'Big difference': Dem's last-minute endorsement gives GOP new hope in crucial Senate battle

OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN — Michigans Republican ticket had a clear message for voters preparing to vote in the midterm elections: Their path to victory relies on winning over voters who typically dont align themselves with the GOP.

That prospect appeared to be buoyed by Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her primary rival, Abdul El-Sayed. Early Monday afternoon, Republican operatives in Michigan blasted out a press release advertising an event just hours later intended to tout Stevens endorsement and its purported impact on Black and Jewish voters.

In front of a throng of press at the Michigan GOPs headquarters, six community leaders representing African Americans and Jews criticized what they saw as El-Sayeds excesses and lauded Stevens endorsement of Rogers. Broadly, they argued that El-Sayed had insufficiently distanced himself from some of his radical associations, that Stevens' endorsement had real significance for the race and that they were seeing an unprecedented groundswell of support for Republicans among their peers.

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In addition to the community leaders, close to two dozen others — many of whom were Black or Jewish — attended the event as well. While some political observers have cast doubt on the impact of Stevens' endorsement and the degree to which African Americans and Jews are defecting from the Democratic Party, members of those communities told Fox News Digital the shift is happening.

"I believe it's going to make a big difference that she came out," Michelle Nard, an African American former Democrat running for state Senate, told Fox News Digital. "She had a big following. She's a great congresswoman, a great state representative for the United States."

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Nard recounted how she had recently spoken to a Black woman who highlighted that her community makes a big deal of going to the polls on Election Day, a point she used to stress that Haleys endorsement, though late in the cycle, could still influence last-second voters.

"You have strong Haley Stevens supporters in our community that will support her to the end, and then you have some that feel betrayed," Marcus Bowman, a metro Detroit school board trustee, told Fox News Digital.

Bowman, who says he knows Stevens personally, said: "True supporters of Haley Stevens, they know her as a person and they know what she represents. I think they will follow her and respect her for her decision based off some of the radical things we've heard about Abdul El-Sayed."

While those who spoke were handpicked for a Republican news conference, there is some data to back up Black voter defection. Between August and September, El-Sayeds support among Afri