Did Elon Musk pay Haley Stevens $2M to endorse Mike Rogers? There’s no proof

Two days before the 2026 midterm elections, Democratic U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan shocked her party by pulling support for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed — her opponent in the primary — and instead endorsing Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

As social media users tried to make sense of Stevens’ reversal, a rumor (archived) spread that tech billionaire Elon Musk had paid Stevens $2 million to endorse Rogers instead of El-Sayed. Snopes readers also reached out to us to investigate the rumor’s veracity.

Although Musk donated more than any other political donor in the 2026 midterms, with more than $445 million to Republican candidates, according to money-tracking nonprofit OpenSecrets — using data from the Federal Election Commission, we determined that there was no evidence Musk recently donated to Stevens. However, because we could not definitively prove he hadn’t paid her in some manner, we leave this claim unrated.

We reached out to Stevens’ team and to Musk’s SpaceX company seeking comment and will update this story if we receive a response.

It’s unclear precisely where the rumor originated, but it largely spread on social media. No reputable news outlet reported that Musk directed funds to Stevens. Some social media posts linked to in other posts had since been deleted, indicating the account that originated the rumor may have taken down the post.

Stevens has publicly criticized Musk in the past, introducing legislation in 2025 aimed at preventing him from “accessing the Department of the Treasury’s payment system and Americans’ most sensitive personal and business information.” Despite her criticisms, she retained funds SpaceX donated to her House campaign and her leadership PAC between 2019 and 2024, according to the FEC. The company did not make any donations to her Senate campaign.

According to OpenSecrets, Musk has primarily given money to Republican groups and the super PAC he founded and funds, America PAC (archived). There is no public record indicating he directed money to Stevens ahead of the election.

Although the rumor that Musk paid Stevens to reverse her endorsement is unfounded, there is evidence that her decision to back Rogers stemmed from her and El-Sayed’s split regarding U.S. support for Israel.

Stevens, a staunch supporter of Israel, has received more than $36 million from the main super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to Track AIPAC, a grassroots campaign funding tracker. Opposing U.S. funding to Israel has been one of El-Sayed’s strongest campaign points, while Rogers has maintained consistent support for Israel.

After Stevens released a statement (archived) demanding El-Sayed condemn a political advertisement criticizing Israel that El-Sayed maintained his team was unaffiliated with, El-Sayed said he no longer wanted Stevens to join him at a Detroit church appearance planned for Nov. 1. 

Stevens endorsed Rogers that day.

“This is about Abdul getting angrier and angrier and saying, I don’t want these people in my campaign,” Stevens told CNN’s Anderson Cooper after she endorsed Rogers.

Sources