US Midterms: Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens defects from party

Joining me in the studio is our international affairs editor, Philip Terrell. Philip, we got this rather surprising last-minute switch from Hayley Stephens. So what can we deduce from that? Right. This is quite an extraordinary last-minute switch, as you were calling it, by Hayley Stephens. She was the Democratic congresswoman in Michigan who ran against Abdel Isayed and only lost by one percentage point. She was, up until just a day or so ago, giving her support to him, backing him in his campaign to win that seat. And all of a sudden yesterday, we find that she has changed her position and is now throwing her weight behind the opposite. person, i.e. the Republican candidate who is Mike Rogers. If you look at the opinion polls there, Abdel Arsayed is given about 51% of the intentions of voting in the midterms compared to 44% for Mike Rogers. The big question everyone is asking now is, is this going to change anything as far as the final outcome of the result is concerned? I think there are two points on the line here. The first one is that as far as Hayley Stephens is concerned, it's going to be very difficult for her to claw back some kind of legitimacy. As a result of this last minute changing a position, sort of turning her back on the Democrats for whom she was running in this race until she lost in the primary race to Abdel Al-Sayed and now throwing her weight behind the Republicans. Throwing her weight behind the man she has been criticizing and complaining about all the way through the campaign up until now, where she's now jumped ship and she's supporting him. There have been reports from Republicans or comments from Republicans saying that this is something very brave for her to do. Even Donald Trump himself, the president of the United States, has welcomed the move by Haley Stevens to throw her weight behind Mike Rogers. Because the big question I think everyone is going to have to answer now is what will the effect be on. And on his chances of pulling off that seat, I think many are questioning what his views are on anti-Semitism, on LGBT rights and whether or not he will try to be a bit more hard line on those. And that may explain why she decided to jump ship and it may influence some of the voters against him when push comes to shove tomorrow.