Michigan Republican accused of carpetbagging as he campaigns from Florida mansion
Former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, now running for Senate in that state on a pro-Trump platform, keeps accidentally revealing his close ties to Florida, reported the Detroit Metro Times on Wednesday — and reopening old accusations that he actually lives there.
Rogers, who also ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2024, was also hit with carpetbagging accusations at that time, as he owns a home in Cape Coral and, at the time, was even registered to vote in Florida.
He has since done everything in his power to boost his Michigan bona fides — but the new investigation reveals he is still running much of his campaign out of Florida.
"Metro Times found that Rogers spent more than a week in November 2025 campaigning from his Florida mansion, beginning with a fundraiser in Naples on Nov. 19 and followed by a series of media interviews that appear to have been recorded from inside his Cape Coral home," said the report. "Those included a virtual interview on Nov. 20, a social media video the next day, and another virtual interview on Nov. 26. In between, Rogers told a Michigan-focused audience in a Nov. 24 interview on Wood Radio that 'my whole life is here [in Michigan],' despite being in Florida at the time."
Rogers briefly listed his Cape Coral residence for sale after launching his new campaign, but according to Metro Times, he has already withdrawn it from the market. And during an interview earlier this month on "Breitbart News Sunday" with Florida-based reporter Matthew Boyle, Rogers quipped, “Wouldn’t we all like to be with Matt right now on the beach in Florida. It’s even colder in Michigan,” which was met with laughter.
Carpetbagging accusations aren't necessarily a game-ender for campaigns, particularly depending on which state and office one is seeking, but they can often have a detrimental impact. In the 2018 re-election campaign for Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), he won partly by playing up his opponent Matt Rosendale's ties to Maryland over Montana. More recently, Dr. Mehmet Oz's bid for Senate in Pennsylvania was continually derailed by the fact that he lived in New Jersey.