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DETROIT (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin has won Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, giving Democrats a bittersweet victory in a swing state that also backed Republican President-elect Donald Trump in his successful bid to return to the White House.

Slotkin, a third-term representative, defeated former Republican congressman Mike Rogers. Democrats have held both Senate seats in Michigan for decades, but were left without retiring incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow this year.

Michigan’s was among a handful of Senate races Democrats struggled to defend. They lost their U.S. Senate majority despite Slotkin’s narrow win.

The race was incredibly close. Just minutes before it was called for Slotkin, she addressed supporters in Detroit, acknowledging that many voters may have cast their ballots for her while also supporting Trump, who won the state’s electoral votes over Democrat Kamala Harris.

“It’s my responsibility to get things done for Michiganders. No matter who’s in office, just as I did in President Trump’s first term,” said Slotkin. “I’m a problem solver and I will work with anyone who is actually here to work.”

Slotkin’s win provides some solace for Democrats in the state, many of whom entered Election Day with high confidence following sweeping victories in the 2022 midterms. Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer still controls the executive branch and Democrats held onto the Senate, but Republicans won a majority of state House seats this election.

And Republicans also captured a mid-Michigan seat vacated by Slotkin, considered one of the most competitive races in the country.

The presidential race at the top of the ticket was expected to heavily influence the outcome, but Slotkin became the second Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in a battleground state that also backed Trump for president, following Wisconsin incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin earlier Wednesday.

Trump won Michigan in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes, marking the first time a Republican presidential candidate had secured the state in nearly three decades. This time, he expanded that margin to about 80,000 votes.

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, launched her Senate campaign shortly after Stabenow announced her retirement in early 2023. With a largely uncontested primary, Slotkin built a significant fundraising advantage and poured it into advertising. Her high-profile supporters included former President Barack Obama and Stabenow, who helped her on the campaign trail.

On the Republican side, Rogers faced multiple challengers for the party’s nomination, including former Reps. Justin Amash and Peter Meijer, the latter of whom withdrew before the Aug. 6 primary. Rogers served in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2015 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

Rogers called Slotkin to concede soon after The Associated Press called the race, both campaigns confirmed.

“Congratulations to Congresswoman Slotkin on her victory, I wish her the best as she serves the people of Michigan in the Senate,” Rogers said in a statement.

Slotkin’s victory extends the Republicans’ losing streak in Michigan U.S. Senate races, where no GOP candidate has won since 1994. Michigan’s other Democratic senator, Gary Peters, is serving a term that ends in 2027.

Slotkin and other Michigan Democrats focused much of their campaigns on reproductive rights, arguing that Republican opponents would back a national abortion ban, although Rogers said he wouldn’t. How effectively the issue motivated voting in a state where reproductive rights were enshrined in the constitution by Michigan voters in 2022 remained to be seen.

About 4 in 10 Michigan voters said the economy and jobs is the top issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationally, including about 3,700 voters in Michigan. About 2 in 10 Michigan voters said immigration is the most pressing issue, and roughly 1 in 10 named abortion.

Slotkin used her funding advantage to establish her narrative early, aiming to connect both with her base and disillusioned Republicans.

“We all know that it’s been a tough election season,” Slotkin said Wednesday in Detroit. “I believe in my bones that America is at its best when we have two healthy parties that push and pull and debate on issues of policy and substance and make our laws better.”

She added, “That’s what our founding fathers intended, and it’s what makes our country great.”

Reporting by Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press

Coming into 2024, Democrats already had an uphill climb in their attempt to keep control of the U.S. Senate.

A climb that got steeper when Michigan U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow announced she would not be seeking reelection.

Now, Republican Mike Rogers and Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin are vying for the seat. 

Quick facts

Mike Rogers:

• Served in the U.S. Army
• Spent five years as an FBI Agent
• Served in the Michigan Senate for six years 
• Seven-term U.S Congressman, including four years as chair of the House Intelligence Committee

Elissa Slotkin:

• Served three tours in Iraq as an intelligence analyst for the CIA
• Fluent in Arabic and Swahili
• Worked in intelligence for both the Bush and Obama administrations
• Left the Department of Defense in 2017 and has served in the U.S. House since 2019

With their backgrounds in intelligence, both candidates are keeping an eye on Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.

