DETROIT — The Michigan Senate race is one of several that could help determine control of the chamber and decide the presidential contest this fall. And unlike in some other swing states, both candidates in the open Senate race are sticking close to the tops of their tickets.
GOP former Rep. Mike Rogers praised former President Donald Trump in an interview as being “ready to go in on the very first day to help get America and Michigan specifically back on track.”
Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, meanwhile, hailed Vice President Kamala Harris’ positive impact on her race as a “sea change” from President Joe Biden’s campaign, which was struggling before he dramatically dropped out of the race in July after a brutal debate performance against Trump.
“It was like night and day, right?” Slotkin said of Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket. “We saw completely — sort of an immediate change in voter turnout and interest from Democrats.”
But “night and day” doesn’t mean there’s any room for comfort in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
“It’s going to be really close,” Slotkin acknowledged Thursday in the living space of her large camper bus after a campaign stop in Ann Arbor. The election is three weeks away, and while she has small advantages over Rogers in most public polls, there are plenty of very close ones, too.
“It’s about those independent voters, those swing voters, those voters who make their decisions very late,” she said. “We’re competing for a very small group of people who decide Michigan elections, and they are still making up their minds.”
While Rogers has tied himself to Trump, he said he also believes his campaign will “attract quite a few Harris voters … and we’ll take them.”
“I think autoworkers — we’re doing very well with Black males across the state, because we go and talk to them about opportunities and the future,” he said of a trend the Republican Party is working hard to grow this election.
Rogers, a former law enforcement officer and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, once criticized Trump — even weighing a challenge for the White House. But he has since traded endorsements with Trump and worked to court his MAGA supporters.
Now, Rogers is careful not to air any criticism. Asked about Trump’s insulting comments about Detroit the day before, Rogers claimed he “didn’t hear what he [Trump] said.” (Trump called Detroit, Michigan’s most populous city, a “developing area” and said the whole country would end up “like Detroit” if Harris is elected.)
Pressed about Trump’s comments about Jewish voters (he suggested Jews who vote for Democrats “hate their religion”), Rogers similarly sidestepped: “Yeah, listen, I’m not running Donald Trump’s campaign. I’m running Mike Rogers’ campaign for the United States Senate.”
Slotkin, a moderate Democrat who has been in Congress since 2018, describes herself as a “member of team normal.” She said she would work with “anyone on team normal” but accused Rogers of having “adopted and absorbed the more recent politics of extremism.”
Two national security candidates collide
Both Rogers and Slotkin have deep roots in national security work. Slotkin was a CIA analyst and worked in the Defense Department. Rogers was an FBI agent specializing in organized crime.
They have diverging ideas about outcompeting China, preventing escalating war in the Middle East and ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon are particularly relevant in Michigan, home to the largest population of Arab and Muslim Americans of any swing state. A significant number of Jewish Americans also live in Michigan.
Slotkin, the only Jewish member of Michigan’s congressional delegation, has tried to toe the line between Muslim and Jewish communities east of Detroit. She has kept her outreach to the groups largely private and refrained from publicly criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza.
Slotkin wouldn’t weigh in on the community divides that are so prevalent in the state, only noting that the conflict has been “so raw” for Michiganders.
“There’s no such thing as pleasing every single person on this. There’s just not,” she said.
She said her strategy with the communities has been effective because the most important thing is to “keep the lines of communication open.” She urged the Biden-Harris administration to constantly have “conversations with leaders, even when you don’t always agree.”
“I can also express real empathy for dead children. I mean, that to me does not make me any less supportive of a strong state of Israel,” she added.
Slotkin’s balanced approach has prompted criticism from Rogers.
Slotkin “can’t go to each community and tell them something and then do something different,” Rogers said.
“That’s why the Jewish community, I think, is upset with my opponent. That’s why the Muslim community is upset with my opponent. That’s the old 1970’s style — be for everyone for every reason. Doesn’t work when you have the problems that we have in the state of Michigan,” he continued.
Asked how he is reaching out to the communities, Rogers said that while the regional conflict is “an important issue” for the groups, the border and the economy matter, too.
“I don’t care if you’re Arab, Muslim or you’re Jewish or you’re Hindu or you’re Christian. Doesn’t matter. Those groceries cost the same across that spectrum,” Rogers said.
Slotkin has criticized Rogers for having briefly moved to Florida before he launched his Senate campaign. He has in turn slammed her over her record on electric vehicles.
Slotkin has recently gone on offense on the issue, assuring voters in campaign ads and during the first debate that she herself drives a gas-powered car and isn’t in favor of electric vehicle mandates, even though she voted for the Biden administration’s rule that would shift the U.S. auto economy to two-thirds electric by 2032.
“I don’t believe in doing something that is not possible for the auto industry, because that’s our bread and butter here in Michigan,” Slotkin said.
“And if they can’t meet them [those standards], if they change what they’re thinking they can do, then I’m willing to have that conversation,” Slotkin said, opening the door to opposing the administration’s emissions goal.
Rogers argued that “mandates don’t work; markets work.”
“Let people buy EVs. Let’s build EVs here. The market for electric vehicles will catch up eventually, but you can’t force it on people today,” he said. “There’s a huge anxiety [among] people — it’s not fair to the people who are working and building great cars here in Michigan.”
How the candidates are handling abortion
Biden won Michigan by less than 3 percentage points in 2020, and abortion helped galvanize a historic election for Democrats in 2022, when they took control of the Legislature and held the governorship and voters codified reproductive access into law. Now, Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the state, according to recent polling.
Since he launched his campaign for the Senate, Rogers has said that he respects Michigan’s law codifying protections for abortion and contraceptives and that said he wouldn’t take federal action on the issue. He praised the will of Michigan voters in a campaign ad last month, acknowledging abortion as “a top concern.”
But years before the Supreme Court overturned the national right to an abortion, Rogers voted for several anti-abortion restrictions in the House. He also described himself as a “lifelong pro-life” Republican.
Slotkin said that she believes abortion will continue to have an impact on the race this year and that she supports “reforming the filibuster in some way” to restore federal abortion rights.
Whether or not Democrats vote to change the rules and lower the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority, as Harris said she supports, Slotkin said she thinks her party hasn’t been “proactive” on key policy issues.
“In the Pentagon, if I said, ‘Let’s just play defense; let’s not really have a plan,’ I’d be fired. So I just don’t accept that,” she said.
Slotkin said she would use her background in “strategic planning” in the Senate to come up with a five-year plan to restore federal abortion rights, and she criticized her predecessors in the Democratic Party for “waiting for bad things to happen” rather than thinking ahead.
“The Democrats that I hang out with have no idea, collectively, what our plan is,” she said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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