Reporter asks El-Sayed if Haley Stevens is trying to sabotage his Michigan Senate campaign, but he laughs off the question

At a Saturday campaign event, a reporter put a blunt question to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about his ongoing conflict with Rep. Haley Stevens. According to Mediaite, the reporter asked whether Stevens was trying to undercut his bid after she had been told to stay clear of his upcoming rallies.

El-Sayed reacted by laughing. He replied, “That is not a question for me!” The exchange followed word that Stevens had been asked to keep her distance from his future events.

She had been set to join him the next day at a Detroit church gathering organized by Reps. Debbie Dingell and James E. Clyburn. The event was intended to help unify Democrats, but recent remarks by Stevens and her call for an apology over his stance on Israel altered those plans.

Party unity plans shift amid policy differences and an advertisement

After El-Sayed edged out the Democratic primary field by the narrowest of margins, Stevens said she would back him and campaign alongside him. In the weeks since, however, the two have clashed over Israel. Stevens has been a strong defender of the country, while El-Sayed, who was recently called out by Nancy Pelosi for his remarks on Israel, has criticized it.

The spot came from the left-leaning group Rebellion PAC. It featured a woman shopping for groceries who complained that eggs were expensive because “we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.” El-Sayed’s team responded by saying the ad was “not affiliated in any way” with him or his campaign.

Stevens criticized El-Sayed publicly for “fearmongering about Israel.” She also said he had not done enough to reach out to Black and Jewish voters.

On Saturday, Stevens’s fiancé, Jason Turkish, told Fox News that he intended to vote for El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers. Turkish said, “Where things stand right now is that just days before this election, Haley has made it clear to anyone who will listen that she remains on team Dem, that her only ask, small ask was to say that we not blame all of society’s high costs on one group of people.”

Turkish, who described himself as a lifelong Democrat, said he made the decision to support the Republican candidate during a debate. In that debate, El-Sayed did not answer a question about whether Iran or Israel presented a greater threat to the United States.

As the midterms approached, El-Sayed held a seven-point advantage over Mike Rogers in the race. That lead stood even as President Donald Trump made repeated efforts to boost support for the Republican candidate. Rogers has repeatedly tied El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood during his campaign, and Donald Trump called him a jihadist.