Former Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan announced a campaign for an open Senate seat on Wednesday, giving Republicans a prominent candidate in an important swing-state race.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rogers, 60, served seven terms in the House and rose to become the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee before leaving in 2015. He is by far the biggest name for the Republicans so far in the race to replace Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who is retiring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I put politics behind me,\u201d he said in a video announcing his campaign. \u201cBut like you, I know something is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
He criticized President Biden\u2019s policies and said \u201cpoliticians are fighting over banning gas stoves while China is stealing our intellectual policy and our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The seat is not one of Republicans\u2019 foremost targets in 2024, when they need to flip one or two seats to regain control of the Senate, depending on whether they also flip the White House. Those top targets are Montana, Ohio and West Virginia, all of which voted for Donald J. Trump twice and choose Republicans in most statewide elections.<\/p>\n
But Michigan is a second-tier target given that it voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and was closely contested in 2020. It swung toward Democrats in the midterms, however \u2014 Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won re-election by more than 10 percentage points, and Democrats won three out of four competitive House races and flipped both chambers of the State Legislature \u2014 and the Michigan Republican Party has fallen into disarray.<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, Mr. Rogers, with his political experience and name recognition, may give Republicans a more realistic shot than the lesser-known candidates in the field. They include Nikki Snyder, a member of the State Board of Education; Ezra Scott, a former county commissioner; Michael Hoover, an entrepreneur; and Alexandria Taylor, a lawyer.<\/p>\n
The Democratic field is headlined by Representative Elissa Slotkin, who was elected to Congress in the blue wave of 2018 and has won re-election twice in a swing district. Her primary opponents include the actor Hill Harper; Nasser Beydoun, a businessman; and Pamela Pugh, the president of the State Board of Education.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rogers \u2014 no relation to the Alabama representative and House Armed Services Committee chairman of the same name \u2014 spent several years as a special agent for the F.B.I. before running for the State Senate and then Congress. That experience helped make him one of the House\u2019s most prominent voices on national security. Before his retirement, he was a leader in negotiations with President Barack Obama to overhaul the National Security Agency\u2019s electronic surveillance programs.<\/p>\n
Given his stature, he shocked many of his colleagues in 2014 when he decided to leave Congress to become a talk-radio host.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a career before politics,\u201d he said at the time, \u201cand always planned to have one after.\u201d<\/p>\n