Detroit — U.S. Senate candidate Haley Stevens knocked down a comment from a supporter referring to her Democratic opponent’s Islamic faith during a campaign stop at a Black church on Sunday.
“Miss Stevens, we know you’re gonna kick that Muslim’s butt,” a parishioner of Fellowship Chapel in Detroit said to Stevens as she arrived to attend the Sunday service. He was referring to her opponent, former Wayne County public health official Abdul El-Sayed, who has spoken about his faith in recent days.
“You know what, we’re here for Michigan,” Stevens said in response, attempting to deflect the comment.
“I know you are,” the African American man told Stevens from his car in the parking lot of the church. “But I don’t know about him.”
Speaking to a Detroit News reporter immediately after the exchange, Stevens said: “Look, that’s not what my campaign is about. It is about what I just said to him. It’s about Michigan.”
“I am proud of the rich diversity in this state,” she later added. “We, you know, are proud of our Lebanese American community, our Yemeni community, and, you know, just all the hopes and dreams for our future in Michigan.”
The moment was illustrative of simmering religious tensions in Michigan’s bruising Democratic Senate primary, which has featured faith at the forefront in the campaign’s final days. The four-term congresswoman from Birmingham spent Sunday morning attending a service at Fellowship Chapel, a congregation on Detroit’s west side led by the Rev. Wendell Anthony, one of Michigan’s most influential Black political leaders. She followed that with a “Souls to the Polls” event in Pontiac.
After the parishioner exchange on Sunday morning, Stevens repeated her frequent criticism of El-Sayed for frequently calling out a pro-Israel group that has spent more than $30 million to back her U.S. Senate bid.
“There’s been some inflammatory rhetoric from my opponent throughout this race. He’s made this whole race about Israel and AIPAC,” she said, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “And I have made it about lowering costs for Michiganders, about standing up for the state that we love.”
El-Sayed also spent time over the weekend discussing faith — both his own and his views towards other religions — after Stevens said of him in a Thursday night social media post that, “Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.”
The candidate from Ann Arbor dismissed the notion when asked about Stevens’ post during a Saturday campaign event in Detroit.
“At the end of the day, I love and revere Judaism and the Jewish people,” he said. “It’s sad to see a campaign flailing at the very end after having burnt $70 million in money. Our focus is on continuing to build our campaign.”
“When they say I’m not electable, they’re not talking about me or my name,” El-Sayed said later in the day at a community center in Grand Rapids. “You know what they’re talking about? You. They’re saying that you couldn’t possibly be open-minded or big-hearted enough to elect somebody with a name like mine, who prays like I do, in a state like ours.”
El-Sayed is spending his final Sunday before Tuesday’s primary stumping for votes in Detroit, where he and supporters were planning a march from Eastern Market to the Spirit of Detroit statue outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.
After the church events, Stevens was slated to host an evening get-out-the-vote rally at a plumbers union hall in Madison Heights. In nearby Warren, El-Sayed was planning to rally his supporters at a United Auto Workers union hall.
During her appearance at Fellowship church, Stevens told worshippers: “I am so eager to be one of two U.S. senators for the state of Michigan, to do what I have always done for you, which is to fight for you, fight for equal access, to fight to get investment into Black-owned businesses, to fight to get that John Lewis Voting Rights Act done.”
“I don’t have time to waste,” she added. “What we need to do is have a little joy, have a little enthusiasm, have a little Michigan way.”
“Go into your phone, find out who hasn’t voted, bring them with you August 4.”
GSchwab@detroitnews.com
Staff Writers Summer Ballentine and Craig Mauger contributed.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Stevens knocks down Detroit parishioner’s Muslim comment about El-Sayed
Reporting by Grant Schwab, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Grant Schwab, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
