Kristi Rogers spent part of Wednesday handing out $10 gas gift cards to drivers at a Freedom Fuel station on Detroit's east side, amid elevated Michigan gas prices. The giveaway unfolded at the Harper Avenue and Cadieux Road location as her husband, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, campaigns against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
The stop was first reported by The Detroit News, which detailed how social media videos showed Kristi Rogers speaking with customers, many of them African American, some wearing Mike Rogers stickers, outside the station near I-94 that was decked out in American flags. Michigan's average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline was about $4.40 in an Oct. 8 report. The campaign did not immediately respond to questions about campaign messaging, the paper noted.
A Station Named for Trump's Presidency
The Freedom Fuel location chosen for the giveaway opened in September 2026 as the brand's first Michigan outpost, initially selling regular gasoline at $3.47 a gallon as a nod to Donald Trump being the 47th U.S. president, according to Wisevoter. The discount pricing model behind the chain was promoted by Trump earlier this year, the outlet reported. The same report notes that fuel distributor Mansfield Oil filed a federal lawsuit in August against KRSM, the company operating Detroit's Freedom Fuel stations, alleging nearly $4 million in unpaid invoices for more than 1.1 million gallons of fuel sourced between May and July. State inspectors checked the station's pumps in October, verifying volume accuracy but ordering repairs to malfunctioning digital displays.
Gas prices have become a defining issue of the Senate race. El-Sayed has criticized Rogers over surging prices at the pump, while Rogers has called on national and state leaders to suspend gas taxes and pushed for a temporary suspension of diesel exports. A GasBuddy analyst tracking fuel prices found the national average stayed above $4 a gallon for 158 days in 2026, a stretch that has kept affordability near the center of campaign messaging statewide.
Why Michigan Pump Prices Climbed So Fast
Michigan overhauled how it taxes fuel at the start of 2026, eliminating the 6% sales tax on motor fuel while raising the state excise tax to 52.4 cents per gallon, with 98% of collections now funneled directly into road and transit funding, according to the State of Michigan. By July, Michigan ranked sixth highest in the nation for state fuel tax burdens, with combined state and federal levies adding more than 70 cents per gallon statewide, per ClickOnDetroit, compared with 14th-ranked Ohio.
Those state-level pressures coincided with the Iran war and rising energy prices. The national diesel average stood at $6.5276 on September 22, according to 930 WFMD. In response, Rogers formally proposed a temporary embargo on U.S. diesel exports in September alongside a full suspension of both Michigan's 52.4-cent state fuel tax and the 18.3-cent federal gasoline tax, calling for the export embargo to last until the Iran war was over, per the same station's reporting.
Does Giving Away Gas Cards Cross a Legal Line?
Campaign finance experts told The Detroit News that the giveaway can be legal without running afoul of state and federal vote-buying prohibitions. Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 597, bars making or offering any expenditure to induce someone to vote, withhold a vote, or support a candidate, with willful violations punishable by up to two years in prison, according to Cornell Law School's text of the statute.
Michigan's own election code makes it a misdemeanor to offer anything of value to induce a vote or voter registration, and that code applies equally to state and federal candidates. Mark Brewer, an election lawyer and former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, told the Detroit outlet that the giveaway's legality hinges on what Kristi Rogers says or does — gift cards offered to everyone without conditions can be lawful, but in his view, explicitly linking a card to a vote for her husband or to voter registration would cross a line.
In 2022, a political group supporting GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker offered drivers $25 gas vouchers after they sat through a Super PAC pitch about his candidacy.
The giveaway lands just days after Rogers and El-Sayed held their first televised debate in Grand Rapids.
