Slotkin, Rogers spar in Michigan U.S. Senate debate. Here are the facts

• Elissa Slotkin, Mike Rogers trade barbs on the economy, abortion and more during the first of two U.S. Senate debates
• They’re competing to replace U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is retiring at the end of the year 
• The Michigan race is competitive and could factor into which party holds majority control in the U.S. Senate 

GRAND RAPIDS — U.S. Senate candidates Mike Rogers and Elissa Slotkin shared a debate stage for the first time Tuesday night, sparring over the Michigan economy, electric vehicles and abortion while accusing each other of stretching the truth. 

The hour-long debate in Grand Rapids, moderated by WOOD-TV political reporter Rick Albin, was often heated as Slotkin and Rogers challenged each other’s congressional records and positions. 

Slotkin, of Holly, is a Democrat who has served in the U.S. House since 2019. Rogers, a Republican, served in the House from 2001 through 2014. 

They’re competing to replace U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat whose pending retirement has made the race a "toss up,” according to national experts. 

Both candidates have backgrounds in national security: Slotkin previously served in the CIA, and Rogers served in both the military and FBI before chairing the House Intelligence Committee for several years. 

Here’s a look at where both candidates say they stand on the issues, and what the facts say about their various claims. 

Economy 

Both candidates bemoaned high costs of living in Michigan and vowed to bring costs down

Slotkin said her economic priorities included bringing supply chains home, reducing primary costs like healthcare and housing and giving additional tax credits to middle class families. 

Rogers accused Slotkin of raising the cost of living by voting for federal stimulus bills that have “raised the cost of groceries, raised the cost of gas.” 

Experts say massive federal spending approved during COVID-19 contributed to an inflation spike that peaked in 2022 but was not necessarily the primary driver. Supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine were also significant factors. 

Rogers said he believed the U.S. could go a long way toward lowering costs for average families by reducing reliance on foreign borrowing and energy. 

Related: Fact-checking the Michigan economy: Prices up. So are wages. What’s true

Slotkin argued that Rogers’ record on health care issues contributed to high costs, noting his 2007 vote against allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Congress approved new drug price negotiation rules in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Slotkin voted for. 

The state of the economy remains a top issue among Michigan voters. 

Though the overall economy is doing well by most traditional measures — unemployment is down, wages are up and inflation is slowing down — rising costs of food, housing, cars and other necessities are blunting the impact on individual household budgets.

Fact-check: Jobs claim

During an exchange on the economy, Rogers said that “since my opponent has been elected, we have lost in this state 29,000 manufacturing jobs. 

"You cannot continue to say you are for the middle class and eliminate the very ability for people to work in to the middle class by these high paying manufacturing jobs,” Rogers said. 

Rogers overstated the number of jobs lost since Slotkin took office by about 8,000 and failed to provide relevant context, including the fact that those losses occurred under Republican President Donald Trump. 

When Slotkin took office in 2019. Michigan had 628,800 manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of July, the state had about 607,000 manufacturing jobs, a loss of about 21,000 jobs, not the 29,000 Rogers claimed. 

The Rogers campaign said he used the month before Slotkin took office as the baseline, hence the difference. 

Those job losses all occurred while Trump was president. Democrats controlled the U.S. House, where Slotkin served as one of 435 members, but Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate.

Michigan lost about 8,300 manufacturing jobs in 2019 and early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic led to much steeper losses that the state has not yet fully recovered.

Electric vehicles and China

Questions about what role Michigan should play in the auto industry’s transition to electric vehicles sparked some of the most passionate debate of the evening. 

Rogers and other Republicans have railed against Chinese influence in recent economic development deals involving electric vehicle battery plants, particularly a planned project in Green Charter Township run by Gotion, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese company Gotion High-Tech. 

Asked whether electric vehicle plants are right for Michigan, Slotkin said she personally isn’t planning to purchase an electric vehicle but wants U.S. workers to be making them as more consumers choose EVs. 

“It’s either going to be us or China,” Slotkin said. “Right now China is eating our lunch on these types of vehicles.” 

Rogers disagreed, arguing that a reliance on electric vehicles could jeopardize Michigan auto jobs. 

“You beat China by selling Americans cars they want to buy,” he said. 

Fact check: Slotkin non-disclosure agreement

Rogers also repeated claims that Slotkin signed a nondisclosure agreement “to facilitate” the Gotion project, arguing that the Chinese Communist Party government would use such projects to conduct espionage and exert influence over domestic affairs.

“You cannot get promoted to the Senate if you don’t understand how the Chinese operate,” Rogers said. 

Slotkin did sign a non-disclosure agreement 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.

