TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Michigan Democratic Party
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 2024
RE: With Two Weeks From Election Walz, Mike Rogers’ Extensive Record of Enriching Himself at Michiganders’ Expense Will Cost Him
With just two weeks until the general election, Mike Rogers’ significant vulnerabilities have become clearer as he faces scrutiny on his record of supporting dangerous abortion bans, spending a “decade of advocacy” to boost opioid prescriptions, and not even living in the state that he wants to represent. As the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board notes, “it is impossible to envision Rogers leading Michigan forward.”
Mike Rogers supports dangerous abortion bans and has an extensive anti-abortion record.
Rogers “supported a national abortion ban,” “consistently voted” for abortion bans, and co-sponsored four bills that “could restrict or effectively ban IVF.” Rogers twice “co-sponsored legislation to withdraw federal approval of the abortion-inducing medication Mifepristone.”
Rogers wanted to “enshrine fetal personhood in the Constitution,” and he celebrated the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. If Rogers had “lived in Michigan instead of Florida” in 2022, he would have voted against Proposal 3.
Take a look:
- Jezebel: Michigan Republican in Tight Senate Race Says He’d Respect Abortion Rights. His Record Suggests Otherwise
- Bridge Michigan: On abortion, some Michigan candidate claims conflict with records
- Michigan Independent: Mike Rogers wants voters to forget his record of backing abortion bans
- The Gander: Mike Rogers tries to distance Senate campaign from his anti-abortion record
- CNN: Republican candidates downplay past anti-abortion stances ahead of 2024 election
- The Gander: Republican Senate candidates face backlash over anti-abortion records in Michigan
- Business Insider: GOP politicians are saying they’ve always cared about IVF. Bills they’ve supported indicate otherwise
- Michigan Advance: ‘Republicans have put the rights of a fertilized egg over the rights of the woman’
- Michigan Independent: Mike Rogers’ support for ‘fetal personhood’ could threaten access to IVF and contraception
Rogers is a self-professed “champion” of drug companies, and he spent a “decade of advocacy” to “boost opioid prescriptions” as “the nation tumbled into a crushing epidemic it is still battling today.”
In Congress, Rogers was a “leading advocate for greater access to pain medications, which are typically variations of opioids,” as “prescriptions soared during that decade, but so did addiction and deaths, as the nation tumbled into a crushing epidemic it is still battling today.”
Rogers bragged that “drug companies considered him ‘a champion’ of their industry,” and he “received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the same drug companies that now are paying billions of dollars in national opioid settlements for their roles in causing the epidemic.” Rogers is “bankrolled” and “received more than $1 million” from Big Pharma as he “helped block Medicare price negotiation.”
Take a look:
- Bridge Michigan: Mike Rogers vows to fight drug war, but urged opioid access in Congress
- Bridge Michigan: Michigan Dems blast Mike Rogers over opioid stance in Congress
- Michigan Independent: Bankrolled by pharmaceuticals, Mike Rogers helped block Medicare price negotiation
“Issues surrounding the residency of [Rogers]… have lingered for almost as long as he has sought to be Michigan’s next U.S senator.” Rogers finally admits that he is “not living at home where he’s registered to vote” after lying for months about where he lives.
Rogers has confirmed that he is not living at the house that he claims to. The house that Rogers claimed to live in “had no certificate of occupancy,” and it appears “to be still in a construction phase, with an unfinished deck and a Port-A-Jon next to the driveway.”
Neighbors in the house that Rogers had claimed to live in with his brother confirmed “he doesn’t live [there]” and said they had “never seen Mike around.”
Take a look:
- Detroit Free Press: Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ neighborhoods have everything but Mr. Rogers
- Detroit News: Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers not living at home where he’s registered to vote
- Michigan Advance: Rogers says he didn’t violate voter registration law he helped to pass
- MSNBC: A key GOP Senate candidate faces new ‘carpetbagger’ accusations
- MLive: Questions about Mike Rogers’ residency surface: report
- Michigan Advance: Where is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood?
