Updated at 10:50 p.m. 8/6/24
To no one’s surprise, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) has won the Republican nomination to run in November for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, where he will face U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), who won the Democratic primary.
According to the Associated Press, which called the race just after 9 p.m., the 61-year-old Rogers, beat out his two rivals for the position, former U.S Rep. Justin Amash (I-Cascade Twp.) and physician and former congressional candidate Dr. Sherry O’Donnell. According to unofficial results, with 26% of the votes counted, Rogers polled just over 64% , while Amash and O’Donnell picked up 15.3% and 12.2% respectively.
The victory was seen as preordained thanks to former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Rogers in March. It was further helped along after Grosse Pointe Park businessman Sandy Pensler also endorsed Rogers last month during a rally with Trump in Grand Rapids. Pensler’s name still appeared on the ballot and picked up 8.3% of the vote.
Speaking at his primary election night party at a Lake Orion bar, to which the Michigan Advance was denied entry, Rogers reiterated the themes he and the GOP as a whole have been hitting on throughout his campaign, centered on the assertion that the decisions made during the Biden administration have made life tougher for Americans.
“I want you to listen to the things that I have to say. We have to stand up and let people understand that there are people behind these decisions,” he told the crowd of supporters. “I know a deputy sheriff [who] lost his daughter to the fentanyl crisis facing Michigan. Started in China, went to the cartels in Mexico, came to Michigan, and took a young life. We know how to stop this. And I’ll tell you what, when we work hard and I get to the United States Senate, we better put China on notice. There is going to be a price to pay.”
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes issued a statement following news that Rogers had advanced to the general election.
“Mike Rogers has shown that he is only out for himself – he walked through the revolving door to enrich himself at Michiganders’ expense and then abandoned Michigan for a million-dollar mansion in Florida the first chance he got,” said Barnes. “Rogers wants to enact a dangerous agenda: banning abortion, supporting tax giveaways for big corporations, and jeopardizing Social Security and Medicare – and that’s exactly why Michiganders will reject him and his self-serving politics in November.”
Rogers retired from Congress in 2015 following seven terms representing his mid-Michigan district, serving as chair of the powerful House Intelligence Committee. He also represented Livingston County in the Michigan Senate from 1995 to 2001.
He later became a cyber security adviser and businessman and moved to Florida.
The Howell native, whose purchase of a home in White Lake created questions earlier this year about where he actually was living, came out of the gate last September with a strong bid to attract Trump voters and essentially never looked back.
His victory in the GOP primary comes despite his former service as an FBI agent and CNN commentator, neither of which are popular with MAGA voters, many of whom view the federal law enforcement agency as complicit in targeting Trump as well as the cable news outlet that is often a target of his ire.
Former Rep. Justin Amash (L) and Dr. Sherry O’Donnell (R) | Nick Manes and Kyle Davidson photos
It also follows a political conversion for Rogers, who was initially not a vocal supporter of Trump. In 2018, Rogers said Trump was “fundamentally wrong” in his assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while also calling Trump’s political tactics “destructive” and saying he would not commit to supporting Trump for president in 2024 if he is the GOP nominee.
But Rogers’ political instincts to move beyond those stances and adapt to the political reality of a Trump-dominated Republican Party paid off on Tuesday night and set him up to try and break a three-decade GOP drought.
The last time a Republican won a Senate seat in Michigan was 1994 when Spencer Abraham handily defeated U.S. Rep. Bob Carr (D-East Lansing). However, Abraham only held the seat for one term, losing in 2000 to current U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing), whose announcement in January 2023 that she would not run for reelection opened up an opportunity for Republicans to flip the seat.
“Congratulations to all our candidates tonight on a well fought victory. The Michigan Republican Party is excited to work alongside all our nominees this cycle to flip a Senate seat, expand our majority in the House of Representatives, and take back our majority in the Michigan State House. Together, we’ll show Michiganders that conservative policies will stabilize our economy, lower the cost of living, secure our borders, and bring peace to the world stage again,” Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra said in a statement.
While the Cook Political Report has rated the open race as a “tossup,” the Senate race is still considered an uphill battle for the GOP. Rogers was the best situated among Republicans to climb that hill with the latest fundraising filings with the Federal Elections Commission showing that as of June 30, he had more than $2.5 million in cash on hand, an amount sure to grow dramatically with his primary victory. In fact, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) announced in June it was injecting seven figures into a “Michigan field program” for Rogers.
However, he’ll be facing a prodigious fundraiser in November when he takes on Slotkin, who already has more than $8.7 million in cash on hand as of July 17. Slotkin has also spent the last six years building name recognition and a political operation in Michigan, something Rogers has had to work at resurrecting since leaving office and moving out of Michigan prior to deciding to jump back into the political fray.
This story has been updated to include statements from Mike Rogers and Lavora Barnes, as well as updated vote totals and percentages.
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