LANSING — With Election Day just over a week away, more and more Michiganders are “speaking out” and “drilling down” on Rogers’ “lengthy record of voting for abortion restrictions,” work exacerbating the opioid crisis, and his residency issues as they highlight how “Rogers can’t be trusted.”
Meanwhile, DeVos-backed Rogers refused to defend Detroit *again* and continues to show Michiganders that he is only in this race for himself.
Here’s the latest on Revolving Door Rogers’ rough week:
- You can try and run… Rogers has a “lengthy record of voting for abortion restrictions” that he is trying to “distance himself from.”
- … But you can’t hide a decades-long anti-abortion record. Michiganders aren’t buying what Rogers is saying about abortion, especially when he has a “fairly long public history of being opposed to the availability of legal abortions.”
- As Detroit Free Press opinion editor Nancy Kaffer notes, it “seems a little suspicious” that Rogers is trying to run away from his “previous staunch anti-abortion advocacy and/or voting record.”
- This week, Michigan leaders are “continuing to criticize Rogers” for his work exacerbating the opioid crisis. State Senator Rosemary Bayer who “has two family members struggling with addiction” discussed how “since 2021, one Michigander has died every four hours from opioid use – overdoses specifically – but in Congress, Mike Rogers, of course, was a leading advocate for increased access to opioids.”
- State Senator Dayna Polehanki called out Rogers who “was a part of the problem, not the solution, during his time in Congress.”
- Theron Tingstad, a veteran, talked about how “if Rogers was at all connected to his community, he could have seen years ago how people were in the midst of the opioid epidemic. ‘And he’s yet to apologize, and he’s yet to do anything to hold these companies accountable.’”
- He doesn’t even live here! “Michigan Democrats are speaking out, drilling down on reports from downstate media claiming that the U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers lives at a different address than the one he’s registered to vote from.”
- Rep. Julie Brixie called out Rogers, saying he is “wrong for Michigan,” and that “by this time next month, he can stop crashing with family and go back to working on his tan in his giant Florida mansion.”
- Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum and other leaders are “pointing to this mismatch as a reason Rogers can’t be trusted.”
- CNN reports that Rogers’ super PAC has “received $1.2 million in donations from the DeVos family – including $125,000 from Trump’s former Education secretary, Betsy DeVos.”
- Trump insulting Detroit again? And Rogers refusing to defend Detroit again? Yeah, that sounds about right…
- With less than two weeks until Election Day, it’s clear that Rogers’ extensive record of enriching himself at Michiganders’ expense will cost him.
See for yourself:
HuffPost: On The Debate Stage, Republicans Squirm When Pressed About Abortion
- Mike Rogers, a former Michigan congressman of 14 years who is now running for Senate, for example, tried to distance himself from his lengthy record of voting for abortion restrictions during his debate with Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic nominee in the race.
- After Rogers pledged to uphold Michigan law on abortion, which allows the procedure up until 24 weeks into a pregnancy, Slotkin called him out for his past record.
- “He’s put his finger in the wind and says, ‘Now I can’t win if I don’t look good on this issue,’” Slotkin said last week. “So he’s changed 30 years of being unilaterally pro-life, of never breaking once with his partly on this issue. It’s not a talking point to women. It is our lives, it is whether we bleed to death in a parking lot. It’s who and when gets to decide when we have a family.”
- She added: “Do not trust him.”
Michigan Public Radio: Auchter’s Art: It’s settled
- Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate here in Michigan, is in a difficult position. He has a fairly long public history of being opposed to the availability of legal abortions. But now that it is neither a generally popular position nor a helpful wedge issue, he has attempted to distance himself as best he can.
- Specifically, he says we should have no concern about his role as a senator and national abortion bans because it’s a moot point in Michigan — it’s “settled law.” Of course, that’s also the approximate assurance previously given by Supreme Court nominees for why there should be no concern about overturning Roe v. Wade. And then it was overturned.
- …But politicians face dilemmas like this all the time — having to decide between core beliefs and what they think might get them elected. So the spin is understandable; it’s just not admirable.
Detroit Free Press [OPINION]: Michigan Republican candidates are suddenly chill about abortion this election
- Senate candidate Mike Rogers served in the U.S. Congress from 2001-2015. While there, he co-sponsored legislation that would have written into federal law the unscientific claim that human life begins at conception. He supported a 20-week national abortion ban. He twice co-sponsored legislation to take Mifepristone, an abortion medication that is now under attack in the courts, off the market. (Most terminations in the U.S. are medical, not surgical.) Running for the state Legislature in 1994, Rogers said abortions were only permissible to save the life of the mother.
MIRS: Democrats Continue Calling Out Rogers For Narcotic-Related Policy Making
- …The Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) hosted a press conference in Southfield continuing to criticize Rogers for his narcotics-related policy proposals when he was a U.S. House member from 2001 through 2014. It featured Sen. Rosemary BAYER (D-Keego Harbor), who said she has two family members struggling with addiction.
- She has one who has been in prison twice, and another lost her nursing license. She said both spent years struggling to recover and to be able to be typical members of society.
- “You see them decline. You see their health . . . their bodies decay. You see their loss of connection to all of us,” Bayer said. “Since 2021, one Michigander has died every four hours from opioid use – overdoses specifically – but in Congress, Mike Rogers, of course, was a leading advocate for increased access to opioids.”
- In late August, Bridge Michigan reported how, in 2003, Rogers introduced legislation to reduce barriers to chronic pain-treating drugs, and had accepted $226,000 in political contributions from opioid manufacturer affiliates (See “Dems Spotlight Rogers’ Opioid Support From 20 Years Ago,” 9/12/2024).
- “Mike Rogers has this clear record that we’ve all carefully spelled out, and (U.S. Rep. Elissa SLOTKIN (D-Holly)) also has a clear record on this subject,” Polehanki said. “I think it’s rank hypocrisy that he’s holding a press conference on this drug that’s killing Michiganders when he was a part of the problem, not the solution, during his time in Congress.”
- Another speaker at the Democrats’ event was Theron TINGSTAD, chair of the state party’s Veterans Caucus. He was a U.S. Army infantry captain who served in Iraq.
- Tingstad said if Rogers was at all connected to his community, he could have seen years ago how people were in the midst of the opioid epidemic.
- “And he’s yet to apologize, and he’s yet to do anything to hold these companies accountable,” Tingstad said.
CNN: “In Michigan, the Great Lakes Conservative Fund, which has spent over $20.5 million in the Senate race in support of Republican Mike Rogers, received $1.2 million in donations from the DeVos family – including $125,000 from Trump’s former Education secretary, Betsy DeVos.”
Michigan Democratic Party: MEMO: With Two Weeks From Election Day, Mike Rogers’ Extensive Record of Enriching Himself at Michiganders’ Expense Will Cost Him
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