Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers deflected pointed questions Wednesday about his campaign's continued ties to a pastor connected to a notorious Midland church sex abuse case, instead pivoting to attack his Democratic rival.
According to ABC 12, Rogers was in Saginaw collecting an endorsement from County Sheriff William Federspiel, a registered Democrat, when reporters pressed him on his Faith Leadership Coalition, a group that has included two pastors tied to the Living Word Church network. Three members of that Midland-area church are currently serving prison sentences after being convicted of sexually abusing children.
One coalition member, Brian Ford of Living Word Church in Ludington, attended the Midland trial in support of former pastor James Randolph, who was ultimately convicted. Ford remains on Rogers' faith team. A second member, Tim Cross, previously resigned from the coalition after admitting he initially didn't believe the abuse victims.
Asked specifically about Ford's continued involvement, Rogers didn't answer directly and instead redirected to Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer aligned with Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed, who has worked to distance himself from Piker's remarks.
"This is a guy that came to our students and preaching that we deserved 9/11, that's a story," Rogers said.
When pushed further on the two coalition members specifically, Rogers again sidestepped the question of whether Ford still holds a role on his team.
"Our volunteers, the people that volunteer for us, one of those folks have stepped away from his volunteer work, someone is still in the faith volunteer work, we think the most important part here is about who is stepping up and who is surrogates," Rogers said.
By the end of the press availability, Rogers still hadn't confirmed one way or the other whether Ford remains part of his campaign's faith outreach effort. Ford could not be reached for comment.
The Federspiel endorsement itself drew its own backlash from local Democrats. Saginaw County Democratic Party Chair Brandell Adams dismissed the sheriff as "a Democrat in name" with a pattern of "endorsing losing candidates," pointing to Federspiel's earlier support of Tudor Dixon, who lost her 2022 gubernatorial bid to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Republican Midland County Sheriff Scott Holzinger also announced his support for Rogers the same day.
Federspiel defended the endorsement himself, explaining his support wasn't about party loyalty.
"I am not loyal to a party just because of a party. I have worked with the feds, I know Mike was an FBI agent, I like what he is proposing, to help me to help my citizens. I am going to support that and I have chosen people from the other party occasionally, and it's not to stick in the eye of Democrats, there are good people who are in both parties," Federspiel said.
