GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It was lights, camera, debate night in Michigan on Tuesday with just four weeks to go until election night.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) battled it out onstage at WOOD-TV 8's studio in Grand Rapids, hoping to gain momentum in the final stretch of the campaign trail and come out on top of what all signs point to being a very tight race.
The debate began with issues of national and global importance as well as local implications, like Hurricane Milton and FEMA responses as well as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
"Israel has the right to defend itself when people come and kill their citizens, rape women, shoot ballistic missiles at them, that is something that any country in the world has the right to do," Slotkin said of the Israel-Hamas war. "But we can also say that we don't like seeing loss of life among civilians."
"But for me, what I won't do is I won't say that the United States should get back into a big land war in the Middle East," she later said.
"Right now, what we should do is support Israel, getting this piece right, frame out a cease fire based on getting the hostages out first," Rogers said. "They need the ability to defend themselves."
The debate then homed in on issues that polls suggest top the charts among Michigan voters, including the economy.
Rogers painted a bleak picture of the economy under the Biden-Harris administration which he attempted to tie to his opponent's presence in Congress.
Government overspending, among other things, he said, would need to be reined in in order to find a solution and lower prices for Michiganders.
"We have to absolutely become energy independent," Rogers said. "I'm for an all-of-the-above policy. But if we don't get gas prices down, we won't get food prices down. There is no sense from buying oil from Venezuela when we have capability here in this country."
Slotkin offered an economic vision based off what she said were three main points.
"Number one is bringing supply chains back home from places like China," Slotkin explained.
"Number two, it's attacking the primary costs that are just burning a hole in people's pockets—health care, prescription drugs," she later said. "We finally allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices. You've got to bring down costs like housing, child care."
"And then, number three, you've got to keep more money in your pocket that you earn, right?" Slotkin continued. "Taxes and tax policy—you've got to do things like the Earned Child Tax Credit, give credit to middle class families instead of breaks to the ultra-wealthy."
The conversation over economic concerns developed into a debate on housing solutions, as Grand Rapids has faced its own difficulties and as Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has proposed a program that would provide up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
"There's a lot of different ways that we can do it, but it's about increasing the housing stock," Slotkin said. "We need more houses. We need more production of houses. Again, I'm not sure about the president's—or the Vice President's, excuse me—program, because I think, you know, I just haven't looked at the details. I can tell you what I voted on, and it's expanding housing for people who are in the middle class."
When also asked about the $25,000 proposal, Rogers responded bluntly that, in his view, "It doesn't work."
"If you talk to anybody that's in the housing business, they'll tell you by the federal government walking in and plopping down $25,000, you've just increased the cost of housing by about $25,000," he said.
In order to bring interest rates down, which Rogers credited as a major factor in the unaffordability of homes, he said he believes it comes back to government spending.
"We have to stop borrowing that money from countries like China - money we don't have, $35 trillion [in national debt]—and start bringing it back under control so we can get interest rates down," Rogers said. "That's the number one thing that we can do."
Another area tackled by the candidates revolved around the nationwide transition to electric vehicles, as a controversial battery plant set for Mecosta County has led some to feel it is too closely tied to China—something the company behind the plant has vehemently denied.
"Why on God's green earth we would cede that auto market to the Communist Party of China is beyond me," said Rogers, a former FBI agent, in an attempt to paint Slotkin as soft when it comes to competing with the foreign nation.
Slotkin pushed back on what some have seen as EV mandates for consumers.
"I do not care what you want to drive, but if the answer is, 'Who's going to build them,' I want that to be Team America, not Team China," said Slotkin, a former CIA analyst. "I want Michigan to build them."
Prompted by a viewer question, the debate also turned at one point to the continuance of Social Security and Medicare—institutions both candidates have signaled they would look to preserve.
The debate also handled the issue of abortion access, following the downfall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the subsequent passage that same year of Michigan's Proposal 3 that enshrined the right to an abortion in the state's constitution.
Rogers' record, Slotkin said, insisted that he would not seek to respect the kinds of protections instituted by Michigan voters in the shadow of Roe's demise.
"He was saying to women [that] he does not trust you to make your own decisions about your own family planning every single time," Slotkin said. "When it comes to our rights and protecting ourselves, I think it is important that we have someone in the seat who does that."
Rogers, however, asserted that he would not do as his opponent claimed if elected to the upper chamber.
"I will do nothing when I go back to Washington, D.C., to do anything that would change what the Michigan Constitution voted on by the people of Michigan have given us that guidance to go back," Rogers said.
And on the topic of immigration—a key issue for a large portion of the state's electorate—the candidates also sought to make their current positions clear.
"To me, if you are not here legally, you should not be here," Slotkin said. "You should go back to your home country and be removed to your home country."
"We need legal, vetted immigration," she later said. "Our farmers need it. Our folks in Mackinac need it for their hotels and their fudge shops. Until we get our immigration system right, we're going to have a bleeding problem at the border."
Rogers slammed what he viewed as a lack of action on the issue.
"This has been a catastrophe, and we have seen absolutely nothing," Rogers said.
"This is something that should get our blood going for what it is doing to the United States of America," he said. "I'm going to go back and I will fix and secure the border."
In an effort to discredit his sincerity toward seeking a solution, Slotkin invoked the collapse of a bipartisan border bill in Congress earlier this year and attempted to tie Rogers and his ideological allies to its demise.
But in Rogers' view, it wouldn't have been the fix that some purport.
"That was not a bill to solve the problem," Rogers said. "It was a bill to exasperate and make permanent the problem. It was really a disaster of a bill."
Both candidates came off the stage signaling victory, but debates don't always tilt the needle.
The candidates told 13 ON YOUR SIDE after the debate that what they hope got across was a contrast.
"My opponent and I differ on a lot of very important issues—about the future of the automobile industry, what that means for jobs here in the state of Michigan," Rogers said. "We have big divergence there."
"I think people saw that tonight," he later continued. "And I think that's going to move their vote."
"Mr. Rogers and I have very different views on things like the middle class or the future of retirement, Medicare, Social Security, our rights, right? Our rights as Americans," Slotkin said. "I think it's important that people see that, and I think this debate did a pretty darn good job of showing those real stark differences."