Michigan Democrats are trying to put on a show of unity before Election Day.

Instead, their U.S. Senate campaign has turned into a public family feud.

Rep. Jim Clyburn’s team pushed back after Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign reportedly tried to keep Rep. Haley Stevens away from a Detroit church appearance where Clyburn was scheduled to campaign for El-Sayed.

The response from Clyburn adviser Antjuan Seawright was blunt: El-Sayed did not control the event, and Stevens was still welcome.

The New York Times reported that Seawright rejected the idea that El-Sayed could withdraw Stevens’ invitation and said it remained in place, preserving a planned Sunday appearance at a predominantly Black Detroit church that was meant to demonstrate Democratic unity during the campaign’s final weekend. The report placed the dispute against the party’s urgent attempt to keep Michigan’s open Senate seat, explaining that Stevens had planned to join Clyburn and El-Sayed after Democratic intermediaries offered assurances about how the nominee would address the controversial outside ad, only for El-Sayed’s campaign to ask Stevens to avoid its future events after she renewed her criticism.

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That is quite a message for a party nominee to receive from one of his own high-profile surrogates just days before voters make their decision.

The planned Sunday church appearance was supposed to help Democrats close ranks. Clyburn had invited both El-Sayed and Stevens, putting a nationally known party figure in the middle of an attempted reconciliation.

By Saturday, however, El-Sayed’s campaign had reportedly asked Stevens to stay away from its remaining events. Seawright’s response made clear that Clyburn’s invitation was separate and still active.

The breakdown follows a bitter primary in which El-Sayed narrowly defeated Stevens. Democrats needed those two camps to unite behind one ticket against Republican Mike Rogers.

Instead, the final stretch has exposed how little trust exists between them.

The episode left Democrats with an event billed as a show of unity and two competing messages about whether one of the party’s own members should appear.

A CNN transcript shows Stevens being asked directly why she had not joined El-Sayed on the campaign trail. She said she was working with other Michigan Democrats and described herself as part of a coalition working to elect Democrats, but the interview made the distance between the former rivals impossible to miss.

The newest dispute centers on a Rebellion PAC advertisement that connected U.S. aid to Israel with Americans’ grocery and health-care costs. Stevens and other critics called the ad antisemitic.

El-Sayed’s campaign said it was not involved in producing the ad.

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Cenk Uygur, whose political group released the ad, defended it and accused reporters of misrepresenting its message. The political damage continued anyway, and one commentator argued that Stevens may have damaged her own future inside the party during the 24-hour blowup.

Stevens had reportedly agreed to attend the Clyburn event after Democratic intermediaries assured her that El-Sayed would condemn the outside group’s ad. She also wanted him to apologize for his own comparisons between Israel funding and money available for domestic priorities.

Then came the attempt to shut her out.

Breitbart News summarized the clash and reported that the El-Sayed campaign sought to keep Stevens away from its remaining events. The outlet also noted that El-Sayed said he disagreed with the Rebellion PAC ad but did not directly answer whether he wanted Stevens at the church appearance.

El-Sayed instead said he wanted to focus on campaign issues such as political spending, health care and household costs. Stevens, meanwhile, continued to say she supported the Democratic ticket even as her fiancé publicly backed Rogers.

The dispute therefore moved beyond one outside advertisement. It became a test of whether the nominee and the congresswoman he defeated could share a stage, and whether national Democratic figures could keep their own unity event intact.

If the goal was party unity, Democrats somehow turned a reconciliation event into another argument over who was invited, who was in charge and what their nominee was willing to say.

A reporter later put the feud to El-Sayed in language far more colorful than anything a campaign would put in a press release. The nominee laughed and declined to answer the premise.

Republicans could hardly ask for a clearer closing argument about the Democrats’ condition in Michigan.

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Rogers can campaign against one opponent. El-Sayed is now fighting a Republican nominee, the fallout from a controversial outside ad and a former primary rival whose support he desperately needs.

The stakes are enormous. A Senate seat is on the line, and both parties know Michigan could help determine control of the chamber.

In a close race, even a small number of Democrats staying home or crossing over could be decisive.

Yet the Democratic coalition is spending the campaign’s most valuable hours arguing over an invitation.

Voters should also notice the deeper problem. Democrats frequently demand that their coalition’s disagreements be treated as private family business.

Here, the dispute became public because the nominee’s campaign reportedly tried to exclude a sitting Democratic congresswoman from an event hosted by somebody else.

Clyburn’s adviser was forced to state the obvious: it was not El-Sayed’s event.

A unity event that requires an argument over who may attend is a warning sign all by itself.

Michigan voters will soon decide whether a campaign that cannot keep its own party together should be trusted with a six-year seat in the United States Senate.

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