Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate vying for the open Michigan U.S. Senate seat, left, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, the Democratic candidate, right, debate the issues on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 with moderators Alicia Smith, Chuck Stokes and Carolyn Clifford of WXYZ-TV in Southfield. Pool photo by MANDI WRIGHT/DETROIT FREE PRESS
The two candidates vying to be Michigan’s next U.S. senator confronted each other face-to-face for the last time Monday before the Nov. 5 election.
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) tangled over gun violence, abortion, Social Security and the future of the automotive industry at the Southfield studios of WXYZ-TV. It was their second and last debate before the election.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who spent years as a Defense Department official in the administrations of former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is serving her third term representing a mid-Michigan district in the U.S. House.
Rogers, a former Army officer and FBI agent, served in the Michigan Senate from 1995 to 2001 and then seven terms in the U.S. House before stepping down in 2015 and going into the private sector as a cyber security adviser and businessman.
As they did in their first debate Oct. 8 in Grand Rapids, they accused each other several times of lying about their records. Slotkin argued that Rogers couldn’t be trusted when he said he’d respect the will of Michigan voters on the issue of abortion, while Rogers said Slotkin had only recently come around to the severity of the border crisis and had not done enough to try and stem the flow of migrants entering the country illegally.
But it was on the issue of shoring up the Social Security system that the evening’s harshest exchanges took place. Noting that the Social Security Administration predicts it will be unable to pay scheduled benefits in full or on time starting in 2035, the candidates were asked their approach to resolving that dilemma.
When Rogers suggested a bipartisan commission would best tackle the problem, Slotkin went on the attack and pointed to her opponent’s record while in Congress.
“The senior citizens of this state can know exactly what they’re going to get with Mike Rogers, right? He voted to privatize or cut back Social Security and Medicare over a dozen times,” she said.
“It just isn’t true,” responded Rogers.
“Look at it,” said Slotkin. “It’s just an open record. You can’t deny that you voted for those things. You voted to increase the age of retirement from 65 to 67. You did that. That’s not made up. You voted against seniors [being allowed] to negotiate drug prices through Medicare. You did that, so we don’t have to guess what Mike Rogers will do in the seat. … You have donors who are demanding that of you, because you’re getting campaign donations. It’s just pure and unadulterated greed.”
Rogers gave it right back, instead trying to pin high consumer prices on Slotkin’s time in Washington, D.C.
“This is just dishonest in this debate, and you should be ashamed of yourself,” he said. “People are afraid for their future in this state. They can’t afford groceries. Their heating bill is up, and they can’t afford it. And you know who gave them all of that? My opponent in the last five years.”
Slotkin reiterated that Rogers’ record spoke volumes.
“He voted over a dozen times to privatize or to cut Medicare, Social Security. He voted to raise the retirement age. He said ‘We need to rethink retirement’, said Slotkin, referring to comments Rogers made in New Hampshire last year. “This is not trying to scare anyone other than to outline his record. I’m not throwing insults. Just own your record, Mike, man. You voted these things in your own time within your own free will. You had a choice. You sat in that job. You made your choice.”
When asked if they thought America needed stricter gun laws, Slotkin unequivocally said yes, noting that while she was in Congress, her district had two school shootings, at Oxford High School and Michigan State University and it was their responsibility to find solutions.
Rogers, however, said new laws were not the answer, but instead better enforcement of current laws and a more comprehensive approach to student mental health.
“Banning guns isn’t going to do it,” he said.
“All you need to know is gun violence is the No. 1 killer of children under 21 in our country,” replied Slotkin. “Are you going to do something about it, or are you not? My opponent doesn’t want to do anything about it. And why? Because he has a 100% rating with the gun lobby, and they give him campaign donations. It’s really, really easy to understand why politicians, in the face of murdered children, don’t do anything. They don’t do it because they receive campaign donations, and they’re scared. They’re scared because they don’t want to lose their election, and it’s terrible.”
Rogers responded by pointing to Slotkin’s record in Congress.