“Israel has, again, the right to respond to that.” Slotkin said. “But for me, what I won’t do is I won’t say that the United States should get back into a big land war in the Middle East.”

Rogers says Iran is the main problem. 

“So if we don’t contain Tehran, I’m telling you what, we’ll have more trouble,” Rogers said. “We’ll be more engulfed in the Middle East.”

Something else that’s national security adjacent — Rogers has expressed concern about a battery plant, owned by a Chinese company, being built near Big Rapids. Slotkin doesn’t like it either.

“Not only do I share [the same concerns], I’ve legislated on them. I mean the bill in Congress, a bipartisan bill to ban China from buying our farmland, is my bill,” she said. “The bill in Congress that allows us to ban Chinese companies and also other companies of countries of concern from buying our manufacturing sites. That’s my bill.”

Rogers however goes a bit further accusing Slotkin of working with Chinese officials.

“She signed a non-disclosure agreement to facilitate a Chinese Communist Party company going up near Big Rapids,” Rogers said.

The NDA Slotkin signed was with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. She did so with a few other Democrats and seven Republicans. But the Gotion Plant Rogers is referring to isn’t listed on the agreement.

Rogers maintains he does want to create more opportunities for factory jobs.

“Since my opponent has been elected, we have lost in this state, 29,000 manufacturing jobs. I worked in an assembly plant in Michigan,” Rogers said. “These jobs are critical.”

It should be noted those job losses came during the Trump Administration. The former President has endorsed Rogers for Senate.

Earlier this year, Trump had Congressional Republicans scuttle a bipartisan immigration bill because he wanted to use the issue as a wedge during his Presidential campaign. Rogers says it was a bad bill anyway.

“You can’t make legal two million illegal immigrants every single year. Look at the crime. Look at the problems that it creates. That was not a bill to solve the problem,” Rogers said. “It was a bill to exasperate and make permanent the problem. It was really a disaster of a bill.”

Crime has been going down, and studies show immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S. citizens.

Slotkin says a well-funded system for immigration is good for the economy.

“We need legal, vetted immigration. Our farmers need it. Our folks in Mackinac need it for their hotels and their fudge shops,” Slotkin said. “Until we get our immigration system right, we’re going to have a big problem at the border.”

That’s right in-line with her priorities.

“I focus on policies that are about pro-good jobs and then lowering the cost of things like prescription drugs, health care, you know, post secondary education, child care,” said Slotkin.

Rogers has been campaigning a lot in Detroit. He says Black voters are coming around to the message of the GOP.

“What they’re finding out we’re not bad people,” Rogers said. “We actually have unique solutions for their problems, including literacy, including criminal justice reform, including block grants that actually go to communities versus what’s been happening over the years is going, they pour money into the top of the funnel in these cities, and it doesn’t quite get to the people who need it most.”

Michigan voters put abortion rights into the state constitution two years ago. However, the overturning of the Roe vs. Wade precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court keeps the issue top of mind.

Mike Rogers says it’s a settled issue and claims he wouldn’t vote for a nationwide abortion ban. However, that’s in conflict with his past statements of being against abortion except in instances to save the life of a mother.

Elissa Slotkin supports nationwide reproductive rights.

The general election is taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Five third party candidates will also be on the ballot for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, including Douglas Marsh (Green Party), Joseph Solis-Mullen (Libertarian), Doug Dern (Natural Law Party), Dave Stein (U.S. Taxpayers Party), and James Frizzell (Independent).

For the latest election information, visit WDET’s Voter Guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

The two major-party candidates for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat faced off in a substantive, sometimes combative debate hosted by WXYZ-TV on Monday.

Subscribe to Created Equal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and former Republican congressman Mike Rogers debated issues including education, immigration, abortion and electric vehicles. It was the final scheduled U.S. Senate debate of the election season.

Dennis Darnoi, a political consultant, says this election is uniquely focused on the two candidates’ principles instead of their party affiliations with President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump. 

“Both of them have long records upon which to run, they have reputations within the party and within the state. So, it’s not as if they are new candidates that no one’s ever heard of,” Darnoi said.

