“As he heads into 2026, Rogers is surrounding himself with a campaign full of those who also repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 election.”
LANSING — According to new reporting from Michigan Advance, failed GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers is “surrounding himself with a campaign full of those who also repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 election” appointing a dozen prominent election deniers as county co-chairs for his campaign. Rogers’ campaign leadership includes Meshawn Maddock and Kenneth Thompson, who were both granted federal pardons by Trump earlier this month for their alleged role in the “false electors” scheme, and Norm Shinkle, the sole member of the State Board of Canvassers who refused to certify the 2020 elections in Michigan.
“Instead of accepting the voters’ decision in 2024, Mike Rogers has chosen to align himself with the very conspiracy theorists and election deniers he once condemned,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Joey Hannum. “Meanwhile, Rogers is continuing to push the same toxic agenda that rewards wealthy insiders like himself while spiking costs for Michigan’s working families. If Price Hike Mike is looking for a reason why Michiganders rejected him last year, he should start there.”
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Michigan Advance: Mike Rogers once denounced election denial of the 2020 election. Now, he’s surrounded by it.
- In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, called for President Donald Trump to accept a peaceful transition of power and condemned election denialism by Trump and his allies.
- […] Now, Rogers, endorsed by Trump in his second Senate election in two cycles, is espousing his own election denial about his 2024 Senate bid — saying in October, without offering evidence, that a van of ballots was delivered to a polling place in Detroit. He embraced similar rhetoric during the 2024 campaign as well.
- As he heads into 2026, Rogers is surrounding himself with a campaign full of those who also repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 election.
- Meshawn Maddock and Kenneth Thompson, for example, were both granted federal pardons by President Trump earlier this month for their alleged role in the “false electors” scheme that sought to cast Michigan’s electoral votes in 2020 for Trump, despite the state voting for former President Joe Biden.
- Both Maddock and Thompson are now county co-chairs on the Rogers campaign, in Oakland County and Ionia County, respectively.
- […] Rogers’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Advance.
- […] Maddock and Thompson are not the only election deniers on Rogers’ team. Nearly a dozen of the other county co-chairs named by Rogers in June had made statements online promoting conspiracy theories on the presidential election or the Jan. 6 riots.
- Norm Shinkle, one of the co-chairs in Ingham County, was the sole member of the State Board of Canvassers who refused to certify the 2020 elections, even as the other Republican on the board certified them.
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