Gary Peters

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) has made scattered public appearances since her hairbreadth loss in the August Senate Democratic primary. In each one, Stevens has endorsed former rival Abdul el Sayed in his Nov. 3 race against Republican Mike Rogers for the Michigan seat held by retiring 12-year Sen. Gary Peters (D).

Some of Stevens’s comments came from impromptu Capitol Hill corridor interviews with reporters. She also joined freshman Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA) in an Oct. 6 interview on his YouTube series “Capitol Heat,” where politicians answer candid questions while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. A couple of days later, Stevens crashed the Washington bureau of TMZ. On the celebrity news show, she laughed and joked with hosts Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere.

Stevens and el Sayed fought a bitter political battle, with an outsize focus on her support for the U.S.-Israel relationship and his opposition to it. Anti-Israel Democrats have since then made him an avatar of what was once unthinkable: They can win, and they can win against big money. About $5 million was spent supporting el Sayed, while Stevens was backed by $60 million, about half of it from pro-Israel political action committees.

Still, soon after her defeat, Stevens said, emphatically, that she was a team player.

“I am not on the ticket; I’m happy to be on the team. Today I was with Abdul at the unity breakfast,” Stevens said on CNN on Aug. 7, three days after her defeat. “The big difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is that we do have a big tent.”

Five weeks later, Stevens, 43, was leaving the Capitol when a pro-Palestinian activist started recording her with his smartphone, accusing her of abetting what he called Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

In the nearly two-minute exchange, which went viral on social media, Stevens at first tried to avoid the man pursuing her. But Stevens, who worked in President Barack Obama’s administration and won a suburban Detroit House seat in 2018, couldn’t resist shouting back, “Anti-Zionism is a hate movement!”

Even as her car drove off, Stevens, who is not Jewish, rolled down her window and shouted: “I’m a proud Zionist! I love Israel!”

Stevens, who did not return a request for an interview, is emblematic of how what was once an influential pro-Israel bloc within the party is coping with being on the defensive — due to the rise of anti-Zionists such as el Sayed, the disfavor the country is enduring among Americans after three devastating years of war with Gaza, and the fraught relationship between Democrats and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), who is retiring after 20 years in the House because Republicans controlling Tennessee have redistricted him into oblivion in his longtime Memphis political base, said in an interview that anti-Israel sentiment was prevalent among young Democrats because of ignorance.

“Gen Z hasn’t a clue as to anything that happened more than three weeks ago,” Cohen said. “They have no conception of the Holocaust and why Israel was created in the first place.”

Pro-Israel Democrats are committing to solidarity ahead of next month’s midterm elections, seen as critical to stop what Democrats regard as the anti-democracy policies of President Donald Trump. But they’re not always able to resist furious outbursts, reminding anti-Israel voices in the party’s progressive wing that they may be down, but they’re not out.

“My condolences to @hasanthesun,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said on Aug. 18 in his first tweet after he faced down an anti-Israel challenger who was backed by the virulently anti-Israel podcaster, Hasan Piker, whom Moskowitz had tagged. Moskowitz, a leading pro-Israel voice among Democrats, declined a request for an interview.

Such goading is rare among pro-Israel Democrats, as congressional leaders urge the sides to commit to uniting ahead of the midterms. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who hopes to become majority leader, has for decades been the most outspoken pro-Israel Democrat since winning his seat in 1998 and, for 18 years before that, representing a heavily Jewish Brooklyn-based House seat. Schumer, heading into the midterm elections, is wholly behind el Sayed.

Keeping a low pro-Israel profile is wise, said one operative in the party who worked on multiple campaigns for pro-Israel Democrats and asked for anonymity to speak candidly.

“In most Democratic districts, unless there’s a sizable Jewish population, it’s a liability,” the operative said of being pro-Israel. Moskowitz, the operative noted, was running in a South Florida district with a substantial Jewish population.

“I think the best thing a pro-Israel Democrat can hope for is that nobody talks about it, and it becomes a non-issue,” the operative said. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which does open battle on social media with progressives, is especially toxic, the operative said. “There’s nothing good to be achieved by being publicly tied to AIPAC. There’s just nothing good to come out of it.”

AIPAC did not return a request for comment. It has maintained throughout this cycle that it continues to enjoy the support of lawmakers from both parties.

Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which backs pro-Israel candidates in the party, said that long-term, the party was on the side of Israel.

“The majority of Democrats, certainly the leadership and the vast majority of Democratic candidates, are supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” she said in an interview.

Soifer said that perhaps 10 Democrats were anti-Israel, and they won in deep blue districts — and were not representative of the Democrats running in competitive districts.

“They may have gotten a lot of attention this election cycle, but we are really talking about being a distinct minority among Democrats,” she said.

A swath of anti-Israel primary winners are practically shoo-ins for the general election running in deep-blue districts. Among the biggest headline-makers is a 29-year-old in Colorado, Melat Kiros, in a deep-blue Denver district. New York’s House delegation is set to feature a pair of DSA-aligned newcomers from New York City — Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez. In Michigan, Donavan McKinney is set to join Congress after winning the August primary for a Detroit-area seat. Kiros, Chevalier, and McKinney defeated pro-Israel incumbents.

Hostility to Israel will also be put to a wider political test in a swing district. In Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, covering the Lansing area and northwestern Detroit exurbs, William Lawrence won the Democratic nomination by beating two relatively centrist Democrats. The one-time DSA member now faces freshman Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) in one of the nation’s most competitive House races. The district in its current configuration, and its Lansing-area predecessors, has had Democratic representatives in Washington for 28 years and Republican members for 24, making for one of the most evenly balanced political battlegrounds in the nation.

Brian Romick, the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, a group that fundraises for pro-Israel candidates, rattled off in an interview a number of pro-Israel Democrats who have fended off anti-Israel challengers but with less media coverage. Among them are Moskowitz in South Florida, Johnny Garcia of Texas in a San Antonio area district, Adrian Boafo in Maryland, Jeremy Moss, who is in line to succeed Stevens in her suburban Detroit district, and Marni von Wilpert of California, vying for an open San Diego-area seat.

Moskowitz, Garcia, Moss, and von Wilpert are playing in swing districts. Romick said anti-Israel candidates are not viable in general elections in swing seats — and primary voters understand that.

“In very, very liberal areas, some very, very liberal candidates won, but very, very liberal areas isn’t where the next majorities are going to be won,” Romick said.

Joel Ru