Detroit civic leaders, elected officials and union heads gathered Tuesday to push back hard against Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers' claims that his outreach to Black voters is paying off, arguing his legislative record from decades ago tells a very different story. The news conference came five days after Rogers and Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed faced off in their first debate on October 8.
The speakers, including Tonya Myers Phillips, Denzel McCampbell, and leaders from AFT Michigan, Detroit Action and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, directly challenged Rogers' assertion that his campaign's Black voter outreach operation is building a coalition against El-Sayed heading into the general election, a claim the Rogers campaign made around the time of the debate, according to Michigan Advance. Speakers at the news conference said Rogers has demeaned Black voters and deprived them of representation dating back to the 1990s, pointing to his tenure as Michigan Senate majority floor leader from 1999 to 2000.
A 1999 Vote Still Echoes in Detroit
Central to their argument is Rogers' role co-sponsoring Michigan Public Act 10, which originated in the state Senate and, according to the news conference participants, paved the way for state control of Detroit Public Schools. Republican Governor John Engler signed the law on March 26, 1999, dissolving Detroit's elected school board and installing a seven-member appointed reform board, a historical fact documented by Education Week.
Terrence Martin, president of AFT Michigan, said the law resulted in state-appointed officials making decisions about Detroit schools without being elected by Detroit residents. Martin said the district went from a $100 million operating surplus to a $200 million deficit under the arrangement that followed. Before the takeover, Detroit Public Schools maintained a positive operating fund balance, but the subsequent decade of state-led management saw the district lose tens of thousands of students and accumulate hundreds of millions of dollars in operating deficits, according to the Mackinac Center. “Detroit families have too often been denied a voice in decisions shaping their futures,” Martin said.
Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said school boards' authority gives voters authority, and she said she does not want to see a recurrence of an emergency manager in Detroit schools. Scott Holiday, executive director of Detroit Action, said his organization backs El-Sayed and policies that promote public education and meaningful community control.
Primary Results Fuel Rogers' Crossover Pitch
The pushback follows weeks of Rogers courting Detroit voters disillusioned with El-Sayed, who struggled to win Black voters in the Democratic primary. Detroit voters instead chose U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, in large numbers; Stevens won Detroit precincts with 62.2% of the vote compared to El-Sayed's 34.2%, according to FOX 2 Detroit.
State Rep. Karen Whitsett, a Detroit Democrat who has had substantial friction with her own caucus, leads the Democrats for Mike Rogers coalition that formally launched at a press conference at her mother-in-law's house in Detroit on August 20. Whitsett, who lost a 2025 Detroit City Council election and is not seeking reelection to the state House, has publicly opposed El-Sayed's Medicare for All platform as a threat to union health plans, according to Ballotpedia. Rogers has since made campaign stops in Detroit and Pontiac, including a visit with tutors, students and alumni at Beyond Basics, a reading remediation program, where he touted a four-point housing affordability plan and a pledge to put phonics and shop class back in schools.
Rogers campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet said the housing plan could help people buy their first house before age 40, and she argued Democratic failures have left the nation's education ranking at 45th. Brouillet dismissed Tuesday's news conference as fourth-quarter theatrics by the El-Sayed campaign, saying it did not change the fact that El-Sayed has a base problem.
El-Sayed Campaign Leans on Black Surrogates
El-Sayed has drawn support from Tonya Myers Phillips, Denzel McCampbell, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, Black pastors and several Black political organizations as his campaign works to shore up turnout ahead of November. Myers Phillips said Rogers and President Trump were one and the same, arguing many Detroit and Michigan residents have been harmed by Trump's policies. She specifically blamed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for many of the state's current troubles.
Trump signed that law on July 4, 2025, permanently extending 2017 individual income tax cuts while reducing federal funding for Medicaid and SNAP benefits, per the Tax Policy Center. Rogers was not in Congress and did not vote on the legislation when it passed, though he has voiced support for it. A separate October 2026 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the net effect of 2025 federal tax changes and administration tariffs increased overall taxes and living expenses for every income tier except the top 1 percent.
McCampbell also criticized Rogers for supporting Trump's tariff policies before later distancing himself from the issue; Rogers has since called for an end to Trump's tariff war with Canada. The dueling narratives arrive just days after El-Sayed's campaign launched an ad titled “Mike Rogers is Watching You,” attacking Rogers' past chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee and his record on post-9/11 surveillance programs, according to Common Dreams. With the Senate seat vacated by retiring Senator Gary Peters up for grabs in a state Trump carried in 2024, both campaigns are racing to lock down Detroit's vote before Election Day.
