OP-ED: GOP Has a Chance in Michigan’s Senate Election
Karl Rove
Wall Street Journal
September 12, 2025
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Like some other battleground states that have been firmly blue for generations, Michigan has trended red recently. Republicans are targeting an open Senate seat in the midterms, and they could flip it.
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While Republicans are united, Democrats face an ugly primary that won’t be settled until August. The establishment candidate is Rep. Haley Stevens, who has served in the House since 2019 and is positioning herself as a centrist. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow is presenting herself as the younger, more exciting, more progressive outsider. She gained national attention for torching a GOP legislative colleague over trans rights in 2022 and slamming the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 in at last year’s Democratic National Convention. There’s also a socialist running: Abdul El-Sayed sought the Democratic nod for governor in 2018 and has Sen. Bernie Sanders’s backing. The two drew a wild crowd of thousands at a recent “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Kalamazoo.
This sprawling primary fight could work to Mr. Rogers’s advantage on fundraising. In July, the Republican raised $1.5 million and has $1.1 million cash on hand, which he can focus on the general election. On the Democrats’ side, the candidates reported raising between $1.8 million and $2.8 million that month and each had from $827,000 to about $2 million on hand. But Mr. Rogers’s prospective opponents will have to spend all their money on a hard-fought primary.
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Mr. Trump converted traditionally Democratic strongholds in the Upper Peninsula and the eastern thumb, made rural Michigan much more red in the north and south, and cut the Democratic margin in Detroit to 2 to 1. It was enough to offset the GOP’s decadeslong slide in the Detroit suburbs, its decline around Grand Rapids, and the growing Democratic margins in college towns like Ann Arbor.
With the national Democratic brand in shambles, Mr. Rogers should make the case that none of his squabbling opponents share the values of ordinary Michiganders. This argument is as important as advancing an agenda that helps Michigan families and strengthens the economy.
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Read more here.
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