Summary
The 2024 United States Senate election in Michigan will be held on November 5, 2024. The seat is currently held by Debbie Stabenow .
The two leading candidates are Elissa Slotkin – Democrat and Mike Rogers – Republican.
Incumbent Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow was first elected in 2000, defeating incumbent Republican Spencer Abraham. Stabenow was most recently re-elected in 2018 with 52.3% of the vote, and announced on January 5, 2023 that she would not seek a fifth term in office. This will be the first open race for this seat since 1994, which was the only time since 1972 that Republicans won a Michigan U.S. Senate race.
OnAir Post: 2024 MI Senate Race
News
Elissa Slotkin had less than half an hour to reckon with a retirement announcement that would reshape Michigan’s political landscape. The state’s senior senator and the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, Debbie Stabenow, was about to reveal that she would retire in 2024.
Rep. Slotkin, a Democratic congresswoman from Holly, soon met with her team to mobilize for a run at a U.S. Senate seat that Democrats had not expected would be hard to defend in the narrowly divided chamber. A powerhouse fundraiser who had won in one of the nation’s most contested House districts, Slotkin quickly emerged as the Democratic Party establishment’s top choice and began to set a torrid fundraising pace.
It took Michigan Republicans longer to find their frontrunner. Buffeted by turmoil between pro-Trump Republicans and the old guard of the state GOP, they eventually lured former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers out of retirement to contend for the unexpected opening. The endorsement of former President Donald Trump gave Rogers a clear shot at winning his party’s primary without drowning in the intra-party conflict that has plagued the Michigan GOP in recent years.
About
Overview
A swing state, Michigan is considered to be a purple to slightly blue state at the federal level, with Joe Biden carrying Michigan by 2.8 percentage points at the 2020 presidential election. However, Democrats have seen much more success in recent years in the state. Democrats currently control both U.S. Senate seats, seven of 13 of the U.S. House congressional delegation, the minimum majority in both houses of the Michigan Legislature, and all statewide offices.
This race is considered to be competitive given the state’s nearly even partisan lean and that there is no incumbent; however, most analysts consider the race leaning towards the Democrats. In-fighting among Michigan Republicans after the 2022 elections left the state party poor in funding for the U.S. Senate race and defaulting on a bank loan. The MIGOP also failed to meet campaign finance reporting deadlines.
Source: Wikipedia
Money
Total Raised and Spent
Predictions
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| The Cook Political Report[132] | Lean D | November 9, 2023 |
| Inside Elections[133] | Tilt D | February 9, 2024 |
Elissa Slotkin vs. Mike Rogers
| Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size[d] | Margin of error | Elissa Slotkin (D) | Mike Rogers (R) | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPIC-MRA | June 21–26, 2024 | 600 (LV) | ± 4.0% | 44% | 42% | 14% |
| Emerson College[F] | June 13–18, 2024 | 1,000 (RV) | ± 3.0% | 43% | 39% | 18% |
| Mitchell Research[A] | June 3, 2024 | 697 (LV) | ± 3.7% | 36% | 33% | 31% |
| Mainstreet Research/ Florida Atlantic University | May 30–31, 2024 | 723 (RV) | ± 3.6% | 41% | 41% | 18% |
| 636 (LV) | ± 3.6% | 43% | 42% | 15% |
Web Links
- Slotkin onAir post
- Slotkin Government Site
- Slotkin Campaign Site
- Rogers onAir post
- Rogers Campaign Site
- Wikipedia
Elissa Slotkin
Current Position: US Representative of MI 8th District since 2019
Affiliation: Democrat
Candidate: 2023 US Representative for 8th
District: based in Lansing and stretches into Detroit’s outer western suburbs.
Upcoming Election: Running for US Senate
A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and Department of Defense official. Slotkin was acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 2015 to 2017.
Her family farm was part of Hygrade Meat Company, founded by her grandfather, Hugo Slotkin. Hygrade was the original company behind Ball Park Franks which is now owned by Tyson Foods.
OnAir Post: Elissa Slotkin MI-07
Mike Rogers
Current Position: CNN national security news expert
Affiliation: Republican
Candidate: 2023 US Representative for 8th ongressional district from 2001 to 2015. A Republican, he is a former law enforcement officer and chaired of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2011 to 2015.
Upcoming Election: Running for US Senate
Rogers also served as an executive producer for the CNN program Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies.
OnAir Post: Mike Rogers
Issues
Elissa Slotkin
Source: Campaign Site
Protecting our Rights and Democracy
Elissa believes that protecting America’s democracy is the ultimate kitchen table issue – because every other issue depends on a vibrant and resilient democracy. Elissa has made defending and expanding voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights a priority in her time in public office.
In order to preserve our democracy, we must also reform the very political system we use to elect our leaders. With trust in our elected officials at an all-time low and with the foundation of our democracy at stake, Elissa is proud to have never taken a dime of corporate PAC money – not ever. In Congress, she has led the charge to ban corporate PACs and pushed leaders in both parties to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks. Elissa believes our government needs to work for the people — not the wealthy and the well-connected.
