… Rep. Haley Stevens went into full traitor mode and endorsed MAGA Mike Rogers for senate after attending a church service with him. Stevens attempted to hold a brief press gaggle with Rogers outside the church after making the endorsement, but quickly fled the scene after being heckled by attendees of the church.
… Stevens: “I stood with my party. I was booed off the stage. I am voting for Mike Rogers. I’m not turning my back on Democrats. Everyone should be fired up for Democrats.”
… A man then yelled out, “Haley Stevens is a traitor!” She then walked away.
… Abdul El-Sayed outside a church with Rep. Jim Clyburn (R-SC), who traveled to MI to campaign with him in the final days.
“None of this matters. You know what matters? There are families who are preparing to send their kids to schools tomorrow that look like they did 50 years ago. They're worried about what they're going to feed their kids for lunch. They're worried that if one of their kids gets sick, they're not going to be able to pay the bills. Those are the things that matter.”
“At the end of the day, I actually don't think about Haley Stevens. Because you know what? I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all. If you are somebody who believes that we should stand up to hate, and you have watched this last campaign, I think we probably would not want to support Mike Rogers and Trump and JD Vance.”
… MI State Senator Mallory McMorrow on MS NOW:
“It feels like it's more about her feelings than Michiganders. Politics is not easy. I was in this primary too. It was one of the most brutal, ugliest primaries I have certainly seen. But there is too much on the line right. It is a choice between MAGA and MI. And I'm on team MI.”
“If anything, I think this has galvanized more people to come out and vote because they see this for what it is: a blatant attempt at relevancy and trying to make an election about herself when the election is not about her, it is about MI. So I don't think this has had the effect that that Haley thought it would. It has pissed people off in a big way.”
“It’s just a sad desperate attempt to be relevant. To have Haley abandon Michiganders and her constituents is deeply, deeply sad.”
… Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel issued a statement:
“Haley Stevens’ decision to campaign with Rogers—a man who has repeatedly sold out MI’s working class, wants to pass a national abortion ban, and has pledged to be a loyal vote for Trump’s agenda—shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about. We reject the attempts by Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum, and will not allow these 11th-hour distractions deter us.”
“Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.”
… Sen. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer: “This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens. Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in MI, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Trump and billionaire donors.”
… DNC Black Caucus chair Virgie Rollins: “We are dismayed that Congresswoman Haley Stevens has revealed herself to be a sellout who used Black Michiganders for a political stunt. Congresswoman Stevens has lost her way, and Michiganders know that Mike Rogers is a shill for Trump.”
… Former Rep. Susan Wild:
“Haley’s endorsement of Rogers in the MI senate race is appalling. Not because he’s a Republican, but because what he stands for is what she, and I, and our caucus has fought so hard against. Rogers is a 100% anti-choice politician. He is a Trump loyalist. He’s shown his Islamophobia in his many remarks against Abdul El-Sayed, and with this endorsement, Haley has shown that she agrees with his positions.
I’m shocked by Haley’s endorsement. I’m terribly sad and disappointed. I’m furious and will be more so if we lose the MI senate race. So many people in the Democratic Party have shown so much support to Haley over the years, and she has betrayed them all.
If this is because of her new relationship (about which many of us were so happy for her after she lost the primary), all I can say is that any woman who abandons her friends when a new guy comes along is no friend at all.
The fallout for Haley won’t just be in Dem politics; she will be a pariah among her friends in the Democratic caucus in Congress. Only she will be able to decide whether it was worth it.”
… Detroit News reporter Melissa Nann Burke: “Haley Steven’s official staff including her longtime chief are resigning from her office this morning.”
… Haley Stevens chief of staff Justin German to Washington Sun: “We are shocked and heartbroken. As of this morning, many members of our team have resigned, including myself.”
… Trump and Mike Johnson were together today in IA and were asked about the Stevens situation:
Q: “Do you plan to reach out to Haley Stevens? Trump: Yes, to thank her.”
Q: “Do you think she should be a member of the Republican Party? Trump: I’d love to have her.”
Johnson: “I sent her a note.”
… Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “Haley Stevens has chosen to dangerously betray MI families’ healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers. Abdul El-Sayed must win - because MI and our country deserve better.”
