Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters said she planned to split her ticket and urged voters not to feel bound to support Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the reported Michigan Senate race, according to Finwire. Waters did not identify her Senate choice, so her remarks do not establish that she intended to vote for Republican Mike Rogers.
The comments followed a breakfast Waters had with Rogers and his wife, Kristi, in August, months before the reported election-eve remarks. The Michigan Chronicle reported that Waters said she wanted to raise Detroit concerns directly with Rogers, whom she described as a candidate seeking her constituents’ support.
Detroit priorities offer context, not proof of what was discussed
The City Council’s 2024 legislative agenda identified affordable housing, water infrastructure, equitable development, tax assessments and property taxes, and public safety as the city’s five top priorities, according to a City of Detroit resolution. That list provides local context for Waters’s stated interest in raising city issues, but it does not show which subjects she discussed with Rogers or which she connected to the Senate race.
The election-year premise needs separate confirmation
The verified historical record supplied here concerns a different Michigan Senate contest: FOX 2 Detroit reported that the state certified the 2024 result, in which Democrat Elissa Slotkin beat Rogers by a little more than 19,000 votes. That establishes the outcome of the 2024 race; it does not confirm the separate El-Sayed–Rogers matchup described in the election-eve account. The reported remarks can therefore be attributed to Finwire, but the race’s date, candidate status and outcome remain unverified by the records cited here.