Keeping our Communities and Kids Safe
Elissa’s national security background means she’s focused on the things that are truly a threat to our kids. From physical safety to cybersecurity, she feels there is no higher responsibility than to protect the next generation.
Elissa is the first Member of Congress to have two school shootings in her district – the first in Oxford and the second at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Elissa has seen firsthand the toll gun violence has taken on Michigan and our children. In Congress, Elissa has supported no-brainer gun safety measures to keep our communities safe, including safe storage of firearms, universal background checks, red flag laws, and the assault weapons ban.
After the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School, Elissa introduced a bill requiring safe storage of firearms when children are present in the home, which passed in the House in 2022. Having grown up in a gun-owning family and being trained on a Glock and an M4 during three tours in Iraq alongside the U.S. military, Elissa respects the right to own and to use it responsibly for hunting and sportsmanship – but she will never stop fighting to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.
Making Things in America
Elissa believes that we need to make more critical items in America, so that we are in control of our own economic security.
She pushed leaders in both parties to pass the CHIPS Act into law to manufacture microchips in the U.S. and protect Michigan’s auto industry. And she championed bills like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to rebuild our roads, bridges, and water infrastructure while creating tens of thousands of good-paying, union jobs across Michigan. In the Senate, Elissa will work every day to bring critical supply chains and manufacturing back home.
Defending and Expanding Michigan’s Middle Class
Elissa is a big believer in protecting and expanding Michigan’s middle class. That means addressing the things Michiganders talk about every night at the kitchen table: their pocketbooks and their kids.
Elissa has fought to create jobs with dignity in Michigan, taken on the Chinese government, and worked to bring critical supply chains back to America and good-paying jobs back to Michigan.
And like many Americans, healthcare is a deeply personal issue for Elissa. In fact, it was the reason she decided to first run for office. In 2009, Elissa’s mother was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer at a time when she was uninsured. She struggled to afford healthcare for years because of an early case of breast cancer, and at the time, the insurance companies had gouged her for years based on that pre-existing condition. The same month that Elissa got her mother’s terminal diagnosis and was desperately trying to get her life-saving care was the same month that the family was also filling out the paperwork for her to declare bankruptcy.
Elissa believes all Americans should have access to healthcare they can afford, regardless of pre-existing conditions. No one should ever go broke because they happen to get sick, and no family should have to decide whether they can afford to save the life of a loved one. In Congress, Elissa has taken the fight to Big Pharma and helped pass legislation to make prescription drug prices more transparent that is coming into force in early 2023, and fought to pass laws that capped the cost of insulin for seniors, and allowed Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices.
Mike Rogers
Source: Campaign Site
WE FACE A CHINESE FUTURE, IF WE ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN
Unless we make a change in 2024 and take the challenge that China represents seriously, we will lose in this era of strategic competition. We on a path that will see the most profound geopolitical defeat in our country’s history, not through invasion or by force of arms, but through the erosion of American power. The consequences of this defeat are ones from which our country may never recover and never return, but will look longingly at today, which will be seen as halcyon days by comparison.
A world where China wins is one where America’s fate is not in its own hands. The decisions of Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party will have far greater impact than those of Washington. The hands of the president and Congress are tied; their powers circumscribed by Beijing’s actions on the international stage. This is not idle speculation or alarmism but stated goal of the Chinese Communist Party. China wants to recapture what it views as its lost position of greatness after a “century of humiliation”.
A world in which China wins is wholly alien to Americans today.
A world in which China wins will see the dominance of the dollar ended. An increasing number of countries are accepting the yuan in lieu of the dollar—Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina, for example. The relative stability of America’s markets is upended as the dollar is replaced by the yuan. Interest rates will be far higher than today and the cost of borrowing money prohibitively expensive. Americans purchasing power at home and abroad will erode.
A world in which China sets the international rules for trade is one in which companies and businesses do not compete on an even playing field. The Chinese Communist Party will put its hands on the scales, tipping them in favor of Chinese businesses. The United States has filed nearly 30 cases with the World Trade Organization about China’s unfair practices, and won every single one, yet Beijing still refuses to play by the rules.
A China that controls the supply chains for critical minerals and rare earth elements is one that dominates future industries. Today, Beijing accounts for over 60% of the world’s rare earth mining and 85% of its processing. The vital components for the green revolution are wholly in Beijing’s hands, giving it profound leverage while the world works to shift from fossil fuels to advanced batteries. It can simply turn off the taps whenever it wants, or merely threaten that
very supply to ensure compliance with its interests.
