Days before they are set to headline a rally in Detroit, Abdul El-Sayed and Rep.Haley Stevens, D-Mich., traded critical messages in statements released Friday, escalating tensions between the two in the final days of El-Sayed’s campaign for Senate.Stevens said that she expected El-Sayed, the progressive candidate who defeated her in a bitter Democratic primary in August, to formally condemn an ad from an outside progressive group that she called antisemitic, adding that it’s why she agreed to join El-Sayed on the campaign trail for the first time on Sunday.“This ad tells Michigan families they cannot afford groceries because their money has to be set aside for ‘killing Palestinians,’ and it blames our close ally Israel for everything Michiganders cannot afford,” Stevens said in a statement.She sought to tie the ad — which is set in a grocery store and suggests Israel and the war in Gaza are to blame for rising prices in America — to comments El-Sayed has made in his own campaign.“I therefore expect him to apologize for those statements as well,” Stevens said.
“Abdul promises to get money out of politics.He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”El-Sayed is not affiliated with the group that produced the ad, Rebellion PAC, and his campaign distanced itself from the ad in statements to The New York Times earlier this week.Stevens also called on El-Sayed to take down one of his own ads that featured right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson “out of the same respect for Michigan’s Black community.”El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel, shot back Friday, saying in a statement that Stevens, a strong supporter of Israel, “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago” and that his campaign’s focus was on affordability and health care.“That focus is why our people-powered campaign defeated a historic $70M in outside spending from big corporations and AIPAC on behalf of C...