Republican Mike Rogers wants Democratic votes so badly he's hiding in their column. A Rogers-branded flyer now circulating in Michigan calls itself a "Pro-Democracy, Anti-Extremism Voter Guide". It lists Rogers for Senate right under Democrat Jocelyn Benson for governor. No party labels anywhere.
The Flyer
The card carries the red-and-white Mike Rogers for U.S. Senate logo at the top. Below it sits a ballot cheat sheet for Tuesday, November 3, built to look like the kind of guide Democratic groups hand out every cycle.
The lineup: Benson for governor. Rogers for U.S. Senate. Jeremy Moss for the 11th Congressional District. Noah Arbit for the 20th State House District. Paul Brown and Michael Schostak for University of Michigan regent.
A photo of the flyer posted by GOP Ls has racked up nearly 400,000 views on X since Monday.
Spot the Republican
Benson is the Democratic nominee for governor. Moss and Arbit are Democrats, and Brown is the incumbent Democratic regent. Schostak is one of the two Republican regent nominees.
Rogers is the Republican nominee, a former GOP congressman who spoke at this year's Republican National Convention. His real opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, appears nowhere on the card.
Moss, whose name is printed right under Rogers, has said he will never agree with Rogers' election denial or his backing of ICE.
His Own Website Gives the Game Away
This isn't a one-off. The official Rogers for Senate site has a page telling voters they can vote a straight Democratic ticket and still pick Rogers "without spoiling your ballot."
The instructions are simple. Fill in the Democratic straight-ticket box. Then find the Senate race and mark Mike Rogers. The page is paid for by Rogers for Senate.
Put the website and the flyer side by side and the strategy is obvious. Rogers isn't trying to win Democrats over to Republican ideas. He's trying to sneak onto their ballot.
The "Democrats for Rogers" Machine
Rogers launched a "Democrats for Rogers" coalition in a Detroit front yard in August. A Drop Site News review found that several of its faces aren't Democrats at all. Its super PAC treasurer, state Rep. Karen Whitsett, formally left the Democratic Party this year.
The money tells the same story. The super PAC running ads under the Democrats for Mike Rogers name has spent more than $4 million, and its first FEC filing shows cash from two Republican-aligned PACs, including $50,000 from a pro-Rogers group.
A Progress Michigan spokesperson called the whole operation astroturf.
Who Paid for It?
The photo making the rounds doesn't show the flyer's paid-for disclaimer, so it isn't clear yet whether it came from the Rogers campaign itself or from an allied group like Democrats for Mike Rogers.
Either way, it carries his logo, and it matches the pitch on his own website word for word: vote Democrat, then vote Rogers.
What Rogers Says
Rogers says El-Sayed is too extreme and that Democrats are crossing over to him. At his Detroit launch he told the crowd, "I'm not asking you to be a Republican."
He has not offered polling to back up claims of a Democratic shift, according to Fox News coverage of a recent appearance. His campaign has not publicly responded to criticism of the flyer.
The Bottom Line
If Mike Rogers were proud of being a Republican, he would put it on his flyer. Instead he's dressing up as a Democrat and hoping Michigan voters don't read the fine print.
Sources: GOP Ls on X (flyer photo); Rogers for Senate website; Drop Site News (Tom Perkins); Truthout (Ali Harb); Michigan Advance; The Michigan Daily; Fox News (Sophia Compton).