Dingell: Stevens' GOP endorsement is "galvanizing" voters behind El-Sayed

“It’s galvanizing many communities,” the Michigan Democrat told CBS News on Monday.

Washington — Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Rep. Haley Stevens' stunning endorsement of GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is having the opposite effect of what she intended. "You're seeing a backlash," Dingell said in an interview on "The Takeout with Major Garrett" on Monday. "It's galvanizing many communities." El-Sayed's campaign says it raised more than $2.4 million on Sunday, the same day that Stevens — his former Democratic primary rival — came out in support of Rogers. "I've had Black pastors talk to me and say, 'Who said she represented us?' There's a lot of anger in how she did what she did yesterday," Dingell said.

The endorsement came after days of hostility between El-Sayed and Stevens, who were expected to appear together on Sunday before tensions boiled over. El-Sayed and the more moderate Stevens offered starkly differing visions for the future of the party during the primary, and although Stevens endorsed El-Sayed after he won the nomination, the two largely haven't campaigned alongside each other.The attempt at Democratic unity fell flat after Stevens demanded Friday that El-Sayed — a vehement critic of U.S. aid to Israel — apologize for his past remarks about Israel and condemn an ad from an outside PAC that she said was antisemitic. (El-Sayed's campaign said last week