Mike Rogers dishes on how shock Haley Stevens endorsement unfolded hours before Election Day

Michigan Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers praised Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens for putting America ahead of her party Monday while accusing Democrats of viciously attacking the congresswoman after she stunned her party by endorsing him over Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

Rogers told Brian Kilmeade on the "Brian Kilmeade Show" that Stevens endorsement "flipped this thing upside down," saying the congresswoman called him Sunday morning while he was on his way to church before ultimately deciding to publicly back his campaign following her bruising primary loss to El-Sayed.

"This is a congresswoman who just stood up and said, 'America is more important than my party right now,'" Rogers said. "And we cannot elect somebody who is so anti-Jewish, who is divisive, who's angry, who was mean about his politics. It's just the wrong thing to do."

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Rogers' comments came as Fox News reported Monday that Stevens' endorsement triggered backlash from top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Schumer called the move a "despicable betrayal," while Pelosi accused Stevens of "dangerously" betraying Michigan families by backing Rogers.

The endorsement marked a dramatic break for Stevens, who had stopped short of explicitly endorsing El-Sayed in the weeks after losing the Democratic primary but continued to publicly align herself with the party. During an October CNN interview, and declined to explicitly say she endorsed him, instead stressing that she was "still on the team" and planned to support Democrats on the ballot.

The tensions between the former primary rivals had been building in the closing stretch of the race. Stevens an outside group's ad linking U.S. support for Israel to higher grocery prices, which she called antisemitic, before El-Sayed's campaign asked her to stay away from its remaining campaign events. El-Sayed said his campaign did not produce the ad and that he disagreed with its contents.

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Meanwhile, days before she publicly endorsed Rogers, Stevens' fiancé, Jason Turkish, had already broken with the Democratic nominee. Turkish, a Jewish Michigan attorney and registered Democrat, told reporters at a Rogers campaign event that he planned to vote for the Republican, arguing that El-Sayed's rhetoric on Israel had made the Jewish community Turkish described his decision as "putting country before party."

Still, even hours before the endorsement, Stevens appeared to be denying that she planned to back Rogers. that Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said she spoke with Stevens around midnight Saturday and was told reports of an impending Rogers endorsement were a "rumor" and "not true."

However, hours later, Stevens was standing alongside Rogers at a Detroit church service, where she ultimately announced she would cross party lines and endorse him over El-Sayed.

"We didn't know what was going to happen. We were driving to the c