‘You Voted in Florida!’ Michigan Senate Candidates Spar Over Abortion And Ties to State In Tense Debate

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and ex-Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) duked it out Tuesday night in a contentious debate for the open U.S. Senate seat they are running against each other for. Slotkin hammered Rogers for his record on abortion and being registered to vote in Florida, while Rogers attacked Slotkin for having served in the CIA.

“I believe in a woman’s right to choose. I did not support overturning Roe v Wade. And if a bill came in front of the U.S. Senate to codify Roe, I would vote for it. But I think this is a really important distinction between the two of us. Mike Rogers was 20 years as a legislator. He voted for every single ban, every restriction, every bill that came across his desk to make it harder for women and to ban, in some cases, a woman and her right to choose,” Slotkin said when the debate turned to abortion rights, adding:

56 times in total. We checked the math to me, every single time he was casting one of those votes, he was saying something very particular. He was saying to women, he does not trust you to make your own decisions about your own family planning every single time.

When it comes to our rights and protecting ourselves. I think it is important that we have someone in the seat who does that. He voted and sponsored bills that would make it impossible to have IVF and contraception. If he does not trust us to protect our own rights. Do not trust him.

Rogers rebutted by accusing Slotkin of practicing her CIA-trained deception techniques and said that abortion was a settled issue in Michigan, “decided as of 2022,” when Proposition 3 codified abortion rights into the state constitution.

“I was here in Michigan, and I voted Yes on Proposition 3,” Slotkin hit back. “You were in Florida. You voted in Florida. You weren’t here.” Rogers left Congress in 2015 and it was revealed earlier this year he had changed his residency to Cape Coral, Florida — where he was registered to vote in the 2022 election.

While discussing foreign policy, Slotkin slammed Rogers for being in favor of the Iraq war. “He was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in the run-up to the Iraq War. There was no greater supporter. There was no greater fist-pumper than Mike Rogers in leading us into that war,” Slotkin said, flubbing Roger’s timeline as chairman as he didn’t get the gavel until 2011.

“That information that was given to Congress was based on the CIA at the time that my opponent was in the CIA doing analytical work,” Rogers hit back.

“And listen, I get it, the CIA has deception training. My opponent clearly went through that. But you’re supposed to use that against your adversaries, not Michigan voters,” he concluded.

Watch the full debate here.