El-Sayed tells Stevens to stay away from his last campaign events, and the Michigan Democratic feud breaks open three days before the vote

The feud is not new, but its timing is. El-Sayed beat Stevens by about one point in a bitter August primary for the seat Senator Gary Peters is leaving. The two appeared at unity events right after the result and then, by the account of people around both campaigns, barely spoke for months. On Friday the argument came back in public, over an advertisement neither campaign made.

The ad, from a political action committee led by commentator Cenk Uygur, shows a couple in a grocery store and has the woman say there was not enough money to buy eggs because, in the ad's words, we have to set that 7 dollars aside for killing Palestinians. Stevens called the ad antisemitic in a long statement on Friday, welcomed what she called El-Sayed's expected condemnation of it, and demanded he apologize for his own campaign rhetoric, including his statement that Israel is the reason Michigan cannot afford schools, health care and child care. Get Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford, she wrote.

El-Sayed's campaign answered that the ad is not affiliated with it in any way and that no one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign. El-Sayed himself accused Stevens of seeming intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago and of diverting attention from beating Rogers, whom he called Trump's hand picked candidate. His campaign then asked Stevens to forgo his events through November 3 so as not to distract from the central issues of the campaign, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The news was first reported by Politico.

The split has already cost El-Sayed names he could use. Stevens' fiance, Jason Turkish, announced this week that he will vote for Rogers. David Kramer, a leading Democratic fundraiser who chaired Stevens' primary campaign, said this week he will vote for Rogers too, arguing the Republican is committed to keeping Jewish people safe. A Mitchell Research poll for Michigan television stations found 94 percent of Democrats backing El-Sayed and 91 percent of Republicans backing Rogers, and a Michigan State political scientist told Reuters he did not think the flare up would move that many voters. The race itself, one of the closest in the country, will test that judgment on Tuesday.