Elissa Slotkin vs. Mike Rogers: What to know about Michigan’s toss-up US Senate race

• Michigan US Senate race between Elissa Slotkin, Mike Rogers remains a ‘toss-up,’ according to national experts
• Slotkin and Rogers both have foreign policy and national security backgrounds and both have served in Congress
• But the candidates have sharp policy divides on issues, including the economy, abortion and electric vehicles

Michigan's high-stakes race between Democrat Elissa Slotkin and Republican Mike Rogers could help decide control of the US Senate.

With less than a week left before the Nov. 5 election, it's one of just four US Senate races in the country that national experts still considered a "toss-up."

Slotkin, who currently serves in the US House, has dominated in fundraising. But Rogers, a former member of Congress, has kept the race close with aggressive campaigning.

The candidates can both claim bipartisan accomplishments in the past, but they have stark divides on issues like the economy, health care costs, abortion rights and the future of Michigan's automotive industry. 

Here's what you need to know:

National security credentials

Rogers served in the US Army and FBI and later chaired the US House Intelligence Committee. Slotkin is a former CIA analyst who worked alongside US troops during the Iraq War.

Both built their political careers on reputations as no-nonsense, bipartisan public servants who used their national security expertise to solve domestic problems.  

But their experience has also been a political liability at times, opening them up to criticism over mass surveillance, foreign wars opposed by liberals and federal law enforcement agencies that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and supporters have come to loathe. Read more here.

Farmer interests

Michigan Farm Bureau endorsements typically aren't front-page news. But the bureau's decision to back Rogers was significant given its past support for retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat. 

Stabenow’s leadership position on the Senate Agriculture Committee earned her favor with farmers, rare for a Democrat, and helped carry her through several close elections. 

While Slotkin lives on a family farm in Holly and serves on the House Agriculture Committee, she won't enjoy the kind of industry support that helped make Stabenow a political force. 

Whoever wins the Senate seat could play a role in the future of the farm bill, which Stabenow helped author in years past: massive, multibillion-dollar legislation that’s a top priority among Michigan farmers, as it funds a wide array of agricultural supports and nutrition programs. Read more here. 

Debate 1: The economy, electric vehicles and more

Rogers and Slotkin shared the debate stage twice this fall, starting with an Oct. 8 meeting in Grand Rapids in which they sparred over the economy, electric vehicles and abortion while accusing each other of stretching the truth. Read full coverage and fact-checks here, or watch the entire debate below.

Abortion divide

Rogers previously said he only supported abortions to save the life of the mother. He co-sponsored legislation to define human life as beginning at conception, supported a national abortion ban at 20 weeks of pregnancy and proposed withdrawing federal approval of the abortion-inducing medication Mifepristone. 

But since announcing his run for US Senate, Rogers has said he would not pursue a federal abortion ban because Michigan voters approved a 2022 ballot measure that wrote reproductive rights into the state constitution. 

Slotkin has maintained steady support for abortion-related policies and proposals, including legislation that establishes a right for health care providers to provide abortion, bars individuals from interfering with a person’s ability to access an out-of-state abortion and bans any form of government from restricting access to abortion. Read more here. 

Opioid access

Rogers was a leading advocate for opioid access when he served in the US House, according to a Bridge investigation. Prescriptions soared during that decade, but so did addiction and deaths, as the nation tumbled into a crushing epidemic it is still battling today.

Rogers says his advocacy was spurred by his brother's chronic back pain, which required pain medication to make his life bearable. But critics say Rogers could have done more as part of a Congress that was "asleep at the wheel" while the national opioid crisis unfolded. Read more here. 

China threat

Rogers and other Republicans have spent months criticizing state incentives for an electric vehicle battery plant being constructed near Big Rapids by Gotion, Inc., the US subsidiary of Chinese company Gotion High-Tech.

Rogers has accused Slotkin and other Democrats of threatening national security and wasting taxpayer money by allowing the project to proceed. Trump has bashed the planned development too, even while encouraging other foreign companies to make products in the US.

Slotkin didn’t approve any funding for the Gotion project, and her office has disputed Rogers’ claims about her record, pointing to her work in congress to combat Chinese influence in critical supply chains, automotive interests and other industries like agriculture and real estate. Read more here. 

The NDA question

Rogers and the National Republican Senatorial Committee had aired TV ads slamming Slotkin and alleging she “signed a secret deal that helped a Chinese company.”

Slotkin did sign a non-disclosure agreement with the state related to two separate potential economic development projects in her congressional district, but the document she signed did not specifically reference Gotion, which was not in her district.

Slotkin “never signed any agreement related to the Gotion project or the Chinese government” and any insinuation to the contrary is a “completely false attack,” her office said. Read more here. 

Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood

Rogers had retired to Florida before moving back to Michigan ahead of his Senate run. Questions over his residency were revived last month with reports he had not yet moved into the home he was building in White Lake Township, even though he was registered to vote there and used the address to vote in the August primary.

Rogers has said that construction delays — specifically a sewer line connection — had prevented him from moving into the home as quickly as possible and said he was living with local family members in the meantime. He called insinuations that his Michigan residency isn’t above board “absolutely nuts." Read more here.

Debate 2: Guns, immigration and more

Rogers and Slotkin debated a second time in Southfield on Oct. 14, trading criticisms while discussing gun reform and immigration, and returning to the economy, abortion and EVs. Read full coverage and fact-checks here, or watch the entire debate below.

Department of Education

While Rogers has backed many Trump proposals, he has spoken out against the presidential nominee’s plan to eliminate the US Department of Education, which is responsible for distributing school funding, administering federal student loan programs and enforcing students’ civil rights protections.

The solution to Michigan’s education struggles is “not the simple,” Rogers said. 

That’s one area where Rogers and Slotkin agree. The Democratic nominee also opposes Trump’s plan to disband the federal department. Read more here.