As the Senate race for Michigan heats up ahead of November, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed unveiled a new ad against Republican Mike Rogers, aiming to link his image to support for surveillance technologies. Michigan residents reacted to the ad, criticizing Rogers for his past instances of defending surveillance.
As reported by Wired, El-Sayed launched a new ad on Tuesday attacking Mike Rogers over his support for expanding government surveillance powers while in Congress. The video showcases Rogers praising the Patriot Act of 2001 and reminds viewers of how Rogers largely supported anti-privacy measures between 2011 and 2014.
The campaign used the slogan “Mike Rogers Is Watching You,” and it clearly draws on the anti-Flock camera sentiment that has spread across the U.S. this year. Officially, however, the Mike Rogers campaign denies that he supports the use of Flock cameras “to track law-abiding citizens.”
Michigan Residents React to Recent Ad Against Mike Rogers
Users on r/Michigan praised El-Sayed’s campaign, saying: “I wish every Dem would run such an aggressive campaign. This is how you stop crybullies. You beat them at their own game by hitting the public with their own words.”
Others agreed with the criticism of Rogers: “I haven’t seen a single Rogers ad where he actually talks. This tells me everything I need to know about who he is and who he’s working for.” Some folks even joked: “I wonder what all the ‘life-long Democrats’ voting for Rogers have to say about this,” referring to what they believed were people lying online.
Some other Michigan residents, however, still seemed skeptical of both sides: “So sick of this [expletive] from both sides. They are taking stuff out of context and ramming it hard. Both sides of the same coin. Why can’t we have reasonable options?”
Another person answered: “That’s not out of context though. Mike Rogers was the primary author of CISPA – a bill that was going to allow the government to access any digital data (photos, voicemails, phone records, social media posts, smart home data – EVERYTHING) without a warrant. It passed the house twice, and died in the senate both times. So why would we vote for this guy to be in the Senate, and finally pass it?”
It remains to be seen who will win the election for senator, but this is a key race for the future of the country, so it’ll likely be difficult to tell the winner ahead of time.
