Even the New York Times can’t spin this one. Republican Mike Rogers is pulling off something that almost never happens in American politics: he’s flipping lifelong Democrats in Michigan. Oh well, that sucks for them!
Times national reporter Jeremy Peters went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday morning and dropped a pretty remarkable admission. He said there are “lifelong Jewish Democrats, especially in the Detroit suburbs, who are saying for the first time in their lives they’re voting Republican.” That’s not a Rogers campaign ad. That’s a New York Times reporter saying it on MSNBC. Let that sink in.
“That’s a big deal,” Peters said. “I don’t know of any other marquee race in the country right now where the Republican candidate is converting Democrats.” Peters grew up near the area himself and called the trend Mike Rogers flipping Michigan Democrats “really quite striking.”
Rogers faces far-left Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for Michigan’s open Senate seat, with voters deciding November 3. Peters noted that some Democrats are “so concerned about their party’s nominee” that they’re “willing to vote for the candidate who’s aligned with Donald Trump.” When your own voters are fleeing to the other party, that’s not a campaign strategy, that’s a five-alarm fire.
And Rogers is doing this in what Peters himself called a tough environment, pointing to “the overall environment for Trump, the economy, prices, the war” as headwinds. Despite all that, Democrats are still crossing over. El-Sayed must have a very inspiring bumper sticker.
El-Sayed’s problems with his own party aren’t exactly breaking news. Detroit voters already rejected him nearly two to one back in the August primary. Rep. Haley Stevens beat him 62% to 34% in the city, according to official results. When you can’t win Detroit in a Democratic primary, it’s fair to ask whether your campaign strategy is working out.
Rogers has Michigan’s open Senate seat in his sights and is now consolidating Republican voters while peeling off Democrats on top of it. If El-Sayed’s own side keeps shopping elsewhere, November 3 is going to be a very long night for the far left.
