Rogers previously served in the FBI and as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee while representing Michigan in Congress. He continued his work in the national and cybersecurity space after he resigned, working as a television commentator and cybersecurity consultant.

After the 2020 election, Rogers denounced Trump and allies for trying to flip his loss. But in this year’s Republican primary, Rogers made peace with the former president and accepted his endorsement, a move many Michigan observers saw as a necessary step for unite a fractured GOP state.

Similar backgrounds, divergent positions

Both Rogers and Slotkin grew up in Michigan and spent time out of state before representing similar districts in Congress, and both won close elections before. Both entered the race with reputations as bipartisan public servants who used their national security expertise to solve domestic problems.

The similarities between the candidates ended there as the race grew hotter. Neither has hesitated to question their opponent’s integrity amid well-funded ad campaigns that have impugned each other’s congressional records, credentials, positions on foreign and domestic issues — and where or how long they lived in Michigan.

The two also battled in two contentious debates in October on issues of national security, gun reform, abortion rights, immigration and more.

Rogers and other Republicans have spent months criticizing state incentives for an electric vehicle battery plant being built near Big Rapids by Gotion, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese company Gotion High-Tech.

Rogers accused Slotkin and other Democrats of threatening national security and wasting taxpayer money by allowing the project to proceed. Trump also criticized the planned development, even as he encouraged other foreign companies to make products in the US.

Slotkin has not approved any funding for the Gotion project, and her office disputed Rogers’ claims about her record, pointing to her work in Congress to combat Chinese influence in critical supply chains, auto interests and other industries such as agriculture and real estate.

Slotkin has frequently bashed Rogers on his abortion record, telling Michigan voters not to trust him to adhere to the statewide abortion protections approved by the 2022 ballot initiative.

Slotkin has maintained consistent support for abortion rights, including legislation establishing the right of healthcare providers to provide abortions and prohibiting any form of government from restricting access to the procedure.

Rogers has previously said he supports abortions only to save the life of the mother. He co-sponsored legislation to define human life as beginning at conception, supported a national ban on abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, and proposed withdrawing federal approval for the abortion-inducing drug Mifepristone.

But since announcing her run for the U.S. Senate, Rogers has said she won’t pursue a federal abortion ban because Michigan voters approved a 2022 ballot measure that enshrined reproductive rights in the state constitution.