El-Sayed pulls in $2.4M in a day as defection jolts Michigan Senate race

Abdul El-Sayed didn't want to talk about the drama. Rallying at Eastern Michigan University on Monday morning, the Democratic Senate nominee brushed past the firestorm over his former primary rival's endorsement of the Republican in the race and pointed straight at the calendar. "There's only one thing we can do to control the outcome... Go vote," he told the crowd, with Senator Elizabeth Warren at his side.

The fireworks started Sunday, when Democratic Representative Haley Stevens appeared alongside Republican Mike Rogers at church and then endorsed him — in one of the most watched Senate races in the country. The state Democratic Party expelled her, and party leaders and longtime allies lined up to condemn the move. Democratic heavyweights, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi among them, have rallied behind El-Sayed.

For Rogers, it was a gift. His campaign spent Monday crowing about the defection, and he had personally reached out to Stevens over the weekend, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions, per TRT World.

Democrats got a counterpunch of their own in the money race. El-Sayed hauled in $2.4 million on Sunday, the biggest single-day total of his campaign, and the state party saw a surge of volunteer canvassers signing up. "I don't think this changes the election results other than it galvanises Democrats," said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel.

The rupture didn't come out of nowhere. El-Sayed narrowly beat Stevens by around 14,000 votes in an expensive August primary defined by disagreements over Israel and the war in Gaza, and the party has since worked to win back Jewish and Black voters who backed her. Tensions boiled over around a planned unity event, where disputes over Israel and campaign ads led Representative Debbie Dingell to uninvite Stevens to keep the focus clean.

Now it all comes down to turnout. More than 2.3 million Michigan voters had already cast ballots heading into Tuesday's polls, and both parties are watching to see whether the last-minute chaos moves anyone still undecided.