Michigan Democrats Walk Haley Stevens to Her Car With a Box of Her Things

LANSING, MI — Just over an hour after Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) posted a video endorsing Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, the Michigan Democratic Party deactivated her keycard, packed her things into a cardboard box and had a security guard walk her to her car.

“We had about 48 hours until the election, so we did the whole offboarding in one,” said Corliss Vandergraaf, 58, the party’s membership services coordinator. “Badge, lanyard, donkey pin, the tote bag from the 2018 convention. She was allowed to keep the mug.”

The box also held a desk plant, a ceramic donkey and 41 unused Stevens for Senate buttons, which party staff described as “now a liability in two directions.”

“Under ‘reason for leaving,’ she checked ‘other’ and wrote ‘was not invited,’” Vandergraaf said. “We didn’t have a box for that. We do now.”

Several members of Stevens’ own staff, who resigned shortly after the video went up, were already in the elevator with boxes of their own and did not hold the door.

Party chair Curtis Hertel confirmed it on X, writing that Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” Stevens later told CNN that she still wants Democrats to win the Senate. “I’m just casting this vote in my own way,” she said.

“I’ve walked a lot of people out of this building,” said Thaddeus Pinkerneil, 63, a guard with 19 years on the job, none of them involving a sitting member of Congress. “Never had one ask me which side the Republicans park on.”

At a rally in Iowa, President Donald Trump, who said he has never met Stevens, told the crowd, “I’d love her to join the Republican Party.” Vandergraaf said the party is prepared to forward the mug.