By Andrew Goudsward and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Two days before Tuesday's midterm elections, President Donald Trump's Republicans got an unexpected boost in Michigan from a prominent Democratic endorsement but suffered a setback in Alaska where a federal judge dismissed a legal challenge.
US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democrats' Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed in a bitterly contested race, on Sunday publicly backed Republican candidate
Mike Rogers, threatening to worsen divisions in a state viewed as crucial to Democratic hopes of retaking the US Senate.
"I don't belong in Abdul's campaign," Stevens said in a video posted to social media.
Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House of Representatives seats are on the ballot on Tuesday. Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers. Polls show Democrats are favored to win a majority of the House and are locked in a tight battle for control of the Senate, where a handful of races are likely to determine the outcome.
Trump, en route to a Sunday rally in Iowa, told reporters that he would reach out to Stevens to thank her for the endorsement, which he called "a smart thing to do because El-Sayed would destroy our country."
But the Trump administration's attempt to intervene in Alaska's Senate race faltered on Sunday when a federal judge dismissed the US Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block certification of the results if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses.
The Justice Department argued voters may be confused by the presence of a challenger named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the same ballot.
If Democrats take control of the House or Senate, they could block Trump's legislative agenda for his final two years in office and launch investigations of an administration that has so far faced largely compliant Republican majorities. The White House has been preparing to implement portions of Trump's agenda without the aid of Congress.
More than 52 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, a record for a midterm and up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in 2022.
MICHIGAN RIFT
In Michigan, Stevens' endorsement of Rogers came on the same day she was supposed to appear with El-Sayed in a show of party unity. But the planned event unraveled after Stevens called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside group's ad that she said blames Israel for high grocery prices.
"We can't stand with hate," Stevens told reporters on Sunday, standing alongside Rogers after joining him at a Detroit church service.
El-Sayed's campaign recently asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as "not to distract from the central issues of the campaign," a person familiar with the matter said.
Republicans sought to take advantage of Stevens' move. "This is courage in politics in America today," Rogers said. "When you see a party, and at least a sliver of the party, veering off into the virulent hate that they have been spewing toward a group of people, it gets dangerous."
Later on Sunday at the Iowa rally, Trump repeated previous claims that El-Sayed is a "jihadist."
El-Sayed, who has been subjected to a campaign of racist and Islamophobic attacks, has rejected such accusations and called questions about his loyalty to the United States “shameful.”
He declined to directly address Stevens' endorsement on Sunday, saying he was focused on other issues.
"I want to get money out of politics," El-Sayed told reporters. "I want to put money back in pockets."
It was unclear whether the move would affect the outcome of the race. Polls indicate that El-Sayed has largely consolidated Democratic support. He holds a nearly 4-point lead against Rogers according to the Real Clear Polling estimate.
A number of Stevens' congressional staff resigned over the endorsement, according to reports from CNN and The Hill.
Stevens' longtime chief of staff, Justin German, could not immediately be reached to verify the reports, which quoted a statement from him saying, "as of this morning, many members of our team have resigned, including myself." The statement described him as "shocked and heartbroken" by Stevens' endorsement.
ALASKA RULING
In Alaska, a federal judge rejected a Trump administration lawsuit against the state.
The Department of Justice had asked the court to block certification and order an investigation if the outcome indicated that voters may have voted for challenger Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. when they intended to vote for the incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan.
The issue has roiled the campaign over the last several days after the New York Times reported that Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign was involved in recruiting Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. into the race as a spoiler.
The senator said on Sunday he would accept the results of Tuesday's election even as the Trump administration presses a criminal investigation into the issue. But Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, has suggested he may not certify a victory by Peltola, and the incumbent Sullivan declined to say whether he would support efforts to refuse certification.
He joined his party colleagues in accusing the other Sullivan of trying to confuse voters with his similar name.
"They got the decoy guy on the ballot," the senator told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "I'm sure I'm going to lose a lot of votes to that trickery. So what I say to Alaskans is, 'Don't let them get away with the tricks.'"
Peltola has denied involvement, and Sullivan Jr. has denied coordinating with Peltola's campaign.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Doina Chiacu and David Morgan in Washington, and Nathan Frandino in Anchorage; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Laura Matthews, Leah Douglas, Curtis Williams and Mike Scarcella; Writing by Brad Brooks, Andrew Goudsward and David Lauder; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Alex Richardson, Sergio Non, Will Dunham and Deepa Babington)
