Dr. Abdul El-Sayed said Saturday that he did not want Representative Haley Stevens to join him at a party unity event in Detroit on Sunday, turning an effort meant to show Democratic calm into a fresh public flare-up. Speaking after a campaign rally in Sterling Heights, he said he did not want "any distractions" and added that "other folks are more interested in making this race about things that it’s not about."
The timing matters because the dispute comes days before the midterms, when Democrats are trying to hold together a race that could shape control in the Senate. El-Sayed and Stevens had been publicly quarreling for days about Israel, and they were originally expected to appear together at the Sunday event.
That disagreement has now spilled into the open around a planned unity push that was supposed to follow one of Michigan's bruising primary contests. Stevens lost to El-Sayed by less than a percentage point in an August primary, and the two sides have spent the final stretch before the election trying to manage the fallout without fully ending the fight.
There was still no clear answer on Saturday about whether Stevens would show up. She had said Friday that she had not been told she was unwelcome, while Antjuan Seawright said later that she was still invited and that "This is not Abdul’s event" and "The invitation still stands." James E. Clyburn of South Carolina said he had "no idea" whether she would attend.
A schedule for the Sunday event listed Clyburn, El-Sayed and Mayor Mary Sheffield of Detroit as speakers, with remarks to be followed by a march to the offices of the Detroit Election Department. Stevens was not listed, even as the event was still being cast as a peace-making effort by Representatives Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Clyburn. For now, the question is not whether the event happens, but whether the Democrat who lost by a hair in August walks into it at all.