“With all that passion, you would have thought my opponent would have introduced a whole bunch of bills in the U.S. Congress. She did not,” he said. “I’ve been in law enforcement for a big chunk of my life. I was an FBI agent. I worked the streets, everything from gun violations and human trafficking and drug cases and organized crime cases. I understand what victims are and how we get at at this problem. The way we do it is actually constructive dialogue with these schools, with mental health, and with smart precautions that save kids’ lives, not the huffing and puffing that you hear here in name calling.”
Speaking to reporters afterward, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist said that particular exchange stood out in differentiating the two candidates.
“Mike Rogers accepts that children should just die of gun violence. He had nothing to say and no plan and no response, no vision. He thought we should just have a stern conversation. That is ridiculous and offensive to me as a parent and to everyone who believes that children should be able to live free from the fear of gun violence,” said Gilchrist.
One of the first questions concerned the issue of electric vehicles (EV) and whether the country was investing too much in the technology when consumers were not yet willing to purchase them in mass quantities.
Slotkin said regardless of campaign rhetoric, she didn’t care what kind of car people wanted to drive, but felt that the question was really about whether Michigan would stay in front of China in manufacturing the next generation of vehicles.
“In Michigan, in the ‘70s, ‘80s, we didn’t think anyone would drive anything but a big vehicle. We saw these little, very fuel efficient vehicles. We pooh-poohed them, and then the Japanese came in and ate our lunch. The Koreans came in and ate our lunch,” she said. “I don’t want to miss that next generation, and, by the way, it also means saving auto jobs. It means making sure that plants like Lansing Grand River, in the heart of my district, in Lansing, Mich., we save the 700 jobs that are at that plant because we’re upgrading it. So I don’t care what you want to drive, but I want to build them.”
Rogers, as he has throughout the campaign, slammed Slotkin for supporting a so-called EV mandate.
“I’m telling you, it is ruining our car industry. 5,000 auto dealers wrote an open letter to the Biden administration and said you are killing the car business, please stop with the EV mandates. And so if you think about what’s happening, they mandated you have to drive that car and my opponent signs an NDA that allows a Chinese battery company to go outside of Goshen, uh, in order to facilitate her votes on EV mandates. Same with the $500,000,000 rebuild at the GM factory. You’re promoting Chinese technology in America, it’s wrong. Let’s go to hybrids. People are buying them, and you don’t have to mandate that they drive them.”
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) who was at the debate to support Rogers, made that same point in a social media post: “Slotkin: you will drive what I tell you to drive. @MikeRogersForMI trusts voters.”
The accusation of a mandate stems from the Biden administration setting a goal for 50% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. While there is no requirement attached to the goal, Republicans argue that new EPA-issued vehicle emissions standards would effectively ban gas-powered vehicles.
However, policy experts told FactCheck.org that automakers would have flexibility in how they meet the new standards, with the option to make internal combustion engines more efficient.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing), who has endorsed Slotkin and spoke with reporters afterward, said the differences on that issue really stood out between the two candidates vying to replace her.
“It’s shocking to me that somebody who wants to be a Michigan United States senator would stand with the oil companies and China against our clean energy future,” she said.
We are number one in clean energy projects in the country right now. 62 new projects that relate to bringing supply chains home. There is no EV mandate. That was something made up by the oil companies that are supporting Mike Rogers and supporting the Republicans.”
However, Rogers said the state could not afford to gamble with the livelihoods of so many of its workers.
“We’re an automotive state. We have about 1.1 million workers who are employed by building something related to a gas engine or they call it mobility,” Rogers said to reporters afterward, claiming up to 400,000 jobs could be lost due to the decreased labor requirements of EV manufacturing. “I talk to these factory guys all the time. I worked on an assembly line. I know how important this work is. They’re afraid for their future. Why would we interject that kind of anxiety when your grocery prices are already higher, your electric bill is higher, your car repossessions are up to over 20% this year alone? This is crushing our families. EV mandates are only going to make it worse, and it’s going to happen faster.”
When it came to abortion and reproductive rights, Slotkin, as she did in the first debate, said Rogers’ record in Congress made it clear he could not be trusted to respect the rights of women to control their own bodies.
