The wife of Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers spent part of Wednesday handing out free $10 gas gift cards at a Detroit gas station, which local political operatives took note of as a "sign of desperation.”
Kristi Rogers, wearing a red belted pantsuit and black stilettos, walked the parking lot of the Freedom Fuel station at Harper and Cadieux, offering gift cards to drivers, The Detroit News reported.
A Michigan Chronicle reporter captured part of one exchange on video showing the GOP candidate's wife interacting with a man who had just gassed up his car.
“You should have gotten me before you filled up. I’ve got a $10 gift card,” she told a man in a white sedan.
“I’m about go back,” he joked. She handed him the card, saying, “There you go!”
Rogers, a former congressman, is fighting a close race against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed that could help decide control of the Senate.
El-Sayed has hammered Rogers over soaring gas prices, with Michigan’s average price for a gallon of unleaded hitting $4.59 this week, up from $2.88 a year ago, according to AAA Michigan. A GasBuddy analyst said Wednesday that prices have topped $4 a gallon for a record 158 days this year.
Last month, Rogers called on national and state leaders to suspend gas taxes and temporarily halt diesel exports.
Campaign finance experts told the News that the giveaway can be legal, as long as the cards are offered to everyone with no strings attached. Michigan’s election code makes it a misdemeanor to give people something of value to induce them to vote or register. The campaign likely has to disclose the spending under federal rules.
“It really does depend on what she is saying or doing,” said Mark Brewer, an election lawyer and former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. “If there’s anything like, ‘Be sure to register and then vote for Mike Rogers,’ that would cross a line in my view.”
Brewer also questioned the strategy itself.
“This seems really odd, though," he said. "Why is she just wandering around gas stations giving away cards? A sign of desperation from the Rogers campaign? Seems like weird behavior.”
Other videos posted on social media show Kristi Rogers talking mostly with African American drivers, some wearing Mike Rogers stickers.
The Rogers campaign didn’t immediately respond to questions about what messages, if any, accompanied the gift cards.
A similar giveaway drew scrutiny in 2022, when a super PAC backing Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker handed out $25 gas vouchers to drivers who first sat through a pitch about Walker.