Chinese dominance means its apps and tools are in the hands of every American, affording Beijing unparalleled access to every citizen. With apps like TikTok, which already has 150 million users in America, China can censor what our citizens see, ensuring that only Party approved messages a viewed by Americans—it is ubiquitous stealth censorship and the direct erosion of our democracy. A dominant China will promote those who agree with it and denigrate those who run afoul of the Party’s platform.
A dominant China is one that pushes America out of the Indo-Pacific and bullies its neighbors, and one that retakes Taiwan by force. China now has the world’s largest navy, with 355 ships at sea, and rising. America’s one-time allies will look elsewhere for security and reassurance, pursuing their own defense policies and creating more instability, not less. In this world, America’s military is a paper tiger, hollowed out, and unable to defend our national interests.
This is a future we can avoid if we act today and take the challenge seriously. It means the smart and judicious application of power abroad and the reinvigoration of our democratic republic at home. It means jettisoning the sugar-high politics of confrontation and celebrity and rising above our petty politics.
It means getting our fiscal house in order. In 2022, China held $981 billion of our debt, exposing us to unacceptable levels of risk. We cannot afford to spend as recklessly as we do on outdated and inefficient programs that cost more each year and deliver less to our citizens. Reducing our borrowing from China and strengthening our economy at home will create greater stability in both foreign and domestic markets, giving greater confidence in the dollar and enhancing its competitiveness. This means modernizing government, which will lead to smaller, better, and more efficient government.
This means ending China’s campaign of industrial espionage of the next generation of technology. The scale of this campaign is staggering: right now, the FBI opens a counterespionage case every 10 hours. It means putting a stop to the Chinese Communist Party’s unfettered access to our country’s best and brightest education and research institutions.
It means outcompeting China. This means re-engaging with our allies and partners in international forums. It means mobilizing American business. It means unleashing American innovation, not constraining it for narrow social agendas. It means securing deals with our allies and partners based on the rule of law. In our own hemisphere, China’s reach has rapidly expanded—over 20 countries participate in Beijing’s One Belt, One Road development initiative, and over 15% of Latin America’s exports go to China, up from 1% at the turn of the century. We need to get back out onto the playing field and make American businesses more competitive.
An America in charge of its own destiny is one that limits the unfettered access to and manipulation of our democracy. It means taking a much closer look at investments, apps, and technology from China and being unafraid to use the powers of government protect the American people.
We must win in this contest against China, but more importantly we can if we act now.
Biden’s Border Crisis Endangers All Of Us
During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden declared that he would build “not another foot” of border wall. The day President Biden took office in 2021 he kept that promise by ordering an immediate end to border wall construction, sending a message to the world that our southern border was wide open. The impact of that decision, and of ending the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers, have been catastrophic.
Recently, big-city mayors from sanctuary cities like New York, Chicago, and Denver went to Washington, D.C., to demand $5 billion in federal funding to deal with the massive influx of illegal migrants into their cities.
This has put an immense burden on law enforcement, hospitals, and schools. It’s also creating a humanitarian crisis where migrant women and children are trafficked into the sex trade and illicit drugs like Chinese fentanyl flood our communities and kill over 100,000 Americans each year.
While all of those impacts on our society from the Biden open border policy are terrible, the threat to our national security may be worse. During a recent Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, it was reported that more than 1.7 million known “gotaways” have occurred since President Biden took office. That’s on top of the nearly 2.5 million encounters with illegal migrants the Border Patrol reported in 2023. An estimated 6.2 million illegal border crossings have occurred since President Biden took office, enough to fill up the Big House and Spartan Stadium 34 times.
Included in the 2.5 million encounters are nearly 200 individuals who appeared on the terrorist watch list, the greatest number ever recorded. This contrasts sharply with 2019, when President Trump’s border policies were in place, when zero people on the terrorist watch list were encountered. Zero.
As the former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, I understand the threats to America posed by terrorists and rogue regimes like Iran. If you are an Iranian-backed terrorist trained to do bad things, your goal is to not get caught. So it raises the question: how many other terrorists are included in the 1.7 million “gotaways” who crossed our border during the Biden administration? Extrapolating from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data tells us there are a whole lot more bad actors in our nation today as a result of our non-existent southern border.
We don’t know who they are, where they are, or what they are doing in the United States.
We all watched in horror as Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, raping, torturing, and murdering over 1,400 innocent Israelis and taking hundreds more as hostages into Gaza, including Americans. Fox News recently reported on an internal memo from CBP’s San Diego field office warning that terrorists “inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border.”
This comes as we’ve seen a spike in Iranian and Chinese nationals crossing our border, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
We must secure the southern border immediately and stop anyone from illegally entering our country. Full stop.
We cannot take a chance of a Hamas style attack in this nation, and to stop it from happening the Biden administration and Congress need to get to work immediately. Necessary actions include immediately reinstating the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers, restarting the construction of physical barriers in places that make sense, hiring additional border protection personnel, and utilizing technology to locate illegal crossings.
The time to secure our wide open southern border is now, because it has quickly become a massive threat to our national security.
