In U.S. Senate race, Haley Stevens blurs lines on Michigan utility donations

The last Michigan Democratic Senate debate before the Aug. 4 primary was a contentious slugfest focused on campaign finance, personal credibility and electability.

Former public health official Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens are facing off in a closely watched fight that has at times gotten personal and drawn close to $70 million in ad spending. 

During the July 27 debate on WJBK Fox 2 Detroit, moderator Roop Raj asked Stevens if she is taking donations from DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, two major Michigan utility companies, during this campaign. 

“No,” Stevens answered, saying she’s been transparent and launching into unrelated information. Raj then said, “Congresswoman, that was a followup to ask the direct question whether you’re taking money from utilities or not.”

Stevens answered, “I said no.” 

El-Sayed looked surprised on stage and challenged her characterization. 

“I don’t know how to explain $40,000 directly to her campaign from DTE,” he said.

Both candidates omitted important context. Here’s the breakdown of Stevens’ utility campaign donations. 

Has Stevens received campaign donations from utility companies?

Federal Election Commission records for Stevens’ Senate campaign list two March 24, 2025, donations, each for $2,500, from corporate political action committees affiliated with DTE Energy and Consumers Energy. A corporate PAC is a committee established by a corporation and funded by voluntary donations from employees, not by the corporation itself. 

The contributions weren’t sent directly from the PACs to Stevens’ Senate campaign. The corporate PACs made the donations to her House campaign committee before she announced a Senate bid. 

Stevens transferred the funds from her House campaign committee to her Senate committee, according to a July 2025 FEC filing. Transferring funds from one account to another is a standard practice when politicians seek a new office.

DTE previously gave $2,500 to Stevens’ congressional committee in February 2025, and Consumers gave $1,000. Neither donation was transferred to her Senate committee. 

PolitiFact asked Stevens’ campaign whether she characterizes the transferred donations as money received from those corporate PACs. The campaign said the debate question asked whether the Senate campaign takes money from the utilities, and noted the donations were made to her House campaign before she launched her Senate campaign.

It’s a legal difference, but Penn State law professor Stanley Brand said Stevens’ explanation doesn’t give the full picture. 

“She may be technically correct,
but as a matter of discretion, it may expose her to a political attack, that she’s not being 100% forthright,” Brand said. 

Justin Buchler, a Case Western Reserve University political science professor, said the distinction is thin. 

“One could say that the second principal campaign committee had not taken donations,” he said. “But if the first principal campaign committee had taken donations, that would be hair splitting.” 

Both candidates addressed the question in post-debate interviews. 

“He asked specifically about the Senate race,” Stevens said. 

El-Sayed, meanwhile, argued that it doesn’t matter. 

“Somebody takes a bunch of money and puts it in her congressional campaign. And then she takes the congressional campaign money and puts it into her Senate campaign, then by definition she’s taken it,” he said. 

What about El-Sayed’s assertion that Stevens received $40,000 from the utilities? 

The figure is largely accurate but conflates two different fundraising methods; DTE’s PAC has donated that much to Stevens and her leadership PAC, but over the course of seven years — not during this single Senate campaign. 

A leadership PAC is a committee established by a member of Congress that’s generally used to support other candidates and legally separate from that member’s campaign committee. The leadership PAC’s donations to candidates’ campaigns are bound by a federal maximum of $5,000 per election. A leadership PAC can also pay for its own fundraising expenses, but it can’t pay campaign expenses above the legal donation limit. 

Since 2019, after Stevens was first elected to Congress, DTE’s PAC has contributed $35,000 to her congressional campaign committee over four election cycles. The PAC donated another $10,000 to her leadership PAC, HMS Scrap PAC. 

Our ruling

Stevens said she hasn’t taken donations from two major Michigan utility companies for her U.S. Senate campaign.

The companies’ PACs didn’t write checks directly to Stevens’ Senate campaign. But their donations, made during the 2025-2026 election cycle, were transferred to her Senate committee’s account.

There’s a kernel of truth about where the donations originated, but the statement omits important details. We rate it Mostly False.