Democrats rally behind El-Sayed as Stevens backs his Republican rival

Haley Stevens lost Michigan's Democratic Senate primary by less than a percentage point, then endorsed the Republican who will face Abdul El-Sayed in the general election.

That is the awkward fact sitting inside Democrats' late campaign push around El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected, according to CBS News. Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kamala Harris have all appeared with or backed him after a primary that exposed sharp divisions over Israel, Gaza and the party's direction.

What changed: The party's bigger concern is now the Republican campaign. Trump and other GOP figures have attacked El-Sayed's ethnicity, religion and name, calling him a supporter or member of the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has denied any connection to the group. At a Port Huron rally, Trump called him a "jihadist" and a Muslim Brotherhood member while invoking 9/11, according to The Guardian. Al Jazeera reported that Trump also told voters to send El-Sayed "back to where he came from." El-Sayed was born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrants.

El-Sayed has said the attacks are meant to pull attention from the price of gas, groceries and health care. His platform includes Medicare for All, higher taxes on billionaires and corporations, removing corporate money from politics, abolishing ICE and ending U.S. military aid to Israel. Republicans have chosen his identity as a campaign issue. El-Sayed has chosen the grocery bill.

What Democrats are saying: Sanders called the Republican rhetoric "overt absolute racism" and said ads labeling El-Sayed a terrorist or jihadist were racist fearmongering. Obama appeared with El-Sayed in Detroit on the first day of early voting and rejected the idea that universal health care was radical, while acknowledging they do not agree on every issue. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez each transferred $1 million to El-Sayed's campaign, according to The Guardian.

The catch: Stevens's endorsement of Rogers on Nov. 1 made the unity pitch considerably less tidy. She had criticized El-Sayed over an outside group's advertisement linking U.S. aid to Israel with grocery prices. El-Sayed said his campaign did not make the ad and that he disagreed with it. The Associated Press also reported that Michigan Democrats' effort at a united front faltered when Stevens was asked to skip an event with El-Sayed.

A Marist poll cited by The Guardian put El-Sayed ahead of Rogers, 50% to 48%, among likely voters. The number to watch is whether Democratic backing can outweigh a close race, a fractured coalition and the Republican attacks now defining much of it.