Millions of dollars are being poured into election campaigns in Michigan ahead of the midterms, and high profile campaign surrogates are being brought in to court voters.
That includes President Donald Trump who rallied with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers ahead of the primary and later Vice President JD Vance.
Now, former Vice President Kamala Harris is set to come to Metro Detroit Tuesday to hold events with Rogers' Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed.
"The El-Sayed campaign, has been trying to moderate in that regard, try to, I don't know broaden his overall stump speech and his appeal, and so bringing in VP Harris is seen to help with that," said WKAR politics correspondent Russ McNamara.
But McNamara says the move could risk alienating more progressive members of the party who carried him in the primary and had issues with Harris during the 2024 election.
"I've talked with a couple of different voters who are still a little bit sour towards former VP Harris, because of her stance specifically on Israel," he said. "They don't feel like he particularly needs her to campaign for him in Michigan."
Meanwhile, Rogers is benefitting from a huge influx of money going to political advertising including millions of dollars from Super PACs tied to Trump and Elon Musk. However, while Rogers' platform might be getting out there, McNamara says he might be missing out on connecting to some voters in person, something El-Sayed has been aggressive about both during the primary and after,
"Rogers has been traveling around; he's been traveling out of state for some fundraisers as well, and he's been, you know, ever present in Metro Detroit lately. But he might really want to consider working a little bit more out-state because his ground game could use some work," McNamara said.
Affordability remains a key campaign issues for all candidates hoping for a victory in November, and gas prices that are now at their highest since June of 2022 could play a larger role.
Multiple candidates from both sides of the aisle have suggested suspending the federal state to ease prices. But House Speaker Matt Hall has said on a state level, the conversation is a non-starter.
"Everybody wants to see the fuel tax gone. However, that's going nowhere," McNamara said.
"So, right now it's just campaign talk for the moment, and record high diesel drives up the prices for everything. That in turn drives up inflation."
Absentee ballots are set to go out to voters this week, meaning those high prices at the pump could be on their minds as they choose their candidates.
Interview Highlights
On former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigning with El-Sayed
I've talked with a couple of different voters who are still a little bit sour towards former VP Harris, because of her stance specifically on Israel. They don't feel like he particularly needs her to campaign for him in Michigan. However, that campaign, the El-Sayed campaign, has been trying to moderate in that regard, try to, I don't know broaden his overall stump speech and his appeal, and so bringing in VP Harris is seen to help with that.
On the millions of dollars being spent on ads for Mike Rogers
They're really trying to hammer the airwaves, streaming because the ground game really isn't there. There was a young GOP staffer who was complaining about how there really aren't any Mike Rogers signs Up North, where they're seeing a bunch of Abdul El-Sayed signs. Now, El-Sayed definitely had the advantage in the ground game in the primary and was traveling to all parts of the state, had people fired up and knocking on doors across all parts of the state ... Rogers has been traveling around; he's been traveling out of state for some fundraisers as well, and he's been, you know, ever present in Metro Detroit lately. But he might really want to consider working a little bit more out-state because his ground game could use some work.
On how candidates are responding to high gas prices
Basically everyone across the board, this includes Jocelyn Benson, John James running for governor, and in Michigan's Senate race with Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. Everybody wants a suspension of the federal and state gas tax. Okay, that seems like the easy button way to do it. Where there are some differences is the timeline when it comes to whether or not hostilities should end with Iran. ... Everybody wants to see the fuel tax gone. However, that's going nowhere. So, right now it's just campaign talk for the moment.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Millions of dollars are being poured into election campaigns in Michigan ahead of the midterms.
And high profile campaign surrogates are being brought in to court voters.
Covering it all is politics correspondent Russ McNamara. He joins me now. Thank you for being here, Russ.
Russ McNamara: Hey, Sophia.
Saliby: So, President Donald Trump has come into the state to rally around Republicans like Senate candidate Mike Rogers. Who are the Democrats tagging in this week?
McNamara: Well, it's interesting because much of the consideration from the 2024 election was what Kamala Harris didn't do in the state of Michigan and reaching out to Arab American voters. Now, she's coming to Michigan this week to campaign with Abdul El-Sayed. That's a pretty big tag in and a good get for El-Sayed.
Saliby: It seems like in the past week, sticking on this Senate race, there's been a lot of Democrats coming in and around El-Sayed after a rocky post-primary period.
He's doing fundraisers with current Senator Elissa Slotkin and some other establishment names in the party nationwide. Does that move risk alienating his more progressive supporters that got him through the primary?
McNamara: It absolutely does. I've talked with a couple of different voters who are still a little bit sour towards former VP Harris, because of her stance specifically on Israel. They don't feel like he particularly needs her to campaign for him in Michigan.
However, that campaign, the El-Sayed campaign, has been trying to moderate in that regard, try to, I don't know broaden his overall stump speech and his appeal, and so bringing in VP Harris is seen to help with that. I do have to say that state Democrats like Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin have also been coming to El-Sayed's defense more recently, so that's part of it too.
And on the other side of that, you had a letter kind of spearheaded by former Congressman Sandy Levin and former Congressman Andy Levin, kind of rallying Jewish support for El-Sayed. So, they are really trying to broaden his appeal to to everyone statewide here over the last few weeks.
Saliby: On the topic of fundraising, we know Trump's Super PAC has committed millions of dollars to the Senate race. We could expect more spending on both sides of the aisle. Where is that money going?
Is it just the ads I'm seeing on every YouTube video and every TV show I'm watching, or are there other places this money is going towards?
McNamara: It's mostly going towards ads. They're really trying to hammer the airwaves, streaming because the ground game really isn't there. There was a young GOP staffer who was complaining about how there really aren't any Mike Rogers signs Up North, where they're seeing a bunch of Abdul El-Sayed signs.
Now, El-Sayed definitely had the advantage in the ground game in the primary and was traveling to all parts of the state, had people fired up and knocking on doors across all parts of the state. If there's a major complaint about the Haley Stevens campaign in the primary was that the ground game was not great, and it looks like we're seeing a lot of that with Mike Rogers thus far.
Rogers has been traveling around; he's been traveling out of state for some fundraisers as well, and he's been, you know, ever present in Metro Detroit lately. But he might really want to consider working a little bit more out-state because his ground game could use some work.
Saliby: Michigan is seeing record gas and diesel prices. This is on a lot of Michiganders' minds right now, and some candidates are stepping in with how they would ease that financial burden if they were elected, or even asking current people in public roles to make changes. Tell us what is happening.
McNamara: Well, basically everyone across the board, this includes Jocelyn Benson, John James running for governor, and in Michigan's Senate race with Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. Everybody wants a suspension of the federal and state gas tax. Okay, that seems like the easy button way to do it.
Where there are some differences is the timeline when it comes to whether or not hostilities should end with Iran. Over the weekend, Mike Rogers said essentially he's like, yeah, you know, the hostilities with Iran should end, but he's willing to wait on the Trump administration to wind that down. Of course, over the weekend, we find out that they might be ramping things up again in the region. Abdul El-Sayed says no, we should not be bothering Iran. We should be just away from that altogether.
And that's kind of how it is because John James is a sitting congressman, but he hasn't necessarily been vocally against the war with Iran right now. Everybody wants to see the fuel tax gone. However, that's going nowhere.
So, right now it's just campaign talk for the moment, and record high diesel drives up the prices for everything. That in turn drives up inflation. Again, midterm election, it's the economy, stupid. We're here again.
Saliby: Russ McNamara is our politics correspondent. Thank you for joining us.
McNamara: Thanks, Sophia.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and conciseness.
