When the man who used to speak for Democratic first lady Jill Biden publishes an op-ed in the New York Post announcing he’s voting Republican in Michigan and donating to the GOP Senate candidate, Mike Rogers, the Democratic Party has a problem that no amount of “big tent” messaging can paper over.
Michael LaRosa — a veteran Democratic strategist and former press secretary to ‘Dr. Jill’ — didn’t just quietly cross party lines. He wrote a lengthy, detailed explanation of why, and it’s one of the most devastating inside critiques of the Democratic Party that any party insider has produced in years.
LaRosa’s diagnosis is clear and unflinching: Democrats aren’t coddling Scandinavian-style socialists; they’re getting into bed with a nihilistic, deconstructionist brand of third-worldism. It’s an ideology that seeks the elimination of prisons, policing, borders, military funding, the Senate, the presidency, the Supreme Court and democratic free markets. A worldview that aligns with genocidal jihadist movements like Hamas.
I refused to defend or support anyone with an SS Totenkampf tattoo, simply because they had a "D" next to their name.
I won't defend or support anyone who is too cowardly to stand up to extremists who think the mother of my best friend, who jumped from 95 stories because the… https://t.co/hC6s7W7PfK
— Michael LaRosa (@MichaelLaRosaDC) August 8, 2026
Yeah, I know "integrity" is hard for you to understand, since you were shoved out of some back door at CNN for your lack of it. @JohnJHarwood If you're "shocked" because I ALSO did not support the bum with the SS Totenkopf tattoo living off his rich mommy and daddy (another… https://t.co/oJ77VJCIWp
— Michael LaRosa (@MichaelLaRosaDC) August 8, 2026
He names names. Michigan Senate Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed, the poster boy for left-wing extremism, gave cover to terror attacks on Jewish synagogues. He doesn’t believe Israel has a right to exist. His principal campaign surrogate Hasan Piker blames the U.S. for 9/11, praises Mao Zedong, and celebrated Hamas after October 7. And the Democratic leadership’s response to all of it — Chuck Schumer’s “big tent” platitudes, the DCCC’s failed intervention, Debbie Dingell’s pledge to endorse the full ticket anyway — has been precisely the kind of craven accommodation that Epstein is now publicly denouncing.
The political math behind LaRosa’s defection is what really matters for November. Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn predicted that roughly 5% of supporters of El-Sayed’s Senate opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens would cross party lines to vote for the GOP’s Rogers. That might be enough to flip the race. And El-Sayed won by only one point — which means even a modest defection from the establishment Democratic coalition could be decisive.
Abdul and Hasan are too radical and too extreme for Michigan. As proud democrats, we’re putting country over party and voting for Mike Rogers, who helped lead the effort to track down and eliminate Osama Bin Laden.
The choice couldn’t be easier. pic.twitter.com/gUW6GHfPAb
— Democrats For Mike Rogers (@DemsForMike) August 6, 2026
It’s not just LaRosa. A “Democrats for Mike Rogers” account has emerged on X, with voters who supported Obama, Hillary, Biden, and Haley Stevens all declaring they cannot vote for El-Sayed. Black voters, Jewish voters, rural voters, and now suburban establishment Democrats — the coalition that made Michigan competitive for Republicans last cycle is being handed new material every day by El-Sayed’s own record.
LaRosa’s closing warning should be read by every Democratic strategist who thinks they can manage this contradiction through November: as working-class voters flee an increasingly toxic Democratic brand, the party’s newfound embrace of anti-American extremists is likely to produce big losses nationally — and a civil war within.
townhall
The civil war has already started. Epstein just fired one of its loudest shots — from the inside.
Mike Rogers should clip the op-ed, put it in every ad, and thank Abdul El-Sayed for providing the material.
