Stevens breaks with El-Sayed to back Rogers in Michigan Senate race

Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Sunday. The decision reverses her position in the final days of a critical race and signals a potential shift in party control of the Senate.

The endorsement follows a dispute between Stevens and the campaign of Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. NBC News reported on Saturday that El-Sayed’s team asked Stevens to stop attending campaign events after a disagreement over an outside advertisement. Stevens described the ad as antisemitic.

In a video released on Sunday, Stevens addressed the break directly. She said, “Hey, Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away.” She continued, “And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”

The political shake-up occurs amid new polling data from NBC News. A national survey finds that registered voters prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress by a 7-point margin. Democrats lead Republicans 52% to 45%, a 2-point increase from last month. The margin includes a 21-point lead among independent voters. President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has reached 60%, the highest level of his two terms in this polling series. Additionally, 51% of voters say they are dissatisfied with their financial situation, edging out the 49% who are satisfied.

In Alaska, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit on Sunday. The suit sought to separate and preserve ballots for a challenger named Dan J. Sullivan, citing potential voter confusion with incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. Judge Gleason expressed concern over voters' right to a secret ballot. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., did not explicitly state whether he would accept the results if Democrat Mary Peltola wins the seat. On Meet the Press, Scott told moderator Kristen Welker, “Dan Sullivan is going to win, Kristen. You know that, and that’s the only thing I’m going to tell you, because it’s the truth.”

Other political developments include the hospitalization of Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., for a stroke on Saturday. His chief of staff stated that Murphy experienced numbness in his arm while attending his son’s hockey game. In a separate legal matter, a federal judge dismissed a revised version of President Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal regarding a story about a birthday card allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein.

In Europe, tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated in more than 30 German cities, including Berlin and Frankfurt, on Saturday. The rallies, organized by the group Gen Z Regelt, focused on high living costs and education. Rioters in Frankfurt looted stores and set fire to barricades. Similar cost-of-living protests occurred in Paris, where demonstrators held a banner reading, “We do not need tear gas for our future to be blurry.”