MARQUETTE — Last week, U.S. senatorial candidate Mike Rogers visited Marquette as part of a larger campaign tour through the Upper Peninsula. The trip included a tour of the Honorable Distillery, a fishing charter trip with Marquette Adventures, a Marquette GOP event at Ore Dock Brewing Company, a visit to Robins Sports Surfaces in Ishpeming and the Houghton GOP Lincoln Day Dinner at Bonfire at the Continental Fire Co.

Rogers, a Republican, is running unopposed in the Republican primary election for Senate being held Aug. 4. In November, he will face whoever wins the Democratic Primary, as well as independent and third party candidates.

“We’re campaigning like we have an opponent,” said Rogers. “We’re all over the state … my Democratic opponents are kind of beating the heck out of each other; we’re out there promoting what we are going to do and how we’re going to be good for Michigan.”

“For a long time, we’ve had two people of the same party representing the state in the U.S. Senate — for actually 32 years,” said Rogers. “My argument has been we need kind of a fresh set of ideas showing up to help places like the U.P.”

Rogers served as representative for Michigan’s 8th District, in Central Michigan, from 2003 to 2013, and was a member of the Michigan Senate from 1995 until 2001. For the last 10 years, he’s been working in the tech sector.

“There are certain areas of the state that have just been hurt pretty negatively by a lack of economic activity,” said Rogers. “A great example to me is when we lost the Air Base up here. I mean, that was huge for our community. It had just a tremendous negative impact.

“And so one of the things that we’re trying to do is find that next thing we can do when it comes to economic development, say, at the Air Base. Are there some things that we can do? Can they participate in the economic side of the arsenal of democracy? My argument is absolutely yes.”

Part of Rogers’ visit to Marquette involved speaking with representatives from the Lake Superior Community Partnership about the military’s presence at K.I. Sawyer.

“We threw some ideas on the table that I think we can, when I get to the Senate, we can go to work on pretty quickly,” said Rogers.

Rogers said that, if elected, his focus will be on building bipartisan coalitions.

“Once you get that first bipartisan agreement, I think things just get easier,” said Rogers. “When I was in Congress, I built bipartisan coalitions with my Democratic counterpart. I was the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. My — I call him my partner — he was my vice-chairman, but we tried to be partners in it because I just figured national security shouldn’t be partisan. And we were very, very successful. And so I’m going to use those same kinds of techniques.”

Rogers spoke about his plans to seek bipartisan solutions to issues in housing and education, such as a housing plan that would allow people to save for their first home using 529 plans, which Rogers worked on while he was a U.S. representative and which currently allow families to use tax-free savings accounts to save for their children’s education.

He also spoke about his plan for education, especially literacy rates in the third and fourth grades. Literacy is currently a hot-button topic in Michigan, which ranks 44th in the county for fourth grade reading proficiency. His plan to address that low ranking involves allocating title one funds to reading reclamation, including more reading assessments and remediation programs, placing an emphasis on phonics instruction and holding students back a grade if they score low enough on reading.

“Those are the things I think I can build some bipartisan support for,” said Rogers. “We’re going to disagree, but that doesn’t mean we have to be disagreeable.”

Rogers also spoke about the rising cost of energy and prescription drugs.

“We need to unleash American energy,” said Rogers. “We need to continue down that path.” Rogers supports repealing regulations on American oil and gas production, which he called “onerous,” saying that “the harder you make it to use what we have right now, the more expensive it’s going to be at your gas pump.” Rogers also supports lowering prescription drug prices by continuing to add to President Donald Trump’s TrumpRX plan, which offers people prescription drugs at lower prices.

Rogers received an endorsement from President Trump last summer; in his endorsement, Trump said, “As your next senator, Mike will work tirelessly to Grow our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE by keeping the price of Gasoline, Oil, and all forms of Energy VERY LOW (CHEAP!), Help Secure our now VERY Secure (Record Setting!) Southern Border, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”

“We’re running a Michigan campaign,” said Rogers. “You know, there’s still a lot of people in this state who support the policies of Donald Trump. And we’re going to work to keep some of those policies, like a secure border, like no tax on overtime, like no tax on tips.”

“It’s going to be important, even in the next, last two years of a Trump administration, to have someone that can sit down and go, ‘This is what we need for Michigan,'” said Rogers. “We just haven’t had that. And we’re in trouble … if we’re going to survive as a state and not become one of those empty shell states like New Jersey, we have to do something now. And so having somebody who is born and raised and spent five decades here, worked on a shop floor, understands the ins and outs of Michigan, is going to be really important for the state, I think.”

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.