Rogers and Slotkin talk with 9&10 News ahead of Senate debate

This story has been updated to correctly reflect Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s position as a CIA officer who worked with the military in Iraq.

The race to replace outgoing US Sen. Debbie Stabenow is picking up steam just a month away from Election Day.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin and Republican Mike Rogers are fighting for Michigan’s open Senate seat this November, a close race that has drawn tens of millions of dollars in advertising and is rated as one of the GOP’s best pickup opportunities.

The election could play a crucial role in enabling or hampering the future president’s agenda. With Republicans virtually guaranteed to pick up West Virginia’s open seat, one other flip towards conservatives would award them control of the Senate.

The candidates share parts of their personal backgrounds — both have worked in intelligence agencies and have represented parts of mid-Michigan in Congress.

Slotkin is a current three-term US Representative, former CIA officer and defense official under Presidents Bush and Obama. She has received the support of outgoing Senator Stabenow.

Rogers is a veteran, former seven-term US Representative, FBI agent and chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

Both candidates have run on economic issues, detailing their proposals to ease the cost of living.

Rogers emphasizes investing in American energy production and deregulation as policies that could help lower prices.

“We have to be energy independent, and we have to keep that money in the country so our economy grows, and that’s going to bring down our fuel prices,” Rogers said. “It’s going to bring down your energy prices. It’s going to bring down groceries.”

Rogers also says he would support American manufacturing and work to reduce government spending.

Slotkin says she would support American supply chain investment and focus on reducing large costs like childcare and post-secondary education.

“Bring supply chains back home, and particularly jobs in Michigan,” she said. “Jobs with good benefits, good salaries, good longevity, are a way of giving people more money in their pocket.”

Electric vehicles and the future of the auto industry have played into each candidate’s messaging. Slotkin says she’s against mandating the adoption of electric vehicles but that America should benefit more from the industry.

“We may not drive a lot of them here, but if you look around the world, China is eating our lunch on these — in Europe, in South America, they’re selling the majority of this generation of vehicles, and I’m not okay with that,”

Rogers says that electric vehicle production incentives have proven ineffective and that politicians should support increasing production of hybrid cars.

“That’s the way we can do this, is be just more sensible about what we’re doing on EVs,” he said. “The Big Three have to stop living off all of that government money. By taking that money, they mandated they had to build these cars. Stop that. Let’s build some hybrid cars.”

The candidates also discussed housing access. Rogers supports less hands-on approaches for expanding housing access and says that inflated prices are coming from the top.

“The most important thing we can do is bring down interest rates,” he said. “And you do that by the stopping the massive wasteful spending in Washington DC. You start getting rid of that, rates will come down, for sure.”

Slotkin says the state and federal government should invest in workforce housing.

“We need more single family homes, we need more apartment buildings,” she said. “We need more condos, and we want to make sure that they’re not just for the super wealthy vacationer, but they’re actually for teachers, nurses, fire and first responders, police officers.”

Voters will have through Election Day on Nov. 5 to make their pick in the race. Absentee voting has already begun, while in-person early voting will begin by Oct. 26. More information on voting can be found with the Michigan Secretary of State.