DETROIT — The Senate race between Republican ex-Rep. Mike Rogers and Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is neck and neck. Lifeless warmth. Too near name. However Rogers acquired a giant increase Tuesday with an endorsement from the Michigan Farm Bureau — which hasn’t backed a GOP Senate candidate in practically 20 years.
Rogers and Slotkin took half in an August discussion board with the bureau, vying to win the main endorsement, the place the congresswoman touted her personal farm.
“We develop soy and corn on about 300 acres, little bit lower than 300 acres proper now,” she mentioned.
However property data present Slotkin’s parcel of land is far smaller. It’s simply 10 acres, and aerial photographs present no corn or soybeans being grown.
These data additionally reveal she continues to take a farming tax credit score, regardless of doing no farming on the grounds. The house’s agricultural zoning confers a property-tax exemption, which Slotkin simply claimed when she filed her summer time taxes.
Critics say Slotkin’s tall tales in regards to the household farm are what misplaced her the main endorsement that outgoing Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow earned the final two election cycles. The farm bureau, often known as AgriPac, had not endorsed a Republican working for a Michigan Senate seat since 2006.
“It’s no shock Elissa Slotkin misplaced this key endorsement as a result of she was caught mendacity about being a farmer,” Maggie Abboud, a Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman, instructed The Submit. “Mike Rogers has the momentum within the Michigan Senate race.”
The farm bureau has endorsed 11 new candidates in 2024, together with Rogers, and 89 candidates total. For president, it endorsed Donald Trump.
AgriPac additionally endorsed Republicans working in two shut Home races: Rep. John James, who’s defending his seat from Democrat Carl Marlinga, and former state rep Tom Barrett in his open-seat race towards Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr.
Taking an endorsement victory lap Tuesday, Rogers promised to symbolize farmers’ pursuits within the halls of Congress.
“Michigan farmers are struggling mightily beneath the present administration with rising enter prices and burdensome authorities laws, and now for the primary time in American historical past we’re importing extra meals than we export,” he mentioned.
AgriPac urged its members to unfold the phrase about Rogers and its different endorsed candidates.
“Discuss to your neighbors, speak to your pals about getting out the vote for Pals of Agriculture,” mentioned Washtenaw County farmer Mike Fusilier, AgriPac chair. “And put indicators out in your property — that’s one factor Farm Bureau members have most different organizations don’t is land frontage on roads.”
A full checklist of the farm bureau’s endorsements is on its web site.
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