The author is a Democratic member of the Michigan House of Representatives representing the 23rd District. Former Congressman Mike Rogers is a Republican running for the U.S. Senate.
By Jason Morgan
Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers thinks you're a sucker. He basically said so himself.
While he was in office, Rogers opposed bills like the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that would rein in special interests and get money out of politics. When asked by the Chicago Tribune why he opposed limits on special interest money, Rogers gave a very telling answer:
"It's like the old saying about a prostitute. You'll do it for a million or you'll do it for a dollar—it still makes you a prostitute. It's the same way with corruption."
That quote tells you everything about what Mike Rogers believes: The system is corrupt, people are going to get theirs anyway, and you're a fool if you think it could ever be different.
Today, cynicism in politics is nearly universal. Polls show that the vast majority of Americans, 71%, rate Congress's honesty and ethics as “low” or “very low,” worse than telemarketers, and a majority say government corruption is a top concern.
I share those concerns. That's why I sponsored the BRITE Act in the Michigan House to shine a light on elected officials' finances and rein in the influence of special interests. These ethics and campaign finance reforms are necessary because too often politicians use their elected office to enrich themselves and their wealthy donors instead of serving the people who elected them.
Made Money
For many Michiganders, myself included, Mike Rogers represents everything people hate about politics. It’s not just that he enabled our broken system - he made money on it.
Here’s how the revolving door works.
The author, State Rep. Jason Morgan
In Congress, Rogers cozied up to corporate lobbyists, repeatedly opposed campaign-finance reforms, and voted against a bill that would help close the so-called “revolving door” between Congress and lobbying, which he’d later use to enrich himself.
After Rogers voted to protect corporate political power, something remarkable happened: Big Pharma poured more than a million dollars into his campaigns, putting him in the 95th percentile for most industry donations received by U.S. representatives. Flush with cash, Rogers crowned himself the industry's "champion," voted against lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and served as a "leading advocate" to boost opioid prescriptions while Michigan families were devastated by the opioid crisis. Money has a funny way of determining a politician's priorities.
The Revolving Door
But why settle for a DC office when there's so much more money waiting on the other side of the revolving door?
In 2014, Rogers announced he was leaving Congress to pursue what he openly described as "something more lucrative.” Over the next decade, he raked in cash through paid speeches and cushy consulting gigs with tech and cybersecurity companies tied to the very issues he oversaw in office. He multiplied his wealth working for big corporations that partnered with sanctioned Chinese telecom giants, collaborated with the Maduro regime to spy on its citizens, and cozied up to shady foreign interests. In the meantime, he moved into a multimillion-dollar Florida mansion, paid for by the DC connections he built on the Michigan taxpayers’ dime.
Then greed brought Rogers back for another turn.
When he parachuted back to Michigan to run for Senate the first time, voters asked the obvious questions. Does this guy even live here? How did he make all that money so soon after leaving Congress? Why isn’t he living where he’s registered to vote?
Michigan voters answered those questions at the ballot box, rejecting him.
But Rogers didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Now, he’s spinning right back from Florida to do it all over again, hoping we’ve forgotten who he is and what he stands for: higher costs for working families, tax giveaways for billionaires, and more self-serving politics that leave regular people paying the price.
Mike Rogers has shown us who he works for, and it's not Michigan families. Now, it's time we jam that revolving door shut—and keep Mike Rogers on the outside where he belongs.