… Before Stevens made her announcement on Sunday, El-Sayed spoke to reporters who asked him about her recent statements:
Q: “Is Haley Stevens trying to rat fuck your campaign? El-Sayed: That is not a question for me.”
Q: “Do you believe Haley Stevens is hurting the ticket? El-Sayed: I have much respect to the congresswoman. We had a hard fought primary. That primary ended in August. I’m focused now on beating Mike Rogers. I hope that every Democrat, frankly, I hope that everybody who’s worried about the state of our democracy, worried about the ability to afford gas and groceries, worried about ending illegal wars or ending tariff wars is with me in that fight.”
Q: “Do you want Haley Stevens to come to church with you tomorrow? El-Sayed: I’ve been very clear that I would rather not distract from the key issues of this campaign, and those are getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, passing Medicare for all. She wants to talk about other things.”
… Rep. Debby Dingell (D-MI) on CNN:
“Jim Clyburn is going with Abdul in the city of Detroit, going to churches, doing the souls to the polls event, talking to people about why this matters. Trump could get two more supreme court nominations.”
“The Black community knows what the supreme court has done to the Black vote and to redistricting and trying to decrease minority representation. I meet with them all the time. The people who have lost health care and can’t afford groceries.”
Q - “Our reporting is that he disinvited her from the campaign event. Dingell: No, I’m the one. I am the one that talked to Haley. And I am the one that said this isn’t working. So I want to be really clear on that.”
… Stunning early voting numbers across the country. VoteHub: NC final numbers at the end of early in-person voting. Republicans did not win a single day of early voting. Even when high-propensity voters were red, those gains were overwhelmed by exceptionally blue turnout among less frequent voters:
🔴 2024: R+41,457
🔵 2026: D+343,548
… This was a Fox analysis of early voting numbers:
… WaPo: “Republican lawmakers are confronting an enthusiasm gap nationally due to the unpopularity of Trump, wars, data centers, and high gas and grocery prices. Nowhere is the fallout more visible than in TX, where Trump held Republicans’ midterm convention last month and visited several times this month to rally support.
… Republicans have controlled every lever of state govt for generations by winning rural counties and significant margins in suburban and urban areas where most voters live. But early turnout shows Democrats - led by state Rep. James Talarico - doing the reverse. Turnout for Democrats has increased in urban areas, and Democrats have posted gains even in conservative rural counties.
… A blue wave could be forming mainly because of a combination of Democratic and Republican anger and apathy. Even Republicans who go to the polls may skip some races or split their tickets to vote for Democrats, particularly Talarico and Gov. Greg Abbott’s challenger, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.
… Some Texas GOP voters, particularly those in rural areas upset by data centers and a new statewide voucher program, have said they plan to vote Democratic for the first time.”
Crazy day today with the Stevens drama as I had to follow all the twists and turns in real time as it unfolded. I still am reasonably optimistic about this race and feel very good about the midterms overall. This move has already backfired on Stevens - I really don’t think she expected the ferocity of the backlash - and I think it will also backfire on Rogers.
What will come from the Trump admin in the aftermath of the midterms? That I don’t feel great about.
Halloween last night was a lot of fun. Our historic neighborhood with many very old houses (mine was built in the 1780s) closes the street, people go crazy with the decor, and kids come from all over the area. We were expecting around 600 kids. We got nearly 1,000. The population of our town is 4,000.
It was a nice night and it fell on a Saturday, so that probably contributed to the huge turnout. My daughters were here from FL so we had 3 women dressed as witches handing out the candy while I DJ’d the Halloween music and tended the fire pit.
If you missed Friday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… NBC: “With 3 days until Election Day, TX early voting numbers show a staggering surge of Hispanic voters in the state. To date, nearly 1.8 million Hispanic voters have cast ballots in TX. Compared to the same time in the 2022 election cycle, that represents an increase of more than 881,000 additional Hispanic voters statewide, or an 87.2% bump.”
… Political commentator Tom Bonier: “There are now 763,307 Texans who have early voted who did not vote at all in the 2024 Presidential election. 48% of them are