Rogers claimed he was winning the 2024 Senate election until a “very unusual truckload of ballots” appeared in Detroit; he repeatedly and falsely claimed that a van carrying ballots in Detroit “swung” the election and embraced election denialism despite previously criticizing it.
Trump falsely claimed that Rogers’ election in 2024 was stolen by voter fraud.
Mike Rogers Claimed He Was Winning The 2024 Senate Election Until A “Very Unusual Truckload Of Ballots” Had Shown Up In Detroit At 4 AM. According to the Detroit News, “The Insider report's ‘Tweet of the Week,’ recognizing a social media post that was worthy of attention or, possibly, just a laugh, from the previous week goes to U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly. Slotkin responded on Friday to her 2024 opponent, Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, claiming in a podcast interview that he was winning last year's election until a ‘very unusual truckload of ballots’ had shown up at 4 a.m. in Detroit. ‘That’s not what @MikeRogersForMI said when he called me to concede last November,’ Slotkin tweeted.” [Detroit News, 4/12/25]
Mike Rogers Repeatedly And Falsely Claimed That A Van Carrying Ballots In Detroit “Swung” His 2024 Race Against Elissa Slotkin. According to the Detroit News, “Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers has claimed, at events in recent weeks, that a single van carrying ballots in Detroit ‘swung’ his 2024 race against Democrat Elissa Slotkin, according to two videos of remarks reviewed by The Detroit News. […] The recent claims from the former congressman who's running for the Senate in 2026 were unusual because Rogers quickly conceded his race to Slotkin in 2024, because he hasn't prominently made such allegations in the past and because his assertions don't match the facts of what played out in Michigan.” [Detroit News, 11/9/25]
Michigan Advance: Mike Rogers Once Denounced Election Denial Of The 2020 Election. Now, He’s Surrounded By It. [Michigan Advance, 11/21/25]
After The 2020 Election, Mike Rogers Called For Trump To Accept A Peaceful Transition Of Power And Condemned Trump’s Election Denial. According to Michigan Advance, “In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, called for President Donald Trump to accept a peaceful transition of power and condemned election denialism by Trump and his allies. ‘The president and some in his party are refusing to accept the outcome of the election, instead sowing doubt and conspiracy,’ Rogers wrote in a Washington Post op-ed one day prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. ‘This was an election that multiple independent observers, the courts and both parties have found to be free and fair. To imply otherwise is self-serving and stokes further discord in our country.’” [Michigan Advance, 11/21/25]
Mike Rogers Said “President Donald Trump’s Attempts To Influence The Electoral Processes In Michigan, And Elsewhere, Is Cause For Both Concern And Alarm, And Should Be Roundly Rejected By Both Democrats And Republicans Alike.” According to Michigan Advance, “‘President Donald Trump’s attempts to influence the electoral processes in Michigan, and elsewhere, is cause for both concern and alarm, and should be roundly rejected by both Democrats and Republicans alike,’ he wrote in a Detroit News op-ed about a month earlier urging Michigan officials to certify the results. ‘It is well past time that the president accepts that he lost and begin the peaceful and orderly transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.’” [Michigan Advance, 11/21/25]
Mike Rogers Pushed Election Denial About His 2024 Election Loss, Claiming That A Van Of Ballots Was Delivered To A Polling Place In Detroit. According to Michigan Advance, “Now, Rogers, endorsed by Trump in his second Senate election in two cycles, is espousing his own election denial about his 2024 Senate bid — saying in October, without offering evidence, that a van of ballots was delivered to a polling place in Detroit. He embraced similar rhetoric during the 2024 campaign as well.” [Michigan Advance, 11/21/25]
Election Deniers Meshawn Maddock And Kenneth Thompson, Who Both Were Involved In Michigan’s Fake Electors Scheme, Were County Co-Chairs On The Rogers Campaign. According to Michigan Advance, “As he heads into 2026, Rogers is surrounding himself with a campaign full of those who also repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 election. Meshawn Maddock and Kenneth Thompson, for example, were both granted federal pardons by President Trump earlier this month for their alleged role in the ‘false electors’ scheme that sought to cast Michigan’s electoral votes in 2020 for Trump, despite the state voting for former President Joe Biden. Both Maddock and Thompson are now county co-chairs on the Rogers campaign, in Oakland County and Ionia County, respectively. ‘Mike Rogers has either lost every last photon of sanity,’ wrote Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party and the Chief Operating Officer of the Lincoln Project, ‘or he’s a lying pr**k who is cynically exploiting mushy MAGA minds in his desperation and thirst to be liked by them rather than normal American Michiganders.’” [Michigan Advance, 11/21/25]
Nearly A Dozen Of The Other County Co-Chairs Named By Rogers Had Made Statements Promoting Conspiracy Theories On The Presidential Election Or January 6. According to Michigan Advance, “Maddock and Thompson are not the only election deniers on Rogers’ team. Nearly a dozen of the other county co-chairs named by Rogers in June had made statements online promoting conspiracy theories on the presidential election or the Jan. 6 riots. Norm Shinkle, one of the co-chairs in Ingham County, was the sole member of the State Board of Canvassers who refused to certify the 2020 elections, even as the other Republican on the board certified them. ‘Looking ahead into 2026 there are definitely risks of election sabotage,’ Daniel Rivera, Michigan senior campaign manager for All Voting Is Local, said. ‘Especially since these pardons happened and these folks are back out in the community, I would say it could serve as a blueprint to undermine and challenge election results, but we’re ready to fight back for those future attempts.’” [Michigan Advance, 11/21/25]
Trump Falsely Claimed That Mike Rogers’ Election In 2024 Was Stolen By Voter Fraud.
According to the Detroit News, “During his speech in Michigan, Trump claimed, without providing evidence, that fraud somehow influenced his loss in the state's 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden and Rogers' loss in the 2024 U.S. Senate race to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly. ‘I think they took that away from you,’ Trump told Rogers. ‘They rigged the election on you.’ Rogers lost the 2024 race to Slotkin by 19,006 votes, 48.3%-48.6% in 2024 and quickly conceded the race.” [Detroit News, 1/13/26]
Trump Alleged Without Evidence That Mike Rogers “Won” His Senate Race In 2024.
According to Bridge Michigan, “He also alleged without evidence that Rogers, the US Senate candidate who narrowly lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in 2024, had actually ‘won’ the race that year. In 2016, Trump narrowly won the state of Michigan by 10,704 votes over Hillary Clinton. But he lost to Biden by 154,188 votes in 2020, a win that was affirmed by a months-long investigation by a Republican-led state Senate committee. Trump recaptured Michigan in 2024, defeating Democrat Kamala Harris by just over 80,000 votes. Rogers conceded his race that year to Slotkin, wishing her ‘the best as she serves the people of Michigan’ in her new role after election results showed she won the seat with 48.6% of the vote to Rogers’ 48.3%.” [Bridge Michigan, 1/13/26]