Who is Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens? Here's a look at her background.
Haley Stevens, the Democratic congresswoman who made national headlines on Sunday endorsing a Republican in a hotly contested U.S. Senate race, is from a district that represents a significant part of the suburban Detroit area.
The Nov. 3 election pits Democrat Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers in a race for an open U.S. Senate seat that Stevens herself hoped to enter. When her House term ends in January, she'll be out of office.
Her endorsement of Rogers on Sunday happened just two days before the Nov. 3 election, and after more than 2 million registered voters in Michigan had already cast their ballots.
El-Sayed-Rogers campaign polling
The Nov. 3 race between El-Sayed and Rogers is making national headlines because of its potential implications for the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. Outgoing Senator Gary Peters is a Democrat.
Mitchell Research & Communications conducted a statewide poll Oct. 26-27 for CBS Detroit and other Michigan television stations that showed El-Sayed with a 7-point lead over Rogers.
U.S. Senate hopeful
Stevens represents Michigan's 11th Congressional District, centered on Oakland County in Southeast Michigan. The communities in that district include Auburn Hills, Pontiac and Royal Oak. She has served in the House since 2019.
Stevens decided not to run again for the House, instead setting her sights on the U.S. Senate. She lost a contentious Democratic primary to El-Sayed and, at the time, said she was proud to support him in the November election.
Stevens' background
Stevens was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and graduated from Seaholm High School in Birmingham, according to her official biography. She was chief of staff to the U.S. Auto Rescue Task Force, an effort that began in response to the Great Recession, and later joined a manufacturing research lab.
Her Congressional assignments include the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, along with Science, Space & Technology. One of the sections on her website is titled, "How we're responding to the Trump administration."
She is engaged to Jason Turkish, who said last week that he is voting for Rogers.
Stevens' disagreements with El-Sayed
Stevens said in the summer that the race put the schism within the Democratic Party over U.S. support for Israel on display, but she was focused on what's next.
"My focus here is, no Rogers. No Republicans," she said at the time. "Abdul and I had our primary. It's over. It's over."
Political reactions
Reactions from both Republicans and Democrats were swift.
Within hours of the appearance with and endorsement of Rogers on Sunday, Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel posted on social media that Stevens is "not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future."
Even President Trump weighed in, telling reporters on Sunday, "That was a big move, I think. Nobody expected that, but it's a smart thing to do because El-Sayed would destroy our country. So I thought that was fantastic."
More than 2 million Michigan residents have already voted
Nearly 1 in 3 Michigan registered voters had already cast a ballot through absentee or early in-person voting by the time Stevens made her endorsement announcement on Sunday.
The Michigan Voting Dashboard run by the Michigan Secretary of State showed a 29.3% turnout among 7,418,587 active registered voters as of Sunday morning. That's 2,174,173 votes cast.
The above video originally aired on Nov. 1, 2026.