The Detroit News endorsed Michigan's Republican Senate candidate this week, and its readers answered with a torrent of mockery and disbelief.
In an editorial, the conservative-leaning paper's editorial board threw its weight behind former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who has pushed false claims about the 2024 election in Michigan, per reporting by Democracy Docket. The board favored him over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and called Rogers the ideal choice for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters in the November 3 midterms.
"Mike Rogers is the prototype of a United States Senator," the board wrote, praising his experience, "clear thinking" and temperament while dismissing El-Sayed as a candidate with "little to recommend him" for the job.
The endorsement leaned heavily on the argument that Rogers could act as a check on President Donald Trump, whose favorability the board conceded is "at rock bottom in Michigan." It urged voters not to reject Rogers simply because Trump had endorsed him.
"We believe Mike Rogers is the sort of leader who would be willing and able to help reverse the harm Trump's policies have done and bring the Republican Party back to its conservative roots," the board wrote.
However, readers flooded the paper's Facebook post with hundreds of derisive replies, many questioning whether the endorsement was a joke. The editorial came after Rogers skipped a debate, leaving El-Sayed to argue with an empty lectern, and after Rogers was revealed to have a Florida residence.
"Is this satire?" commenter Molly Duane asked.
Several seized on Rogers' ties to Florida, where he owns a $1.7 million home in Cape Coral and was registered to vote as recently as 2024.
"Is this the Detroit News or the Cape Coral News?" John McKay joked.
"The guy who lives in Florida is right for Michigan?" Tarik Jackson wondered. "Maybe the next governor for Florida should live in Flint to make it fair."
"I don't know anyone interested in voting for Rogers," Marla Swartz offered.
The Detroit News was founded in 1873 and remains one of the state's largest newspapers.