Sharp differences between Michigan’s U.S. Senate candidates on electric vehicles, national security and abortion were on full display Tuesday night as they squared off in their first of two debates ahead of next month’s election.
Attacks by U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) and former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake at each other’s stances on these issues led to terse exchanges and accusations of lying about their records during their hour-long battle on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.
The issues of electric vehicles and national security both came to the forefront throughout the event, with Rogers repeatedly attacking Slotkin regarding the Gotion, Inc. planned EV battery facility to be built in Mecosta County. Slotkin fired back, questioning what she called Rogers’ ceding the domestic supply chain and EV market share to China.
Rogers used the opportunity of questioning on electric vehicle plants to lob an oft-repeated attack at Slotkin.
“She signed a non-disclosure agreement to facilitate the Chinese Communist Party company going up near Big Rapids, to bring in Chinese engineers to build up a factory that makes components,” Rogers said. “When it’s fully operating, it takes 40 percent of Michigan autoworkers and gets rid of (them). Why is that a good plan when there are other things we can do, the electric grid isn’t even ready to handle it.”
Gotion is a company based in China with locations in the United States. Opponents have alleged the company has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
For months, Slotkin has faced allegations by Republicans of allegedly having signed a non-disclosure agreement with Gotion regarding its project. Slotkin and her campaign have repeatedly denied this.
Democrats have countered by accusing Rogers in advertisements of “helping Chinese tech companies” and “giving them access to the U.S.” while working in the private sector after leaving Congress. He has fiercely denied this, seeking to have the ads removed from the airwaves.
Slotkin repeatedly Tuesday rejected the claim of signing an NDA.
“I have never signed an NDA with any Chinese government, Chinese entity, Chinese company, at all,” Slotkin said. “I found out about that plant when it was in the paper. He repeats it. It is a lie.”
Rogers was asked what proof he had about the Gotion plant having ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Rogers said Gotion’s incorporating papers cite its affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party while also referencing comments from federal national security officials warning about China and its possible attempts at espionage in the country.
“There’s a better way to get to where people want to go, and it’s not trying the bring the Chinese to Michigan, as she has been part and parcel of doing,” Rogers said.
Slotkin, when asked about any concerns over Gotion and possible Chinese involvement with the plant, she repeated that she had not signed an NDA before laying into Rogers.
“The old Mike Rogers of 2014 wouldn’t be messing around when it comes to national security, but the Mike Rogers of 2024 seems happy to do it,” Slotkin said.
She added that she had introduced legislation to ban countries that pose a threat to the U.S., including China, from buying farmland and manufacturing facilities.
Slotkin repeated stump speech lines she has used in a recent advertisement regarding EVs, saying she does not drive one, but that Michigan should position itself as a leader in the market.
“I do not care what you want to drive, but if the answer is who’s going to build them, I want that to be Team America, not Team China,” Slotkin said. “I want Michigan to make them, and to me, I just don’t understand this idea of just ceding that ground to China.”
Rogers said most components for EVs come through China. He suggested going with hybrid vehicles, which he said would preserve auto jobs.
“Why in God’s green earth we would cede that auto market to the Communist Party of China is beyond me,” Rogers said.
He repeated attacks made in ads against Slotkin of supporting a mandate on EVs, which he said has led to large-scale job losses by the Big Three automakers in Michigan.
Later in the debate, abortion rights also led to a sharp exchange.
Rogers said the decision whether to have an abortion is one of the most wrenching a woman will ever have to make and that it should be left to her, her family and her doctor.
“The people of Michigan voted overwhelmingly to make abortion legal and a part of the state Constitution,” Rogers said. “I will do nothing when I go back to Washington, DC., to do anything that would change what the Michigan Constitution, voted on by the people of Michigan.”
Slotkin said she voted for the 2022 measure and believes in a woman’s right to choose and would vote for legislation to codify Roe v. Wade nationally. She said by contrast Rogers voted dozens of times in Congress against a women’s right to choose.
“To me, every single time he was casting one of those votes, he was saying something very particular,” Slotkin said. “He was saying to women he does not trust you to make your own decisions about your own family planning.”
She also said Rogers had supported legislation that would make it impossible to obtain in-vitro fertilization and contraception, to which he took exception. He said he has openly spoken about support for IVF.
He accused Slotkin of wanting to go to Washington and put Michigan’s vote on the issue at risk.
“This issue is decided as of 2022, and I won’t go back to Washington and change that,” Rogers said.
Slotkin questioned his sincerity in rebuttal, accusing him of following the political winds after decades of support for abortion restrictions since it has proven unpopular for Republicans since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo Roe in 2022.
“It’s not a talking point to women. It is our lives,” Slotkin said. “It’s whether we bleed to death in a parking lot. It’s … to decide how we have a family. Do not trust him.”
The two also sparred over their stances on Social Security and Medicare and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in the Middle East.
Both closed the debate seeking to highlight the contrasts between themselves.
“At the end of the day, the issue comes down to trust,” Slotkin said. “Who do you trust to actually come and talk to you and then go and fight on your behalf in Washington.”
Rogers said families across the state are hurting and need a fighter in Washington.
“The choice here could not be clearer: killing jobs or creating jobs, higher grocery prices, lower grocery prices,” Rogers said. “This is exactly the kind of choice we’re going to have to face: a closed border, or a wide-open border.”
–By Nick Smith
