TO: Interested Parties
FR: Michigan Democratic Party
RE: With Just Over Two Months Until Primary, Republicans Face Disaster with “Combative” Clashes and Weak Candidates
DATE: Tuesday, May 28, 2024
With just over two months until the primary election, Republicans are heading up to Mackinac Island this week facing a disastrous primary and a weak field of candidates that will cause them problems in a general election.
The “crowded GOP contest” has only intensified as Mike Rogers, Justin Amash, and Sandy Pensler “jump at the chance… to bash” each other. The “combative” and “bruising” Senate primary is full of “conservative unrest,” and has left even conservative Detroit News assistant editorial page editor Kaitlyn Buss suggesting the fighting may be “enough of a bump to set everyone back.”
The “aggressive” primary is a “doozy,” as Mike Rogers, Justin Amash, and Sandy Pensler “clash” while Rogers faces “backlash” and takes “heat from across the GOP spectrum.”
Justin Amash jumped into the race with guns blazing, slamming Rogers, his “rival from his days in Congress” with a “total failure” voting record. Amash is holding “crooked” Rogers’ “feet to the fire—and running against him in the primary” and declaring that “as people begin to learn about who Mike Rogers is, I think they’re gonna run away and run away fast.” Amash has called out “corrupt” Rogers for being a “total loser” who is in “big trouble” and has “no enthusiasm whatsoever.”
Sandy Pensler slammed “unprincipled” Rogers and his wife for “mak[ing] millions off of” their work walking through the revolving door, lobbying and advocating for Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company. Pensler didn’t hold back, saying “Rogers should be disqualified from ever taking office” and questioning if Rogers really has a house in Michigan and what his address is.
To add fuel to the fire, “Pensler’s money makes this primary more interesting,” as Pensler pours “big bucks into a major statewide ad blitz” (a seven-figure statewide buy!) “that takes aim at” Rogers.
Rogers bashed Pensler for “stoop[ing] this low” and added it “ought to be a disqualifier from running for the U.S. Senate.” Rogers hit Amash, saying he has “accomplished nothing for the people of Michigan.”
Through it all, Rogers has been subjected to intense backlash from his own party. Rogers faced “immediate condemnation” and “heat from across the GOP spectrum” with “25 of Michigan’s 60 delegates to the Republican National Convention call[ing] on Trump to un-endorse Rogers.”
Take a look:
- Fox News: Republican Senate primary in crucial Michigan race heats up
- Politico: New ad buy reveals Senate Republicans’ Michigan problem
- Detroit News: GOP delegates denounce Trump endorsement of Rogers
Mike Rogers, Justin Amash, and Sandy Pensler all have dangerous positions – including support for strict abortion bans – that are out-of-step with Michiganders.
While the candidates continue to “take shots” at each other, they all are united in their support of dangerous positions that hurt Michigan families.
Rogers has a long anti-abortion record that includes pushing for “a nationwide abortion ban,” co-sponsoring and voting for anti-abortion bills that would have criminalized and banned abortion, co-sponsoring four anti-IVF bills and co-sponsoring bills to ban medication abortion.
Amash supports an abortion ban, is “100% pro-life,” and co-sponsored a bill to restrict IVF. Amash believes that “life begins at conception” and supported the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Pensler called Roe v. Wade “terrible” and “tyrannical.” He said that he has “the same position on being pro-life as President Reagan and President Trump.”
Rogers, Amash and Pensler also support repealing the Affordable Care Act and spiking costs for Michigan families and passing tax giveaways that slash taxes for the wealthiest few but do nothing for Michigan families.
Take a look:
- The Gander: Mike Rogers tries to distance Senate campaign from his anti-abortion record
- Michigan Advance: ‘Republicans have put the rights of a fertilized egg over the rights of the woman’
- The Gander: Mike Rogers tries to distance Senate campaign from past attempts to ban IVF
- The Gander: Anti-abortion businessman joins crowded Republican race for Senate in Michigan
- American Journal News: Michigan GOP senate candidate Justin Amash voted to restrict IVF
Mike Rogers has significant vulnerabilities that have become clearer as his record of abandoning Michigan and selling out to China to enrich himself is exposed.
Mike Rogers abandoned Michigan after leaving Congress and has been “exposed as [a] Florida resident” with his “4,751-square-foot home in Cape Coral valued at $1.7 million [that] was his official residence,” leaving voters “disgruntled” at him for quitting on Michigan and being a “carpetbagger” who should be running in Florida instead.
Rogers’ “revolving door” career “advising companies on issues he dealt with in Congress” – and his resulting “explosion of wealth” has been exposed. After abandoning Michigan for Florida, Rogers sold out to China to make “hundreds of thousands of dollars in wealth through companies that have partnered with Chinese firms.”
Rogers “personally benefited from his connections to China in opposition to U.S. national security interests” and “has a long record of helping expand the reach of Chinese companies in the U.S. and Europe.”
Pensler bashed Rogers and his wife for “profiting from doing work in areas that they’re overseeing” and “mak[ing] millions” with his revolving door career by selling out Michigan and our national security to China.
Take a look:
- Newsweek: Michigan Republican Candidate Caught Living in Florida
- Michigan Advance: A new house is being built for Mr. Rogers in his not-yet-neighborhood
- Michigan Advance: Where is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood?
- Detroit News: Mike Rogers targets China in Senate campaign, but his own connections draw criticism
- Heartland Signal: Michigan Senate candidate spews anti-China rhetoric despite working to expand Chinese companies and personal wealth
- Business Insider: 9 years through the revolving door: How the GOP’s top Senate recruit in Michigan got rich after leaving Congress
- The Gander: Mike Rogers voted against reining in special interests. Now he’s running for US Senate.
Bottom Line: Republicans’ “brutal” infighting and weak candidates have left even members of their own party saying they “stand to lose” the Senate seat.
This “bruising affair” of a primary has reporters speculating that the infighting will make things “more complicated” and “disadvantage Republicans.”
While “Republicans had hoped to avoid messy primaries,” the “jumbled” field could “leave Republicans saddled with a nominee who could cost them a shot at flipping this seat.”
With all of the “division” in the primary, reporters are noting that they “don’t know how they’ll ultimately bridge that in Michigan,” making it an “uphill battle” for the general candidate who will have taken lots of “flak” and “damage” that he’ll have to “defend his record on.”
Conservative columnists, including Kaitlyn Buss and Nolan Finley, have voiced their concerns with the “division” being “enough of a bump to set everyone back” and how national Republicans are “skeptical of whether Michigan is really in play.”
Take a look:
- Cook Political Report: Does a Messy Michigan Republican Primary Await?
- Daily Beast: Not a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
- Detroit News [OPINION]: Buss: GOP will lose Senate race without consensus
- Detroit News [OPINION]: Finley: Michigan Senate race lower priority for GOP
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