When the ride-or-die Democrats start leaving, you don’t have a candidate problem. You have a party problem.
Julian Epstein — former chief counsel for House Judiciary Democrats, former staff director of the House Oversight Committee, a man who spent decades giving everything he had to Democratic House and Senate candidates — published an op-ed in the New York Post announcing he will support and contribute to Mike Rogers, Michigan’s Republican Senate nominee, and will do everything he can to make sure other Democrats follow.
Michael LaRosa, Jill Biden’s former spokesman, is joining Epstein because he, too, has had enough of the socialism and crazy:
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
These aren’t casual crossover voters. That’s the institutional memory of the House Democratic caucus walking out the door with the checkbook.
They’re not alone. A second prominent DC Democrat — choosing anonymity but describing himself as a lifelong party member and political observer — posted that he has “no particular political juice to offer” but cares about one thing: “keeping bad people out of the Democratic Party and good people in public service for the right reasons.” He cannot support Abdul El-Sayed on either count.
Michigan Democrats are jumping ship publicly too — on camera, to reporters, at airports. “I will not vote Democrat. I’ll switch over.” Another: “I am very concerned about the socialist aspect of Abdul. I’m a liberal, not a socialist.” Even MS NOW had to acknowledge on air that Democratic voters were telling them they’d vote for Rogers after El-Sayed won.
CNN’s Harry Enten observed that El-Sayed showed little working-class appeal — he lost all 15 Michigan counties with the lowest percentage of college degrees. His coalition is college towns. His problem is that Michigan isn’t a college town.
The Jewish donor community has made its intentions clear. A Democratic fundraiser in Michigan said it is “absolutely certain” that several large Jewish Democratic donors will be backing Rogers. The Republican Jewish Coalition is already running outreach to Jewish Democrats in the state, calling El-Sayed “a direct threat to Michigan’s Jewish community.”
Mike Rogers spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. El-Sayed spent his campaign backed by a man, Hasan Piker, who praised Mao Zedong and celebrated Hamas, while stating that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. The contrast couldn’t be cleaner — which is why Rogers is letting El-Sayed’s own record do the work.
The data suggests the Democrats’ chances have dropped dramatically. As Enten framed it, the prospects of a Democratic win have fallen sharply “into Lake Michigan.”
The true believers are walking. The Jewish donors are crossing over. The working-class voters never arrived. The college-town coalition that handed El-Sayed the primary isn’t the coalition that wins a general election in Michigan.
Republicans should feel good about this race. They should also fight like they’re behind.
Because some things that should be easy still find a way to go wrong.
