Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign disinvites Haley Stevens from events to limit ‘distractions’

Key points

• Abdul El-Sayed asked Haley Stevens to stay away from his campaign events to avoid distractions.
• The two Democrats had planned to appear together on Sunday at a Detroit church service.
• Stevens had demanded El-Sayed denounce an outside group's ad before the joint event.

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan's US Senate race, has asked Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens to stay away from his campaign events. El-Sayed told reporters after a campaign rally that he did not want "any distractions," according to the New York Times.

The two had planned to appear together on Sunday at a church service in Detroit. The public split between the progressive El-Sayed and the more moderate Stevens, whom he defeated in a bitter primary, has highlighted Democratic tensions in a close Senate race.

Dispute before joint event

Stevens endorsed El-Sayed after he won the August primary and planned to campaign with him on Sunday. She had until now avoided appearing publicly with her former opponent, whom she has criticized for weeks. Her fiance, Jason Turkish, has campaigned for Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

Two days before the scheduled joint campaign event, Stevens demanded that El-Sayed denounce an outside group's political ad that blamed higher prices on US support for Israel's war in Gaza. El-Sayed responded in a statement that Stevens seemed intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago, and noted that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent heavily to defeat him in the primary.

I don’t want any distractions

— Abdul El-Sayed

Democratic concerns

The open feuding worries many Democrats, who see the tight race as a must-win for the party to retake the Senate. Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow told CNN on Friday that she had "no idea what the hell Haley Stevens is doing." McMorrow said people are focused on the price of gas and groceries, not on ads or Stevens.