DETROIT – The Michigan Senate race is one of several that could help determine control of the chamber and decide the presidential contest this fall. Unlike some other swing states, both candidates are near the top of their ticket in the open Senate race.
Former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers praised former President Donald Trump in an interview: “He’s ready to go to work on day one to help put America and Michigan specifically back on track.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin hailed her positive impact on Vice President Kamala Harris’ race as a “sea change” from President Joe Biden’s campaign. Trump.
“It was like night and day, wasn’t it?” Slotkin said of Harris’ rise to the top of the ticket. “We absolutely saw — kind of an immediate shift in voter turnout and interest in Democrats.”
But “night and day” doesn’t mean there’s any room for complacency in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
“It’s going to be really close,” Slotkin said Thursday in the confines of a large camper van after a campaign stop in Ann Arbor. The election is three weeks away, and while he has a slim lead over Rogers in most public polls, there are some that are very close.
“It’s about independent voters, swing voters, voters who make up their minds too late,” he said. “We’re running for a very small group of people who decide Michigan elections, and they still make up their minds.”
While Rogers has tied himself to Trump, he also said he believes his campaign will “attract a few Harris voters … and we’re going to get them.”
“I think the auto workers — we’re doing a really good job with black men across the state because we’re going out and talking to them about opportunity and the future,” he said of a trend the Republican Party is working hard to boost this election.
Rogers, a former law enforcement officer and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, once criticized Trump — even calling him a problem for the White House. But he has since settled with Trump and tried to sue MAGA supporters.
Now, Rogers is careful not to air any criticism. Asked about Trump’s offensive comments about Detroit a day earlier, Rogers claimed he “didn’t hear anything.” [Trump] said. (Trump called Detroit, Michigan’s most populous city, a “growing region” and said the entire country would be “like Detroit” if Harris is elected.)
Pressed on Trump’s comments about Jewish voters (he suggested that Jews who vote Democratic should “hate their religion”), Rogers similarly sidestepped: “Yeah, listen, I’m not running Donald Trump’s campaign. I am managing Mike Rogers’ campaign for the United States Senate.”
Slotkin, a moderate Democrat who has been in Congress since 2018, describes himself as a “normal team member.” He said he would work “normally with everyone in the team” but accused Rogers of “absorbing and embracing the latest politics of extremism”.
Two national security candidates clash
Both Rogers and Slotkin have deep roots in national security work. Slotkin was a CIA analyst and worked for the Department of Defense. Rogers was an FBI agent involved in organized crime.
They disagree on how to take on China, prevent an escalating war in the Middle East and end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon are particularly relevant in Michigan, which has the largest population of Arab and Muslim Americans of any state. A significant number of Jewish Americans also live in Michigan.
As the only Jewish member of Michigan’s congressional delegation, Slotkin has sought to blur the lines between the Muslim and Jewish communities in east Detroit. He has kept his ties to the groups largely private and has avoided publicly criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza.
Slotkin doesn’t dwell on the communal divides that are so prevalent in the state, noting only that the conflict is “so raw” for Michiganders.
“There is nothing in this that will please everyone. It just doesn’t exist,” he said.
He said his strategy with communities is effective because the most important thing is to “keep the lines of communication open.” He urged the Biden-Harris administration to “continually have conversations with leaders, even if you don’t always agree.”
“I can also express real empathy for the children who died. I mean, it doesn’t make me any less supportive of a strong state of Israel,” he added.
Slotkin’s balanced approach drew criticism from Rogers.
Slotkin “can’t go to every community and tell them something and then do something different,” Rogers said.
“That’s why the Jewish community, I think, is unhappy with my opponent. That is why the Muslim community is unhappy with my opponent. It’s the old style of the 1970s – be for everyone, for every reason. It doesn’t work when you have the kind of problems we have in Michigan,” he said.
Asked how he connects with communities, Rogers said that while the regional conflict is an “important issue” for the groups, so are the border and the economy.
“I don’t care if you are an Arab, a Muslim or a Jew, a Hindu or a Christian. It doesn’t matter. These groceries cost the same across the spectrum,” Rogers said.
Slotkin criticized Rogers for briefly moving to Florida before starting his Senate campaign. He, in turn, criticized it for its record on electric cars.
Slotkin has been on the offensive recently, assuring voters in campaign ads and during the first debate that he drives a gas-powered car and, while he voted for the Biden administration’s rule, is not in favor of electric car mandates. The US will convert two-thirds of the automotive economy to electric by 2032.
“I don’t believe in doing anything that’s impossible for the auto industry because that’s our bread and butter in Michigan,” Slotkin said.
“If they can’t meet them [those standards]if they change what they think they can do, then I’m open to that conversation,” Slotkin said, opening the door to challenge the administration’s emissions goal.
Rogers argued that “mandates don’t work; markets work.”
“People should buy electric cars. Let’s build EVs here. “The market for electric cars will mature sooner or later, but you can’t force it on people today,” he said. “There is a big concern [among] people – it’s not fair to the people who work and build great cars in Michigan.
How the candidates handle abortion
Biden won Michigan in 2020 by less than 3 percentage points, and abortion helped power a historic election for Democrats in 2022 when they took control of the Legislature and retained the governorship and codified voter reproductive access into law. According to the latest poll, now Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the state.
Since starting his campaign for the Senate, Rogers has said he respects Michigan’s law codifying abortion and contraceptive protections and won’t take federal action on the issue. He praised the will of Michigan voters in a campaign ad last month, calling abortion a “major concern.”
But years before the Supreme Court struck down a national abortion right, Rogers voted for several anti-abortion restrictions in the House of Representatives. He also described himself as a “pro-life” Republican.
Slotkin said he believes abortion will continue to affect the race this year and supports “some form of filibuster reform” to restore federal abortion rights.
Regardless of whether Democrats vote to change the rules and lower the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority, which Harris has said he supports, Slotkin said he doesn’t think his party is “proactive” on key policy issues.
“If I say at the Pentagon, ‘Let’s play defense; Let’s not really have a plan’, I would be fired. That’s why I don’t accept it,” he said.
Slotkin said he would use his background in “strategic planning” in the Senate to craft a five-year plan to restore federal abortion rights, criticizing his predecessors in the Democratic Party for “waiting for bad things to happen” instead. to think ahead.
“The Democrats I’m with have no idea what our plan is,” he said.