Rogers' Lagging U.S. Senate Fundraising Could Open The Door For Others To Jump In

Michigan Advance

July 16, 2025

As U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers fights off accusations of misleading potential voters on his fundraising efforts over the last quarter, the numbers show potential cracks in his campaign and could open the door for another challenger on the Republican side to jump in.

Rogers reported that he raised nearly $1.5 million, but those figures were brought in by two separate committees – one for his campaign and another from a joint fundraising committee, the Detroit News reported.

Through his campaign over the past three-month reporting period, Rogers raised nearly $745,000, while the joint fundraising committee, Team Rogers, raised approximately $780,000, Federal Election Commission filings show. That leaves him with about $1.1 million cash on hand at the close of the period.

Although Michigan media has kept a hawk’s eye on fundraising, other outlets, like the conservative Washington Examiner, also noted the discrepancy. The outlet initially reported him as having raised $1.5 million but later updated its piece to reflect that the $745,000 his campaign raised lagged behind each of his Democratic opponents in the race.

Still, Rogers’ campaign doubled down in a statement and said his actual fundraising total was the aforementioned $1.5 million.

“Chuck Schumer and his Democrat cronies are so scared of Mike Rogers that they’re to convince you that $745,170 and $778,615 don’t equal $1.523 million,” said campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet in a statement. “The Left will do anything to distract from the fact that Mike Rogers outraised their candidate, Haley Stevens. And reporters might be falling for their lies, but Michigan voters won’t.”

With Rogers as the Republicans’ semi-official anointed candidate with zero clear primary challengers, Joanna Rodriguez, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, also jumped in the fray on social media to defend Rogers’ fundraising claims.

Meanwhile, the Democrats in the race were sailing ahead of Rogers in that regard. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) was the most successful of the lot over the past reporting period, raising $2.1 million, campaign finance filings show. She spent $1.3 million over the reporting period ending on June 30 and has $826,912 cash on hand.

That’s good news for McMorrow, who is up against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), former Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) and Abdul El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health director and a 2018 gubernatorial primary candidate.

McMorrow praised her campaign’s efforts and claimed she did it “without a single dime of corporate PAC dollars.”

El-Sayed was a close second in the fundraising push, raising $1.8 million and having spent nearly $700,000 during the reporting period, leaving him with $1.1 million cash on hand.

Stevens is viewed by some as a frontrunner in the race, and that apparently includes Rogers’ campaign as she was mentioned specifically in statements issued Wednesday related to his fundraising.

Still, Stevens in this period came in third behind McMorrow and El-Sayed. She reported raising $1.3 million, but Gongwer News Service, a Michigan-based political insider, reported that she also transferred $1.5 million from her U.S. House account, which is allowed under federal campaign finance rules. Stevens has $1.9 million cash on hand.

Tate was running well behind the other Democrats on the U.S. Senate side, raising just $192,771 and leaving him with just $70,212 in the bank.

Although McMorrow jumped for joy on social media, Chris Gustafson, communications director for the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, wrote on X that McMorrow’s cash on hand was less than Rogers’ and that her cash burn rate in the second quarter was 62%, spending more than $1.2 million largely on digital fundraising.

“There’s, of course, a time and place for digital prospecting, but the middle of a brutal primary election is usually not it,” Gustafson said. “Someone is definitely generating revenue right now, but it’s not McMorrow’s campaign.”

As the Democrats in the race focus on each other and as Rogers focuses on them, the window of opportunity was never better for an undeclared potential candidate who has been mulling over a decision on whether to challenge Rogers: Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga of Holland Township.

Huizenga has been rumored to have been staffing up and gearing for a Senate run but has yet to jump in. He did make a trip out to Mackinaw City as the keynote speaker at a Straits Area Lincoln Day event in June that revved up Michigan’s Republican faithful, but stopped short of announcing there.

Although his latest fundraising efforts reported for the most recent period were directed at his U.S. House campaign, he raised slightly more than Rogers with nearly $746,700, campaign finance records show. Huizenga also reportedly has more cash on hand than Rogers with $1.4 million to the declared candidate’s $1.1 million.

That money could easily be transferred to a U.S. Senate committee if he decides to jump in.

Huizenga’s campaign was noticeably silent as the attention was on Rogers’ lagging numbers.

Those watching the race, however, noted that the numbers speak for themselves on whether a Huizenga versus Rogers matchup could be competitive, and whether Huizenga had momentum to give the Democratic opponents some resistance.

Speaking to Michigan Advance on Wednesday, Republican political consultant Dennis Lennox said Rogers was clearly outraised when contextualizing a potential horse race between the two candidates, especially considering that it was apparent Rogers had fudged some of his numbers.

“It’s not cheating, it’s fair, but it’s not totally accurate,” Lennox said. “It’s pretty incredible that a congressman, who hasn’t announced that he’s running and has been pretty much the victim of political intimidation at the highest levels outside of the White House, outraised someone who all but has the endorsement of the Republican establishment.”

That said, Rogers was running a better campaign this cycle in its early throes than he had when he ran against current U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), Lennox said.

“But, despite having basically all of the stars aligned in his favor, the only thing he’s missing is a Trump endorsement. He can’t raise the kind of money, which means he can’t generate the kind of actual enthusiasm that you need to win a race,” Lennox said of Rogers. “Republicans who are backing Mike Rogers, and Republicans who somehow think Mike Rogers can win, should be pretty scared by the fundraising numbers coming out of the Democratic candidates.”

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