Recent polling suggests Rogers is so far the most popular candidate in the GOP field, though many voters remain undecided.
Still, an increasingly combative Republican primary could complicate Rogers’ coronation and force him to spend campaign cash defending his record to Republicans before appealing to general election voters, observers told Bridge.
“It’s going to become a particularly nasty race, from what we’re seeing very early on,” said Richard Czuba, a longtime Michigan pollster and founder of the Glengariff Group Inc. “It’s going to drain a lot of resources that the Republican candidates don’t seem to have.”
Among general election voters, Rogers is polling only slightly behind U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the early frontrunner in a three-candidate Democratic primary, per an April Glengariff Group poll commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber.
Rogers contends he’s the Republican candidate best able to reach moderate voters and said he’s focused on providing “real solutions” to pervasive issues.
He told Bridge his top policy goals include securing the U.S.-Mexico border, lowering the cost of groceries, stopping the “economic threat” that China poses to the automotive industry, curbing violent crime and improving child literacy.
Rogers’ Republican opponents aren’t making his path easy, however.
Pensler, a self-funded business executive, has already launched an ad campaign against Rogers and used Rogers’ past criticisms of Trump as political fodder.
