Michigan Senate candidates Slotkin, Rogers spar on EVs, abortion during final debate

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — U.S. Senate candidates Mike Rogers and Elissa Slotkin returned to the debate stage Monday for their second and final debate, tangling early on over their positions on guns, electric vehicle regulations, Iran, abortion and the Southern border.

The one-hour debate was hosted by WXYZ-TV in Southfield and moderated by the ABC affiliate's editorial director Chuck Stokes and anchors Carolyn Clifford and Alicia Smith.

Michigan's Senate seat is up for grabs because Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow is retiring. The race is rated a tossup by several nonpartisan political handicappers, and outside groups have poured more than $87 million in to sway the contest.

Rogers and Slotkin sparred on abortion, with Slotkin warning voters not to trust Rogers due to his anti-abortion record, and Rogers' insisting he won't do anything in the Senate to "undo" Michigan's 2022 constitutional amendment broadly protecting access to the procedure.

"I am so sick of people who don't understand women's health, who don't understand reproductive rights, who don't understand the rights of our grandchildren having the same rights as their grandmother, saying one thing and doing another," Slotkin said. "Michiganders, do not believe him. He will not protect you."

Rogers shot back that it was "unfortunate that she's taken this tone on something that's so completely untrue," and turned the topic to Title IX, the federal civil rights law banning sex discrimination in educational programs, citing unspecified votes that he said Slotkin failed to protect girls in sports.

"If you want to protect women, there are other ways to do it," Rogers said. "I think that is an outlier in this particular debate, and it certainly doesn't put you on 'Team Normal.'"

When asked about whether the U.S. was investing too much in electric vehicles, Slotkin said she didn’t care what kind of car voters drive but argued the U.S. should not cede the EV market to China's growing auto industry.

“If the fundamental question is, ‘Who do we want to make that next generation of vehicles?’ — you better believe I want that to be Michigan not China,” Slotkin said. “Right now, everyone knows China is eating our lunch on these kind of vehicles.”

Rogers argued the “EV mandate” from the Biden administration is killing the auto industry and forcing a transition that auto dealers are opposing. Democrats have argued there is no EV mandate, while Republicans have pointed to the Biden administration’s environmental policies as pushing automakers to greener vehicles.

Rogers has argued that a large portion of the parts and resources needed for electric vehicles still have to come through China.

“You’re promoting Chinese technology in America; it’s wrong,” Rogers said. “Let’s go to hybrids. People are buying them. You don’t have to mandate that they drive them.”

Slotkin touched on her support of a $500 million federal grant for the electric transition of a General Motors plant in Lansing, a grant that Rogers said he opposed. After last week's debate, Rogers said he does not think the federal government should move forward with the award.

President Joe Biden’s administration announced the grant in July to subsidize the conversion of the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant into an EV plant. The investment is expected to retain about 650 jobs at the plant and add another 50.

GM, which currently assembles its Cadillac CT4 and CT5 luxury sedans at the plant, has said it would invest $900 million to supplement the federal grant.

Rogers argued the federal government should instead unwind pollution controls — such as the EPA’s tailpipe emission standard — that are pushing automakers toward building more EVs.

"We need to take a deep breath on this," he added. "We can get to a better emission standard but you can’t do it … the way that they’re mandating and spending our taxpayer money on trying to drive this down people’s throats. I just don’t think it will work. I think it’s a bad investment. We ought to step back and let the market fix this.”

Slotkin's campaign on Monday released a new TV ad that targets Rogers' declaring the project is a "bad investment."

"Keeping auto jobs in Michigan, not China, is never a bad investment. It's no surprise ― Mike Rogers made a career outsourcing our jobs overseas," the narrator says. “And now he's selling out to China again ― killing another 700 auto jobs. It’s 700 more reasons to send Mike Rogers back home to Florida.”

Last week's matchup in Grand Rapids was marked by several hostile exchanges on abortion, China, the Iraq War and Medicare and Social Security. Both candidates accused the other of lying about their records and sought to contrast their bipartisan bona fides.

Republican Rogers of White Lake Township and Democrat Slotkin of Holly both have backgrounds in national security. Rogers, 61, is an Army veteran and former FBI agent who chaired the House intelligence committee. Slotkin, 48, is a former CIA analyst who served as a top Pentagon official during former President Barack Obama's presidency.

The candidates appeared to be evenly matched at the first debate in Grand Rapids, said Aaron Kall, director of debate for the University of Michigan Debate Program.

“It reminded me a lot of the vice presidential debate, pretty substantive and even,” Kall said. “I thought Rogers, by a nose, did a little better because he was coming in behind, had more zingers and, ultimately, had more sound bites.”

On Monday, the candidates have a last chance to make their case and from a bigger stage as the debate is shown in the Detroit media market.

“Tonight is kind of the closing statements from both campaigns,” Kall said.

A new statewide poll released Monday showed Slotkin with a 3.5-percentage-point lead over Rogers as the contest narrows with about a month until Election Day.

Slotkin, a three-term congresswoman from Holly, got 46.8% of support from the 600 likely Michigan voters surveyed to 43.3% for Rogers, a former seven-term congressman from White Lake Township, with about 5% of respondents still undecided, according to the poll commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV.

Slotkin's lead is within the survey's margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points. About 4% of survey participants chose among four third-party hopefuls, including 1.5% who said they'd be supporting Libertarian nominee Joseph Solis-Mullen, according to the survey results.

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