmed on CNN that she still supports El-Sayed. But she also emphasized that in order to win over undecided voters, El-Sayed should openly denounce an ad from his own campaign featuring Tucker Carlson and an outside ad blaming aid to Israel for high prices in the United States.

Turkish told reporters at a Republican Jewish Coalition event for Rogers on Wednesday evening, which he attended immediately after announcing his decision to The Detroit News, that El-Sayed had run a campaign of division that consistently, “references Jews or Jewish-related associations as a reason why people should give money to his campaign.”

Turkish said that he made up his mind to support Rogers after the first general election debate, when El-Sayed described Israel as a threat to the United States comparable to Iran. “It is 100% disqualifying to be a United States senator,” Turkish said.  Other Jewish Democrats also called that debate a breaking point for them.

Turkish argued that El-Sayed is well-aware that U.S. aid to Israel constitutes a miniscule fraction of the federal budget, “yet Jews are blamed” consistently in El-Sayed’s fundraising appeals for a lack of healthcare and education funding in the United States.

He told Jewish Insider that he went public with his support for Rogers, and decided to attend the RJC event because he “couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t speak up.”

“This isn’t about Haley’s career. This isn’t about my support. This is about who Abdul El-Sayed supports. That he supports a man who says America deserves 9/11,” he said. “I believe that Abdul El-Sayed is actively losing this campaign for Senate right now by not standing up against hate, and that history will remember who stands where in this moment, and that it will not remember Abdul El-Sayed kindly, and we need to push his hateful brand of politics to the dustbin of history.”

El-Sayed spokeswoman Roxie Richner told The Detroit News, “Abdul is focused on building a broad coalition to win Michigan and win back the Senate majority for Democrats. Our tent is big enough for all those who wish to join it.”

Asked about his conversations with Stevens on his decision, Turkish told JI that he was “so proud of the race Haley ran” and that she had “opened her arms and her heart to Abdul after he won this primary — and some criticized her for that, in … the Jewish community.”

He said that Stevens is a “proud American who believes in a Democratic system, who believes that when you compete in a contest, you respect the outcome.” Stevens endorsed El-Sayed immediately following the primary, but has not campaigned with him and offered a tepid response this week when asked if she stands by that endorsement.

Turkish said that he was waiting and watching to hear El-Sayed — with whom he attended the University of Michigan — moderate but instead “he got worse and worse and worse as this general election campaign has gone on” and made the Jewish community “less safe” — along with other communities as well.”

Turkish expressed outrage over a recent ad by a PAC supporting El-Sayed that blames aid to Israel for high prices in the United States. The El-Sayed campaign has distanced itself from the ad but has not explicitly condemned its contents.

“I think it was one of the most hateful ads in the history of American politics,” he said. “It’s an absolute new low, and in typical Abdul El-Sayed fashion, he doesn’t disavow it. He disclaimed association with it. Abdul, why is it so hard to say this is a hateful ad and it doesn’t represent my campaign? The reason it’s so hard for him is because he fundraises off of this very hate, and it’s why this choice for me in the end was very simple.”

He said it was no surprise that far-left commentator Cenk Uygur, uncle of streamer Hasan Piker, was behind the ad. “Hasan Piker is a hateful, hateful man,” Turkish said, adding that he was offended that El-Sayed would bring Piker on the campaign trail and on a stage in front of college students.

“This isn’t somebody from his distant past. This is somebody that Abdul El-Sayed admires,” Turkish said. “This is a man who spews hate, and Abdul El-Sayed put him on a stage in front of college kids. It is 100% disqualifying to be a United States senator.”

He said he’s been hoping for El-Sayed to “disavow this hate without equivocation [but] he won’t do it. Everything we hear from Abdul El-Sayed includes equivocation. It includes equivocation to try to explain away hate — and there is no explaining away hate. And I predict to you that Michigan will reject this.”

He also invoked Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), for whom he fundraised in 2024. “She spent her entire career saying, in certain moments, you put country over party — this is one of those moments,” Turkish said.

Slotkin, who endorsed and campaigned for El-Sayed, has criticized Rogers and his supporters for Islamophobic bigotry.

Turkish said he’s not concerned about how this decision might impact his position in the Democratic Party going forward and this was “not a political decision.” He said he’s supporting other Democrats up and down the ticket.

“You can support Democrats up and down the ballot and make a choice to choose country over party in one race,” Turkish said. “The message is simple: the time is always right to do what is right.”

Stevens’ fiancé is the second person close to the former Democratic candidate to say he plans to support Rogers this week, following David Kramer, who chaired Stevens’ Senate campaign and introduced Turkish and Stevens.

Appearing on CNN on Wednesday evening, Stevens said she is voting for El-Sayed, but in order to win over undecided voters, including from the Jewish and Black communities, who supported her campaign, he needs to take down his campaign’s ad featuring Tucker Carlson and to explicitly condemn the antisemitic Rebellion PAC ad in support of his campaign.

“People are coming to me about this, and they’re Black voters, they’re Indian American voters, they’re obviously Jewish voters, working class voters, and so let’s shut out the hype. You know, let’s get these undecided voters over the finish line. Let’s make sure that Michigan has the representation it needs in the United States Senate,” Stevens said.

“I fully believe he can do this, can denounce Tucker Carlson and denounce antisemitic hate, things that make particularly minority communities feel less safe, and actually make them less safe,” she continued. “I know he has it in him to denounce these two ads, to take them down. I know that undecided voters would feel very reassured to see this.”

She said she hasn’t had such a conversation directly with El-Sayed, following a CNN report earlier in the day that she and the Democratic nominee haven’t communicated in months.