Recent reports have revealed that “Democrats for Mike Rogers,” a coalition that supports Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, is largely made up of right-wing members. The news angered Michigan voters, who criticized Rogers for what they saw as an attempt to fool voters.
As reported by Drop Site News, several prominent members of the coalition had documented histories of supporting Republican candidates. Michigan State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who left the Democratic Party in March 2026, for example, is currently the group’s treasurer but has a history of opposing Democratic policies dating back to 2024. She has openly opposed abortion rights and LGBTQ rights.
The reports highlight multiple individuals who had openly supported the GOP. Cynthia Haynes, for example, claims to be a longtime Democratic voter but has praised Republicans such as Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Robert F. Kennedy on social media.
When investigating 430 self-described Democratic Michigan Jews who intended to vote for Rogers, the outlet discovered that many were actually members of the Republican Party of Michigan or were otherwise aligned with the party.
Michigan Voters Are Skeptical of ‘Democrats for Mike Rogers’
Multiple Michigan voters on r/Michigan were angered by the reports, believing that Rogers was trying to fake support from moderates. One of them wrote: “This is a trick they’ve been pulling for a while now. Pretending like they used to be democrats until democrats ‘went insane.’ My cousin, who joined the military during Iraq to kill Muslims, tried it with us. He pretended that he voted for Obama.”
Seemingly moderate Michiganders were also skeptical of the coalition: “I’m super moderate at this point in my life. I don’t know anybody who supports this garbage. Moderates are going to show up to vote like they always do.”
Someone else added: “Yeah, I saw one of these signs in a yard… right next to signs for every other republican. Like they will trick people or something.” One user claimed: “There are no Democrats in this group; it’s literally all Republicans.”
However, others argued that some right-wing voters might genuinely be joining the Democratic Party, largely because of how far to the right the GOP has moved: “A side-effect of the Republican party going insane off the far right end of the spectrum is that your normal conservative people are moving over to the Democratic party. This will have the effect of pushing the DNC to the right.”
Time will tell how much support Rogers receives from current or former Democratic voters, but these reports suggest that it may not be as much as he would have hoped.
