U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is facing backlash in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race after one of the country’s most powerful and controversial pro-Israel lobbying groups promoted her alongside Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in a fundraising appeal that urged donors to support both candidates.
Earlier this week, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) launched the joint fundraising page, which urged donors to “Contribute to pro-Israel Candidates for U.S. Senate,” displaying Stevens and Collins together with preset donation amounts. The joint fundraiser was “paid for and authorized” by both candidates, according to AIPAC.
The fundraising campaign, which included an email blast, also attacked one of Stevens’s Democratic rivals, Abdul El-Sayed, the race’s most outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza. He also was the only candidate endorsed by Track AIPAC, a grassroots group that documents and opposes the influence of AIPAC and pro-Israel political spending. The fundraiser accused El-Sayed and Graham Platner, the Democrat running against Collins in Maine, of “embracing extreme rhetoric,” pushing “false accusations of genocide,” and supporting cuts to aid for Israel.
“There is a coordinated, well-funded effort to punish anyone who stands with Israel and it’s gaining ground fast,” the email said. “It’s being driven by the far-left fringe of American politics, pushed by Bernie Sanders and amplified by voices like Hasan Piker, who are normalizing hostility toward Israel and turning it into a political weapon.”
The email then linked El-Sayed and Platner together as threats to the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“Abdul El-Sayed and Graham Platner aren’t just ‘critics’ of Israel, they are running campaigns built on undermining it,” the email said. “They’ve embraced extreme rhetoric, pushed false accusations of genocide, and openly support cutting off aid to one of America’s closest democratic allies.”
AIPAC then urged donors to give to Stevens and Collins, saying the money would “send a clear message that we will not let extremists rewrite the future of this relationship.”
For Stevens, the page created an awkward image of a Democratic Senate candidate appearing in a fundraising appeal with a Republican incumbent at a time when Democrats are trying to win control of the Senate.
Stevens’s campaign pushed back, insisting she did not authorize the joint fundraising appeal, was unaware of it before it was posted, and does not support Collins or any Republican Senate candidate. The page has since been changed to feature only Stevens.
“Haley knows a Democratic Senate Majority is critical to stopping Donald Trump’s abuses of power, and does not support Susan Collins or any Republican running for U.S. Senate,” a Stevens campaign spokesperson told Metro Times in a statement. “Poll after poll shows Haley is the strongest candidate to beat Mike Rogers, keep Michigan blue and help win a Democratic Majority.”
AIPAC did not respond for comment.
The solicitation served up El-Sayed an easy line of attack. According to them, AIPAC is using Stevens’s campaign to advance a larger pro-Israel agenda, even when that means helping a Republican senator and attacking Democrats running to the left of the party establishment on Gaza.
“AIPAC has made clear that the candidate they want to beat is Abdul because of his commitment to ending unconditional aid for a genocidal government,” the El-Sayed campaign tells Metro Times. “Michigan voters are sick and tired of special interest groups calling the shots. Unlike his opponents, Abdul has never met with AIPAC or attempted to win their support.”
Stevens’s other Democratic rival, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, also quickly seized on the AIPAC campaign. In a fundraising email Wednesday, McMorrow’s campaign said Stevens was “making the path to a Democratic Majority in the U.S. Senate harder by actively fundraising alongside a Republican.”
“Stevens is actively undermining Democrats’ path to winning a Senate majority, just to benefit herself,” McMorrow’s campaign said. “At a moment when we should be building a firewall around this critical seat, Democrats should not be helping the other side. This is frankly a slap in the face to all of our hard work, and Michiganders do not need to settle for Stevens.”
In social media videos, McMorrow suggested Stevens cared more about winning her own election than protecting a Democratic Senate majority. Collins is running for reelection in Maine in what Democrats believe is one of their best opportunities to flip a Senate seat. Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, has become the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Collins after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign.
The controversy comes as the Senate Democratic primary in Michigan is locked in a three-way dead heat, with a third of Democrats still undecided. The primary is Aug. 4.
Stevens has defined herself as a “Zionist” and “proud pro-Israel Democrat” and has long drawn support from AIPAC and other pro-Israel donors. Since 2022, Stevens has received more than $1.2 million in donations from AIPAC. She has described herself as a “proud pro-Israel Democrat” and has welcomed endorsements from major pro-Israel Democratic groups. In a statement after the Democratic Majority for Israel’s PAC endorsed her in November 2025, Stevens said she would “support Israel’s security” and “ensure the ceasefire holds in Gaza.”
El-Sayed has been the most outspoken critic of AIPAC in the race, repeatedly accusing the group of distorting Democratic politics and defending Israel’s war in Gaza. At a recent campus event with political commentator Hasan Piker, El-Sayed said, “No longer are we going to sit idly by while AIPAC tells us that the goal of our foreign policy is to align with a foreign government.”
Track AIPAC, a grassroots group that documents and opposes the influence of AIPAC and pro-Israel political spending, endorsed El-Sayed and lists him among its supported candidates for U.S. Senate in Michigan. The group also endorsed Platner in Maine.
McMorrow has also tried to distance herself from AIPAC, pledging not to take money from the group and calling the war in Gaza a genocide. But her own history with pro-Israel politics is more complicated.
As Metro Times previously reported, McMorrow prepared a position paper for AIPAC that she has not released publicly, and she attended an invite-only AIPAC fundraiser alongside Republican members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, who confirmed meeting her there.
A recent Data for Progress poll of likely Michigan Democratic primary voters found the race in a virtual three-way tie, with Stevens at 23%, El-Sayed at 22%, McMorrow at 22%, and 33% undecided. The same poll found that 64% of likely Democratic primary voters said they would be less likely to support a Senate candidate who receives donations from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups, while only 10% said such support would make them more likely to back a candidate.
Those tensions boiled over last month at the Michigan Democratic Party convention in Detroit, where Stevens was booed by some party activists as she took the stage. The convention exposed the party’s deep divisions over Israel and the Senate primary.
At the convention, El-Sayed drew loud cheers.
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