Michigan Senate Race
Elissa Slotkin on left faces Mike Rogers in the race for a U.S. Senate seat.
Slotkin, Rogers slug it out in fight to the finish
By Paul Natinsky
As a heated election season builds momentum for the final stretch, two Michigan U.S. Senate candidates continue their pitched battle to the finish.
Mike Rogers and Elissa Slotkin are running to succeed Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who is retiring after serving four terms.
Congresswoman Slotkin and former U.S. Representative Rogers have remarkably comparable resumes, despite their seats on opposite sides of the aisle.
Both have extensive experience representing Michigan in Congress from the same district—Rogers from 2001 to 2015 and Slotkin from 2019 to the present. Both worked for the federal government prior to their legislative careers. Rogers served in the Army for four years and then as an FBI agent. Slotkin was a CIA analyst and later worked for the Department of Defense.
The differences between the candidates are stark in some areas and nebulous in others, as evidenced by candidate responses in two recent debates.
Inflation and the Economy
On the key front-and-center issue of inflation, price surges zapped consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly for food, gas, rent and other necessities. Inflation reached a peak in mid-2022 at 9.1% but has since eased, with a year-over-year increase of 2.5% in August marking a three-year low.
In the most recent debate between the candidates, Rogers mentioned making the country “energy independent,” undoing new regulations he said will cost $1.6 trillion and curtailing federal spending.
Slotkin countered that if there was a “silver bullet” to solve inflation, it would have been fired. She highlighted three policies — bringing manufacturing and supply chains back to the U.S., “attacking” the cost of health care, child care and housing, and backing a tax policy “that actually supports the middle class.”
Electric Vehicles
EVs and the batteries that power them are prime debate fodder as evolving technology comes increasingly to the forefront in the auto industry.
Slotkin said she does not care what kind of car people drive but cares about who builds the next generation of vehicles.
“Literally it’s either going to be us or China. Right now, China is eating our lunch on these types of vehicles,” she said, pointing to how the Detroit 3 automakers lost ground to Japanese and Korean automakers that built smaller, fuel-efficient cars in the 1970s and 1980s. “I want Michigan to build them. To me, I just don’t understand this idea of just ceding that ground to China. My opponent is happy to let them eat our lunch in places like Europe and South America. I am not willing to do that.”
Rogers accused Slotkin of voting in favor of EV “mandates,” a likely reference to her opposing Republican attempts to stop new federal emissions rules that the government estimates will lead to 56% of U.S. sales being EVs in 2032. He said she is “trying to pick the cars that our companies have to build and the cars that you’re going to have to buy.”
“There’s a better way to get where we want to go, like hybrids. By the way, you don’t have to plug it in and you get to keep the automakers that are in in the state,” Rogers said, noting how Michigan has some 1 million auto-related jobs.
The argument on this issue continued as Slotkin retorted that Rogers should join efforts to build domestic supply chains, an indirect nod to laws like the Inflation Reduction Act, which has federal incentives to onshore manufacturing.
“We all had our ‘come to Jesus’ in the pandemic,” Slotkin said. “We all figured that we had overextended ourselves into China. So we started bringing all kinds of parts back, all kinds of mining back, all kinds of things that are important to that supply chain.”
Housing
The flashpoint on this issue is Kamala Harris’ proposed $25,000 in down payment assistance for some first-time homebuyers.
Slotkin commented she needed to see the proposal’s details and did not commit her support. She favors public-private partnerships where there is some taxpayer money, “a lot of private builder money” and a certain number of units designated to meet affordability challenges.
“There’s a lot of different ways that we can do it. But it’s about increasing the housing stock,” Slotkin said.
Rogers, on the other hand, opposed Harris’ plan, saying a $25,000 federal subsidy would increase housing costs by $25,000.
“It doesn’t work. The No. 1 reason people can’t afford homes, including in my own family, is interest rates,” he said, adding, “If you want to get to the root of this, we have to stop spending. We have to stop (borrowing money that we don’t have a way to pay back).”
More Alike Than Different?
Despite their policy differences, Slotkin and Rogers’ comparable resumes and electoral success in the same congressional district led the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce to withhold an endorsement in this race.
“Unlike some campaigns where voters are confronted with only unsatisfactory options, the race between Elissa Slotkin and Mike Rogers represents something rare — two exceptionally strong candidates who would serve Michigan well,” president and CEO Sandy Baruah said in a statement. “Both Congresswoman Slotkin and former Congressman Rogers are far superior candidates to what television ads would have you believe.”
Baruah said the candidates are similar, with “proven national security credentials, a record for bipartisanship and willingness to buck their party extremists, an open and welcoming door to the business community, and partnership with the Chamber on key issues.”
“Slotkin or Rogers? Either way, Michigan wins,” Baruah said.
Elissa Slotkin on left faces Mike Rogers in the race for a U.S. Senate seat.