In a close Michigan Senate race, candidates campaign in each other's strongholds
Michigan is one of the swing states Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are fighting for. It's also one of the closest U.S. Senate races in the nation. That race is between Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, and former Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican. It's for an open seat that's been held by a Democrat for more than 20 years. And as NPR's Don Gonyea reports, those Senate hopefuls are hunting for every possible vote in some places you might not expect.
emocrat Elissa Slotkin was in west Michigan in Grand Rapids Monday, a longtime GOP stronghold where Democrats have found success in recent elections, joined by former congresswoman and Republican Liz Cheney, perhaps the most high-profile GOP critic of Donald Trump. Slotkin was making a pitch to Republicans who feel like they've been left behind by their party.
ELISSA SLOTKIN: Raise your hand if when you were growing up, one part of your family was Republican.
GONYEA: About half the crowd of 500 did so.
SLOTKIN: OK. And raise your hand if in the past six or seven years, a relationship with a family member, a friend, a colleague has become strained because of national politics. Right, everybody. We can't stand it.
GONYEA: A former intelligence officer under both Bush and Obama, Slotkin has made bipartisanship a central part of her campaign.
SLOTKIN: I've always believe that public service should mean reaching across the aisle to get things done. And I say that proudly as a Democrat representing a Republican-leaning district.
GONYEA: While Slotkin has reached out to disaffected Republicans, her opponent, Mike Rogers, has been seeking votes in Democratic strongholds. This week, he was in a church in Detroit, where Pastor Lorenzo Sewell opened the session with a prayer.
LORENZO SEWELL: We pray that in the city of Detroit, Pontiac, Flint and Saginaw that you would cause Black people to see that they can vote their values.
GONYEA: Rogers, speaking in a small community room at the church, argued that supporting Democrats hasn't worked out for the Black community.
MIKE ROGERS: We can feel that there's movement here, that people are saying, hey, I'm not sure I'm a Republican, and we're saying, don't have to say you're a Republican. We just need you to be open to some ideas and some solutions.
GONYEA: Like his Democratic opponent, Rogers also comes from a national security background. He's the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He's a veteran of Congress and the state legislature, but he's been out of office for nearly a decade, much of that time spent living out of state. Rogers' reputation is as an old-school Republican, which means he started the campaign relatively unknown to many Trump supporters. Corwin Shmidt is a professor at Michigan State University.
CORWIN SMIDT: Rogers is sort of an interesting candidate in this regards because there really isn't that much association with him and Trump among Republican voters.
GONYEA: The Michigan Senate contest is like many around the country, in that Donald Trump hangs over the whole race. Rogers has endorsed and been endorsed by Trump. But here's where it gets complicated. After the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Mike Rogers was a very vocal critic of Trump, laying the blame squarely at Trump's feet. In a CNN interview back then, he called the attack on the Capitol sedition and domestic terrorism. Back in Grand Rapids at that Slotkin event, Liz Cheney says it's clear why Rogers has changed.
LIZ CHENEY: Now he's decided that he's got - it's more important for him politically to be with Donald Trump.
GONYEA: I asked Rogers for a response to Cheney at that Detroit event. He said he's focused on the present day.
ROGERS: What we're talking about today is not about what Liz Cheney thinks or what my opponent thinks about two years ago. I'm worried about what people are putting in their grocery cart today or what they're not putting in their grocery cart today.
GONYEA: We talked to Republican voters lined up to get into a Trump rally in Macomb County this week. Fifty-seven-year-old Mark Elie said he doesn't care if Trump and Mike Rogers had long-ago differences. If Trump backs Rogers, then he says he does too.
MARK ELIE: Well, he's got my vote, first of all just 'cause he's going to follow the Trump agenda. I've heard all kinds of stories about him being a swamper and this and that. Well, they all are, to a point.
GONYEA: But at that same Trump event, we also found 49-year-old autoworker Nelson Westrick, who says Rogers' past criticism of Trump is a deal-breaker.
NELSON WESTRICK: He's a flip-flopper, wishy-washy, you know? I don't know if you can trust a guy like that. And I just assume - not voting that column then.
GONYEA: Both of these campaigns are well funded. Television and social media have been saturated with attack ads for both. At stake is a Senate seat that Democrats have held for 24 years.
Don Gonyea, NPR News, Detroit.
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