- Michigan Advance: A new house is being built for Mr. Rogers in his not-yet-neighborhood
- Newsweek: Michigan Republican Candidate Caught Living in Florida
- MSNBC: In Senate races, GOP haunted anew with ‘candidate quality’ issues
Rogers sold out Michigan and our national security to enrich himself.
Questions have arisen about Rogers’ “revolving door” career “advising companies on issues he dealt with in Congress” – and his resulting “explosion of immense wealth.” 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’s own financial connections to China have created questions,” as Rogers has “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.”
Republicans have attacked Rogers for “getting rich cozying up to the Chinese communist party” and trying to “make millions from Saudi companies with nuclear ambitions” as well as “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:
- Detroit News: Mike Rogers targets China in Senate campaign, but his own connections draw criticism
- Business Insider: 9 years through the revolving door: How the GOP’s top Senate recruit in Michigan got rich after leaving Congress
- Heartland Signal: Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers connected to Saudi companies, including one with nuclear ambitions
- Heartland Signal: Michigan Senate candidate spews anti-China rhetoric despite working to expand Chinese companies and personal wealth
- The Gander: Mike Rogers voted against reining in special interests. Now he’s running for US Senate.
- American Journal News: Mike Rogers’ ties to Chinese telecom giants fuel hypocrisy scandal
- American Journal News: Michigan Republican Mike Rogers has repeatedly dodged questions about his work at AT&T
- American Journal News: Michigan Republican Mike Rogers worked for organization that threatened privacy rights
- American Journal News: Mike Rogers résumé includes consulting for businesses with shady foreign interests
Rogers has enriched himself while supporting policies that would hurt and spike costs for Michiganders.
Rogers supports repealing the Affordable Care Act which would spike costs for families, slashing Social Security and Medicare which would rip away Michiganders’ hard-earned benefits, and he supports the DeVos-backed plan to siphon money away from public schools. Rogers wants to pass tax giveaways that slash taxes for the wealthiest few while Michigan families pay the price.
Rogers is opposed to a federal grant that saves 700 Michigan automotive jobs, calling it a “bad investment.” Rogers backed free trade agreements that hurt Michigan workers, including NAFTA that contributed to Michigan “los[ing] nearly 300,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.”
Take a look:
- Detroit News: Rogers says $500M grant for building EVs at Michigan plant shouldn’t move forward
- The Gander: Republican Senate candidates vow to take away health insurance from 1.3 million Michiganders
- The Gander: GOP Senate candidates’ records suggest they’d back cuts to Social Security and Medicare
- The Gander: Did Mike Rogers forget that Betsy DeVos is one of his campaign’s biggest donors?
- Business Insider: Ex-Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who last year said the department she once led ‘should not exist,’ maxes out political contributions to Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers
- Michigan Independent: Mike Rogers voted for school vouchers, took the legal maximum contribution from DeVos
- Michigan Independent: Mike Rogers says he supports UAW strike but fought against union consistently in Congress
- American Journal News: Republican Mike Rogers flip flop on trade raises questions about his commitment to Michigan workers
- Washington Examiner: GOP Michigan Senate contender backs key Trump trade priority
Bottom line: Rogers is only in this race for himself, and “it is impossible to envision Rogers leading Michigan forward.”
Rogers has been called “unfit to serve” because of his “transactional approach to politics, his ideological inconsistency” and his “mishmash of opportunism, fearmongering and shopworn policy platitudes” that “render[s] him a poor fit for this Senate seat.” The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board notes that “it is impossible to envision Rogers leading Michigan forward.”
Veterans, union leaders, OB-GYNs, community leaders, and Republicans are slamming Rogers over his record of selling out Michigan which “directly speaks to his willingness to answer whatever call has the most dollar signs in it.”
Voters have voiced concerns about Rogers who “has been compromised by the millions he has made since leaving Congress in 2015 working with corporations, including some foreign-based companies.” Rogers has made it clear that he won’t fight for Michiganders, he won’t even stand up for Michigan’s largest city.
###
