By Ben Solis, Michigan Advance
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers reportedly told a potential voter at a Michigan campaign stop that “we’re gonna be fine” as oil prices spike due to the Iran war.
The interaction between Rogers, a former Michigan congressman from White Lake, and the potential voter was first reported by Punchbowl News. The campaign stop in question was a visit with Oakland University’s College Republicans on March 17.
Rogers told the voter that the U.S. would be fine despite rising oil and motor vehicle fuel prices because “we got plenty of oil.”
“You’ll get your oil, because we’re going to pump our oil right here in America, and we got plenty,” Rogers said in audio obtained by the Washington D.C.-based outlet.
Fuel price reporting from AAA shows the average national gas price as of Friday was $3.98. That is a one dollar increase from the Feb. 26 report, two days before the war began, when it was marked at $2.98 a gallon. In Michigan, the average gas price is $4.01.
During the same campaign stop, Rogers also reportedly said that he was disappointed that NATO allies haven’t done more to open the Strait of Hormuz, which is a key passage for Middle East oil supplies to leave the region for sale to other nations. The Strait is currently closed by Iran as the war between the theocratic republic, Israel and the U.S. rages on.
Rogers’ campaign responded to the Punchbowl News article by saying the situation was “a reminder of how critical energy independence truly is.”
“It’s past time we unleash American energy and dismantle Biden and the Democrats’ radical environmental hurdles,” Rogers told the outlet.
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), one of three potential Democratic opponents for Rogers on the other side of the U.S. Senate race, lambasted Rogers as being out of touch.
“Mike Rogers is wrong: It’s not ‘fine’ for Michiganders to pay higher and higher prices to fill their tank while Donald Trump’s war costs taxpayers $1 billion per day,” Stevens said in a statement. “Michigan families are forced to make tough choices just to get to work, take their kids to school, and put food on the table. Rogers either doesn’t get or doesn’t care about the challenges people across Michigan face, and it’s exactly why he has no place representing Michigan in the U.S. Senate.”
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel also said that Rogers’s comments had dismissed the hardships of working people.
“From falsely claiming there is no inflation and Michigan families aren’t paying more, to mocking people worried about higher grocery bills, to now arguing higher gas prices aren’t a big deal … working people will remember how Rogers talked down to them while they’re paying more at the gas pump, and Michiganders will reject Price Hike Mike once again this November,” Hertel said.
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.
