LANSING — New reporting from the Detroit Metro Times reveals corrupt multimillionaire Mike Rogers spent months urging data center development in Michigan, dismissing concerns from Michiganders about environmental impacts, and predicting residents may ask for multiple data centers in their communities—all before he flip flopped last week once the issue became toxic with voters.

Despite promoting data centers as recently as late July, Rogers’ flip-flop came just days after the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) sent out a memo warning that anger over data centers was threatening Republican candidates in competitive races. It also came the same week as a new report revealed Rogers holds “millions in tech investments that could benefit from the data center boom” while he backed policies that would fast-track their development in Michigan.

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Detroit Metro Times: Mike Rogers loved data centers until voters didn’t

• Before Mike Rogers called for a one-year moratorium on new data centers in Michigan, he spent months arguing the state should compete for them.

• The Republican U.S. Senate nominee endorsed a federal plan to speed permitting for artificial intelligence infrastructure, touted the economic potential of AI development, downplayed concerns about data center water use, and repeatedly suggested communities could grow to welcome the massive facilities if their tax revenue was used to lower property taxes, according to a Metro Times’ review of his past statements.

• “The choice is simple: lead the charge or fall behind,” Rogers said in March.

• Five months later, Rogers is calling for Michigan to hit the brakes.

• Rogers announced Aug. 20 that he supports a one-year statewide moratorium on new data centers, saying Michigan needs time to establish stronger protections for communities, utility customers, and water resources.

• The reversal represents a striking change from the position Rogers had taken throughout much of the campaign.

• Rogers, who is facing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in November, initially avoided taking a public position. In December, The Gander asked every major U.S. Senate candidate about data centers and artificial intelligence and gave them a week to respond. Rogers didn’t answer multiple requests for comment.

• He again declined to respond in January when Planet Detroit asked Senate candidates about data centers as opposition to the facilities was spreading across Michigan.

• By March, Rogers had found his position. He endorsed President Trump’s “National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” which called on Congress to streamline federal permitting for AI infrastructure while trying to protect residential utility customers from higher electricity costs caused by data centers.

• Rogers praised AI’s potential in health care, manufacturing, and agriculture and said a consistent national policy would allow the country to accelerate its development.

• “The choice is simple: lead the charge or fall behind,” Rogers said. “Let’s get this done.”

• The next day, Michigan Advance reported that Rogers was “eager to ease the process of seeking permits for new AI facilities.”

• “We have to make Michigan competitive for new AI-supported jobs and investments that grow our state,” Rogers said, while also arguing that data centers should pay for their own electricity costs so residents aren’t stuck with higher bills.

• By April, Rogers was making the case that data centers could provide a financial windfall for communities.

• At an April 17 Kalamazoo County Republican event, Rogers downplayed concerns about their water consumption, saying his research showed most used recycled water and, if built properly, consumed less water than a golf course.

• He then pointed to the tax revenue expected from a proposed data center in Saline Township and argued that it should be used to lower residents’ property taxes.

• If a data center could cut residents’ property taxes in half, Rogers predicted communities might respond by asking, “Could you give us two?”

• Rogers returned to the argument repeatedly over the next several months.

• In May, he proposed directing every dollar in new property tax revenue generated by a data center back toward reducing property taxes for residents of the community where it was located.

• During a July 17 Fox Business appearance, Rogers again argued that residents could be persuaded to support data centers if they received a direct financial benefit.

• “They don’t want another school, they don’t want another fire station,” Rogers said. “They want to know that there’s a benefit for them.”

• He was still making essentially the same argument late the following month.

• In another interview, Rogers predicted the tax savings could leave some communities asking developers to “build another one, please, real soon.”

• As recently as Aug. 5, Rogers’ position was being described as support for allowing communities to decide whether to approve data centers while directing additional tax revenue toward property tax relief.

• […] Rogers hasn’t explained what changed between late July, when he was predicting communities might ask for additional data centers, and Aug. 20, when he called for stopping new developments statewide.

• The change came as data centers were becoming an increasingly difficult political issue for Republicans.

• On Aug. 19, Axios reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee had privately warned technology companies that anger over data centers was threatening Republican candidates in competitive races. Opposition has grown over the facilities’ massive electricity and water demands, utility costs, tax incentives, and relatively small number of permanent jobs. Nationally, Republican candidates who previously welcomed data center development have begun distancing themselves from the projects.

• Rogers’ flip-flop comes as data centers have become increasingly unpopular across party lines. An August national survey by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center found 61% of Americans opposed new data centers in their area, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. In Michigan, a May poll commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber found 55% of likely voters weren’t open to a data center being built within 25 miles of their home. 

• Rogers’ reversal also came three days after The Lever reported that he and his wife hold between $1.7 million and $2.6 million in companies positioned to benefit from AI development and policies that make data centers easier to build. Rogers also holds between $100,001 and $250,000 in a Blackstone real estate investment trust that has increasingly invested in data centers.

• Metro Times previously reported that Rogers and his wife have extensive financial and professional ties to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence companies through venture capital firm Forgepoint Capital.

• Metro Times is awaiting a comment from Rogers’ campaign. 

• El-Sayed, meanwhile, has called for state and local moratoriums on new data centers until federal protections are adopted, after spending much of the campaign pushing strict requirements intended to protect utility customers, water supplies, workers, and local communities.

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