U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a third-term moderate Democrat who represents portions of Oakland County, has emerged as one of the staunchest supporters of Israel — even as innocent Palestinians continue to be slaughtered.
And pro-Israel groups, some of them funded by Republican megadonors, are lavishing her with political donations.
Over the past four years, United Democracy Project, a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), spent more than $4 million on ads in support of Stevens, according to campaign finance records. The ads make no mention of Israel.
AIPAC, a hawkish pro-Israel group that has supported more than 100 Republicans who voted to overturn the election, donated more than $785,000 to her campaign since 2022.
The money appears to be paying off.
Out of the 213 Democrats in the U.S. House, Stevens was among just a dozen who joined Republicans in favor of a $14.3 billion aid package to Israel in November. To finance the handout, lawmakers proposed cutting $14.3 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, despite the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office saying the cut would increase the federal deficit by at least $12 billion because of the diminished ability to enforce tax laws.
Fellow Democrats called the legislation a “cynical political ploy” drawn up by “MAGA extremists.”
In April, Stevens joined 20 other Democrats who called on Columbia University to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests on campus, despite polling showing that most Americans are opposed to Israel’s military action in Gaza.
That same month, Stevens said during a House session that she feared protests would “erupt” after Hamas attacked Israel in October. She repeated disputed claims that many of the protests included antisemitic rhetoric. In fact, many of the student protesters are Jewish.
“My immediate thought was, ‘Oh dear, our college campuses are going to erupt,’” Stevens said. “I am a member of Congress who has been very dedicated to the Jewish student experience and the protection of it. We are, throughout this country, tragically and alarmingly at a boiling point as it pertains to antisemitism on college campuses.”
Stevens’s office even called the police on a Hazel Park man who threatened to protest outside the local district office in Farmington Hills late last month.
Angry that Stevens appeared to be silencing dissent and supporting Israel while it killed thousands of innocent Palestinians, Amy and Ray Hollifield called the Democrat’s local district office and expressed their frustrations.
Ray Hollifield tells Metro Times that he and his wife were “berated and belittled” by Stevens’s deputy district director, Michael Tash. After Amy Hollifield hung up because of the way she was treated, she says Tash called her back on her cell phone “yelling and berating me.”
Her husband called back and said Stevens was lying about campus safety, putting peaceful ceasefire supporters in danger.
“If she continues to ignore people who voted her in office, I will have no other option but to exercise my First Amendment rights to organize and protest outside her office,” Ray Hollifield recalls telling Tash.
Later that day, a Farmington Hills detective called Ray Hollifield and wanted to know about the protest. Hollifield was astonished.
“I kept telling him, ‘Why are you calling me?’” Hollifield recalls. “He said, ‘You’re not in trouble.’ I said, ‘I know I’m not in trouble. I called my representative and expressed concerns and now I’m getting a call from the police.’”
Bewildered, Hollifield hung up.
“This is the first time I ever called a representative, and they sicced the fucking police on me,” Hollifield tells Metro Times. “I’m very fucking angry. … They are trying to scare me.”
Soon after, the Hollifields were contacted by Ahmed Ghanim, an activist who works in health care management.
“He wanted to make sure we were OK,” Ray Hollifield says. “He just believed us. It felt like, here’s someone who is listening to us.”
The couple found out that Ghanim is running against Stevens in the Democratic primary election in August.
Ghanim, also known as A.G., immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt in 2001 and is vehemently opposed to Israel’s military actions. He became popular among progressives and other anti-Trumpers after co-founding Metro-Detroit Political Action Network, a group that formed after the inauguration of Donald Trump. The network rallied against Trump’s Muslim travel ban and branched out to fight racial, environmental, and economic justices.
When Ghanim speaks about Stevens’s staunch support of Israel, he doesn’t mince words.
“Haley Stevens is a genocide enabler and has children’s blood on her hand,” Ghanim tells Metro Times. “She has voted to send billions of our tax dollars, against the will of the people, to fund a genocide while the budgets for education, healthcare, and affordable housing continue to be cut. Her actions since October 7, as a rubber stamp for [Israel Prime Minister Benhamin] Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government, have not only funded a genocide and resulted in the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians, including more than 15 thousand children, but are also endangering America’s national security in the region and endangering the Israeli people by setting them on a course of endless wars.”
As an Egyptian American, Ghanim says he knows the Middle East “like the back of my hand” and that war is going to destabilize the region, making everyone unsafe.
“If the past 75 years have shown us anything, it’s that war is never the answer,” Ghanim says. “It’s time to remove Netanyahu and Congress members like Haley Stevens from office so that the genocide stops and lasting peace negotiations can begin.”
Ghanim emphasizes that he’s not running as “a protest vote.” He has a multi-faceted platform that includes tackling rising inflation, instituting immigration reform, and improving education, health care, and affordable housing.
As Stevens accepts buckets of donations from pro-Israel groups and other deep-pocket donors, Ghanim knows he has a steep hill to climb. But, he says, he believes that grassroots campaigning is more potent than anything special interests can buy.
“We empower the people to fight back and take matters into their own hands,” Ghanim says. “The vast majority of our donors are first-time contributors.”
He adds, “We are witnessing a wave of new donors and voters that will disrupt the establishment and reclaim our democracy. Our victory in District 11 is not just about winning an election; it’s about returning America’s political power back to the people. We are liberating our American dream of freedom and justice for everyone because no one will do it for us. We are the answer.”
The anger over Stevens’s staunch support of Israel is palpable on social media. Her tweets defending Israel are met with harsh criticism.
When Stevens tweeted on May 9, “We must make sure Israel has the tools it needs to defend itself,” supporters of Palestinians called her a “Zionist traitor” and “genocide enabler.”
“This tweet was bought and paid for by Israel,” one person responded.
In August 2022, Stevens defeated U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, a Jewish progressive who is critical of Israel, 60% to 40%. In that race, Stevens received millions of dollars from AIPAC-linked groups.
Metro Times made numerous attempts to reach Stevens for comment, but neither her campaign nor her office would respond.
