DETROIT – The Michigan Senate race is one of several races that could help determine control of the chamber and decide this fall’s presidential contest. And unlike some other swing states, both candidates remain at the top of their seats in the open Senate race.

Former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers praised former President Donald Trump in an interview as “ready to step in from day one to get America, and Michigan in particular, back on track.”

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, meanwhile, hailed Vice President Kamala Harris’ positive influence on her race as a “fundamental change” from President Joe Biden’s campaign, which struggled before dramatically dropping out of the race in July after a brutal debate against Trump .

“It was like night and day, right?” Slotkin said of Harris’ rise to the top of the ticket. “We saw a complete — kind of immediate shift in Democratic turnout and interest.”

But “night and day” doesn’t mean there’s room for comfort in the race to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

“It’s going to be very close,” Slotkin confirmed Thursday in the living area of ​​her large RV bus after a campaign stop in Ann Arbor. The election is still three weeks away, and while she has small advantages over Rogers in most public polls, there are also many who are very close.

“It’s about these independent voters, these swing voters, these voters who make their decisions very late,” she said. “We are competing for a very small group of people who are deciding the election in Michigan, and they are still making up their minds.”

While Rogers takes a cue from Trump, he also believes his campaign will “attract a whole lot of Harris voters…and we’re going to embrace them.”

“I think auto workers — we do very well with black men across the state because we talk to them about opportunity and the future,” he said of a trend the Republican Party is working hard to bolster this election.

Rogers, a former police officer and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, once criticized Trump — and even considered a challenge for the White House. But he has since traded support with Trump and tried to woo his MAGA supporters.

Now Rogers is careful not to voice criticism. Asked about Trump’s offensive comments about Detroit the day before, Rogers said he “didn’t hear what he (Trump) said.” (Trump called Detroit, Michigan’s most populous city, a “developing area” and said the entire country would end up “like Detroit” if Harris were elected.)

Pressed about Trump’s comments about Jewish voters (he claimed that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate their religion”), Rogers also dodged: “Yeah, listen, I’m not running Donald Trump’s campaign. I’m running Mike Rogers’ campaign for U.S. Senate.”

Slotkin, a moderate Democrat who has been in Congress since 2018, describes herself as a “member of the regular team.” She said she would work with “everyone on the team normally” but accused Rogers of “taking over and absorbing the newer politics of extremism.”

Two national security candidates collide

Both Rogers and Slotkin have deep roots in national security work. Slotkin was a CIA analyst who worked in the Department of Defense. Rogers was an FBI agent specializing in organized crime.

They have different ideas about how to outdo China, prevent an escalating war in the Middle East and end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon are particularly relevant in Michigan, home to the largest population of Arab and Muslim Americans of any swing state. A significant number of Jewish Americans also live in Michigan.

Slotkin, the only Jewish member of Michigan’s congressional delegation, has sought to maintain the boundary between Muslim and Jewish communities east of Detroit. She kept her contacts with the groups largely private and refrained from publicly criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza conflict.

Slotkin did not comment on the community divisions prevalent in the state, only pointing out that the conflict was “so bad” for Michigan residents.

“There is no way to please everyone here. “That just doesn’t exist,” she said.

She said her strategy with communities has been effective because the most important thing is to “keep the lines of communication open.” She called on the Biden-Harris administration to continually “have conversations with leaders, even if you don’t always agree.”

“I can also express genuine compassion for dead children. “I mean, that doesn’t mean to me that I’m any less supportive of a strong State of Israel,” she added.

Slotkin’s balanced approach has drawn criticism from Rogers.

Slotkin “can’t go to every community and tell them one thing and then do something else,” Rogers said.

“That’s why I think the Jewish community is upset with my opponent. That’s why the Muslim community is upset with my opponent. That’s the old 1970s style – be there for anyone for any reason. Doesn’t work when you have the problems we have at Michigan State,” he continued.

Asked how he reaches out to communities, Rogers said that while the regional conflict is “an important issue” for the groups, the border and the economy are also important.

“I don’t care whether you are Arab, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or Christian. Doesn’t matter. These foods cost the same on this spectrum,” Rogers said.

Slotkin has criticized Rogers for briefly moving to Florida before launching his Senate campaign. In return, he harshly criticized them for their record on electric vehicles.

Slotkin has recently gone on the offensive on the issue, assuring voters in campaign ads and during the first debate that she drives a gasoline car herself and is not in favor of adopting electric vehicles, even though she voted for the Biden administration’s rule Two-thirds of the US auto industry will switch to electric vehicles by 2032.

“I don’t believe in doing anything that can’t be done for the auto industry because that’s our bread and butter here in Michigan,” Slotkin said.

“And if they can’t meet those (these standards), if they change what they think they can do, then I’m willing to have that conversation,” Slotkin said, opening the door to opposition to the U.S. emissions target Government.

Rogers argued that “mandates don’t work; Markets work.”

“Let people buy electric vehicles. Let’s build electric cars here. The electric vehicle market will catch up eventually, but you can’t force that on people today,” he said. “There’s a lot of fear (among) people – it’s not fair to the people who work here in Michigan and build great cars.”

How the candidates deal with abortion

Biden won Michigan by less than three percentage points in 2020, and abortion helped spark a historic election for Democrats in 2022, when they took control of the Legislature and held the governorship and voters codified reproductive access into law . Recent polls show Harris and Trump neck and neck in the state.

Since launching his campaign for Senate, Rogers has stated that he respects Michigan’s law codifying protections for abortion and contraceptives and that he will not take federal action on the issue. In a campaign ad last month, he praised the will of Michigan voters and called abortion “a key issue.”

But years before the Supreme Court struck down the nation’s right to abortion, Rogers voted for several anti-abortion restrictions in the House of Representatives. He also described himself as a “lifelong pro-life” Republican.

Slotkin said she believes abortion will continue to have an impact on the race this year and that she supports “some kind of reform of the filibuster” to restore federal abortion rights.

Regardless of whether Democrats vote to change the rules and lower the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority, as Harris supports, Slotkin said she believes her party has not been “proactive” on key policy issues .

“If I were at the Pentagon to say, ‘Let’s just play defense; “Let’s not really have a plan,” I would get fired. So I just don’t accept it,” she said.

Slotkin said she would use her background in “strategic planning” in the Senate to craft a five-year plan to restore federal abortion rights, and she criticized her predecessors in the Democratic Party for “waiting for bad things to happen” instead think ahead.

“The Democrats I’m with, as a whole, have no idea what our plan is,” she said.