“Mr. Rogers has voted for every bill, every ban, every restriction on abortion that came in front of him for 20 straight years. He had a 100% voting record with his party. He never broke once, and now he’s going to come out because he’s put his finger in the wind. He said that, ‘Uh-oh, I need to win an election, better not piss anybody off,’ and so he’s changed his position completely,” she said. “He has shown us who he is. Do not trust him on this issue.”
Rogers said ending a pregnancy was “the most heart-wrenching decision a woman would ever have to make,” and that he respected the will of Michigan voters in 2022 when they enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.
“I know my opponent wants to make this as divisive as humanly possible, and I get that. It’s unfortunate,” he said. “I won’t do anything when I go back to the United States Senate to undo the vote of the people and their position and their concession and their compassion when it comes to this issue.”
But Slotkin refused to concede the point, and insisted Rogers’s record was key to understanding where he really stood on the issue.
“Mr. Rogers voted 56 times for every bill, ban, and restriction on abortion that came in front of him. That’s not misrepresenting. Those are his votes,” said Slotkin. “I am so sick of people who don’t understand women’s health, who don’t understand reproductive rights, who don’t understand that this is about the rights of our grandchildren having the same rights as their grandmother, saying one thing and doing another. Michiganders, do not believe him. He will not protect you.”
Rogers, in his rebuttal, took another tack, instead pointing to the issue of transgender athletes.
“If you care about all women, I think this is probably a great time to talk about Title IX, where my opponent said ‘I’m not protecting girls in sports,’ and ‘I’m not protecting girls by allowing men into locker rooms,’ both of which she voted for,” said Rogers. “If you want to protect women, there are other ways to do it. I think that is an outlier in this particular debate, and it certainly doesn’t put you on team normal.”
Rogers was referring to his support of legislation that would ban trans athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. In August, during a roundtable discussion with former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and athlete and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, Rogers signed the Stand With Women Commitment, a pledge created by Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) “to uphold legislation that preserves female opportunities and private spaces.”
A majority of polls currently have Slotkin in the lead by an average of 4 points, while internal polling leaked from the Senate Leadership Fund, a Super PAC dedicated to building a GOP Senate majority, had Rogers down by 8 points. Regardless, it was reported that the PAC planned to spend $10.5 million on the race.
Prior to Monday’s debate, Democratic lawmakers gathered to promote Slotkin’s candidacy by focusing on Rogers’ residency issues.
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), state Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), and state Senator Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), held a press conference to discuss the ongoing questions about where exactly in Michigan Rogers is living.
Starting with the Michigan Advance report in January, which noted that although he and his wife had purchased a home in White Lake, they still owned a $1.7 million mansion in Coral Gables, Fla., while living at his brother’s home near Brighton, and then culminating in stories last week in both the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News that confirmed he was still not actually living at the White Lake residence, the issue has continued to hound Rogers.
“How can Michiganders trust Mike Rogers to represent them in the U.S. Senate when he can’t even answer a simple question about his residency?” asked Stevens. “It is disappointing to see someone who is trying to be our next senator not care enough about Michiganders that he won’t even live here or tell the truth to the people he’s seeking to represent.”
Moss called it “one of the dumbest campaign scandals” he had ever seen, precisely because it could have been easily resolved from the outset, but wasn’t.
“This would be also ridiculous if it didn’t pose such concerning ethical and legal questions,” said Moss. “So you can call me old fashioned, but I think that somebody who runs for the Senate here from the state of Michigan should actually live in Michigan and actually legally vote here in Michigan. But the house that Mike Rogers claims to live in and where he’s registered to vote still does not have a certificate of occupancy, which means he could not legally live there.”
Rogers, through his attorney, claims to be living with his in-laws, who also reside in White Lake, and therefore states he is not technically violating state election law that requires a voter’s address to match that of their voter registration. Ironically, it was Rogers himself who sponsored that law when he was a state Senator.
“Mike Rogers is out for himself. He’s wrong for Michigan. And I think that when he loses, by this time next month, he can stop crashing with his brother and go back to working on his tan in his giant colossal Florida mansion,” said Polehanki.
Slotkin has had her own residency issues. When she moved out of her rental condo in Lansing, it created headlines during the 2022 congressional election, as it was owned by a campaign donor. She then changed her voter registration in 2023 to her hometown of Holly, even though that was outside the 7th Congressional District that she currently represents.
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