Slotkin and Rogers are vying for the open seat to replace longtime Michigan U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is retiring at the end of her fourth term.

Guests: 

• Dennis Darnoi is a political consultant for Densar Consulting. 

• Zoe Clark is the political director at Michigan Public. 

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin faced off tonight against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan’s final scheduled U.S. Senate debate of the election season.

The seat is open with the retirement of Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow and the race will help determine the make-up of the Senate next year. Polling shows the race is tight.

During the hour-long debate held at the WXYZ-TV studios in Southfield, the candidates were asked about the economy, immigration and the cost of health care.

Gun control was a big difference between the candidates. Slotkin said she supports tougher federal gun laws.

“To me, we have to, as Democrats and Republicans, as gun owners and non-gun owners, go after the No.1 killer of our children in our communities and in our schools, by suicide and by accident, and it is the responsibility of our leaders to protect children,” she said.

Slotkin’s House district includes Oxford, the site of a mass school shooting in 2021.

Rogers said he does not want new gun laws and instead supports better enforcement of existing gun laws and improved mental health services for children.

“We need to enforce the gun laws that we have. We also need to deal with mental health issues that are happening in our schools,” he said. “This generation of Americans is under mental duress and distress like I have never seen before.”

The candidates were also asked about their stances on abortion.

Slotkin said she would support setting in law the standard that existed before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that ended federal protections of abortion rights.

“If codifying Roe v. Wade came before the U.S. Senate, I would vote for it,” Slotkin said.

Rogers, who has a long record of supporting abortion restrictions, said he would not go against the wishes of voters who adopted a state reproductive rights amendment in 2022.

“I will respect the vote of the people of Michigan that they put as part of the Michigan Constitution,” Rogers said.

On student loan debt, the candidates agreed that a national service program might be an option for dealing with the increasing burden of educational costs and interest on loans. Slotkin also endorsed a 2.5% interest rate cap on student loans.

Absentee voting is already underway in Michigan so this debate could be the closing argument for many voters. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin faced off Tuesday night against former Congressman Mike Rogers in their first debate in the race to fill Michigan’s open U-S Senate seat.

The candidates clashed over electric vehicles, abortion rights and their political loyalties.

Rogers, the Republican nominee who served in the House from 2001 to 2015, described Slotkin as a Democrat too aligned with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“My opponent has voted 100 percent with the Biden-Harris agenda,” he said during the one-hour faceoff hosted by WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.

Slotkin, who’s been in Congress since 2019, invited Republicans disenchanted with the GOP under former President Donald Trump to cross over and vote for her.

“For Republicans who feel like their party has left them over the past couple of years,” she said, “you will always have an open door in my office.”

The candidates argued over electric vehicle incentives supported by Slotkin.

“It’s either going to be us or China,” she said. “Right now, China is eating our lunch on these types of vehicles and Michigan has had the experience of missing these trends, right? In the 70s and 80s, we said, oh everyone loves their big cars, no one’s ever going to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle and then the Japanese and the Koreans came in and ate our lunch and we’ve never made up that market share.”

Rogers said that is the wrong approach.

“Why that is a good plan when there are other things we can do?” he said. “The electric grid isn’t even ready to handle it. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to make sure that hybrids is an interim step here before you get to the next one. You beat China by selling Americans cars they want to buy.”

Rogers and Slotkin agreed that U.S. energy policy should include wind, solar, fossil fuels and nuclear. They both support re-starting the Palisades nuclear plant in southwest Michigan. It would be the first mothballed nuclear plant in the U.S. to resume operations if that happens.

One issue they disagreed on was abortion rights. Slotkin said she would vote for a federal law to restore in law the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights that was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. She noted Rogers has a record of supporting abortion restrictions throughout his political career.

“Every single time he was casting one of those votes, he was saying something very particular,” she said. “He was saying to women he does not trust you to make your own decisions about your own family planning. Every single time.”

But Rogers said the Supreme Court properly put the question back to states. Rogers said he would not support national laws that interfere with Michigan’s reproductive rights amendment that was adopted by voters in 2022.

Polls show the Senate race in Michigan is within the margin of error. It is one of a handful of races that could determine control of the Senate. There is a second debate scheduled for next week in Detroit.