Stevens on El-Sayed Loss: 'Differences Were Aired Out'

Washington — Rep. Haley Stevens said Thursday that she is moving on from the Michigan Senate primary she lost to Abdul El-Sayed, telling CBS News that the candidates' "differences were aired out."

"Everything that needed to be said in the primary was said," the Michigan Democrat said in an interview with "The Takeout with Major Garrett." "It's a big tent party."

Stevens acknowledged that the race put the split within the Democratic Party on display, but said "the time for all this negative, nasty, the disunity stuff — it's over."

El-Sayed attacked Stevens throughout the campaign over the support she received from the pro-Israel lobby. He has been sharply critical of Israel's government and the war in Gaza, while Stevens continues to back sending U.S. military aid to Israel.

"I'm going to continue to hold my beliefs. I know it's a word sometimes that people don't understand, but I am a Democratic Zionist," she said. "There is a home in the party that I'm still in for someone like me."

Though Stevens stressed a unified front going forward, she was evasive about whether she would appear alongside El-Sayed on the campaign trail as he faces his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, in November.

"Abdul's got a big campaign to run," she said. "We did the unity deal."

"My focus here is, no Rogers. No Republicans," she added. "Abdul and I had our primary. It's over. It's over."

The contest between Stevens and El-Sayed became one of the clearest tests this year of the ideological divide among Democrats, pitting an establishment-aligned House member against a progressive challenger. El-Sayed's victory now sets up a general election matchup with Rogers for one of the cycle's most closely watched Senate seats.