Bridge obtained a copy of the NDA through a Freedom of Information Act request. View it here. 

The Slotkin NDA was amended in December 2022 to cover any potential development project identified as confidential either orally or in writing” by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, but the Gotion project had already been publicly announced at that point by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

“I found out about that plant when it was in the (news)paper,” Slotkin said. “

“I have never signed an NDA with any Chinese government, Chinese entity, Chinese company at all…it is a lie,” she added, calling Rogers’ claim “offensive.” 

Fact check: Chinese interests

Slotkin, for her part, claimed Rogers’ work in telecommunications after leaving Congress aided Chinese interests and risked U.S. national security. 

Rogers previously worked in advisory roles for technology companies like AT&T and Nokia. Both companies have been scrutinized for connections to Huawei, a Chinese technology company with ties to the Chinese government. 

Related: China, Gotion, NDA claims fly in Slotkin, Rogers race

Rogers’ campaign has denied any affiliation with Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese technology company, both of which he investigated during his tenure in Congress.

Fact-checking organization Politifact found that there’s no evidence Rogers was involved in any business decisions related to deals with Chinese phone companies. 

Abortion

Slotkin and Rogers significantly diverged on abortion, with Slotkin pushing for national codification of federal abortion rights and Rogers insisting the decision should be left to the states.

Slotkin said Tuesday that if it came before the U.S. Senate, she would vote for a bill to codify national abortion rights that had been guaranteed under Roe v. Wade, which was repealed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

Slotkin has maintained support for abortion-related policies and proposals since first elected in 2018. The Holly lawmaker has voted for bills to establish a right for health care providers to provide abortion and bar individuals from interfering with a person’s ability to access an out-of-state abortion, among other things. 

Related: On abortion, some Michigan candidate claims conflict with records

In the debate, she accused Rogers of putting his "finger in the wind" and changing his position for political purposes. "Do not trust him,” she said. 

In his 1994 Congressional campaign, Rogers said that he only supported abortions to save the life of the mother. He later co-sponsored legislation to define human life as beginning at conception and supported a national abortion ban beginning at 20-weeks of pregnancy and in 2003 co-sponsored legislation to withdraw federal approval of the abortion-inducing medication Mifepristone. 

But as a U.S. Senate candidate, Rogers is now echoing Trump’s new position that abortion policies should be left up to the states.  Tuesday night, he said he would not try to pass a national abortion ban since Michigan voters already spoke in 2022, when they added abortion rights to the state constitution. 

“We've decided,” Rogers said in the debate. “This issue is decided as of (20)22. I won't go back to Washington and change that.”

Fact check: FEMA funds 

With Hurricane Milton barreling towards Florida, Rogers used the Michigan debate to tie the issue of disaster relief to immigration. 

He claimed that the federal government erroneously used FEMA funds on migrants living in the country illegally, meaning the Biden administration now has less money to spend on disaster relief for the pending hurricane. 

Trump has made similar claims, including last week in Saginaw. But both Republican candidates appear to be conflating two separate funds, a recent NBC News fact check concluded. 

FEMA has dedicated disaster relief money that cannot be used for other purposes. In 2022, the agency was also tasked with disseminating money from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to assist communities dealing with an influx of migrants. 

Middle East conflict

Asked about the ongoing war in Gaza, Rogers and Slotkin each supported Israel’s right to defend themselves and insisted a ceasefire deal would require Hamas to release any hostages. But each avoided a question about whether they see a “red line” Israel can not cross.  

Slotkin acknowledged that the issue was “raw” and “very personal” in Michigan, home to sizable Arab American and Jewish populations. She said she’s hoping to avoid U.S. involvement in “a big land war in the Middle East.” 

Many Arab Americans in southeast Michigan have criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict. Activists have pushed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, to support an arms embargo on Israel, which she has not done. 

Rogers said the current situation in the Middle East was brought on by “bad decision (after) bad decision” in the region and has led to adversaries using proxies to attack U.S. allies. 

Fact check: Bipartisanship

Rogers claimed that Slotkin voted '100% with Biden agenda' during her Congressional tenure, while Slotkin insisted that she is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress.

This is an example where both candidates can point to different ratings that back up their claims. 

As she noted, Slotkin did rank as the 14th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House in 2023, according to an analysis by the Lugar Center at Georgetown University. 

That ranking was based on sponsorship and co-sponsorship of bills, not voting records. She ranked 12th for bipartisanship in the 2021-22 session and 65th for the 2019-20 session.

Yet, by another measure that Rogers cited, Slotkin was a reliable party-line vote for Democrats. 

She voted for 100% of bills Biden supported in 2021 and 2022, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, which stopped tracking votes in 2023.