Kristi Rogers, the wife of Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, handed out $10 gas cards at a Detroit gas station Wednesday, and critics quickly mocked the giveaway, blaming soaring fuel prices on President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.
Reporter Sam Robinson, who covered the event at the Freedom Fuel station at Harper and Cadieux on the city’s east side, reported that Kristi Rogers was highlighting her husband’s call to suspend the state gas tax. The cards were $10 because that’s the campaign’s estimated savings under a suspended gas tax, Robinson wrote.
Some customers told Robinson they’d seen Rogers’ ads on TV and were excited about the discount.
“It takes a lot of courage to come out here to the hood and do this,” Dennis Ester told Robinson. “I really appreciate it.”
Rogers supporter Yolanda Coleman, who doesn’t necessarily blame high gas prices on the war, was more ambivalent.
“I really don’t know what to believe anymore because I look at both sides,” Coleman said. “Nobody is really upholding what they’re saying and the people are suffering from all of this.”
The giveaway is part of a steady stream of Rogers campaign events in Detroit, Robinson noted, amid questions over whether Black voters, who largely backed Rep. Haley Stevens in the August Democratic primary, will turn out for Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Nov. 3.
Critics online pounced over the optics of the stunt.
Democratic strategist Connor Farrell answered with a meme of “Arrested Development” matriarch Lucille Bluth: “It’s a gallon of gas, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars?”
“Handing out gas cards after your party starts a war that sends global fuel prices skyrocketing,” wrote journalist Zaid Jilani, alongside a cartoon of a drowning hand getting a high five instead of help.
“These people would rather hand out gas cards instead of telling their dumb president to end the war. Laughable and pathetic,” wrote progressive organizer Isaiah Martin.
Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Joey Hannum asked whether Kristi Rogers would “also highlight Mike Rogers’ support for ‘giving the president authority to continue’ the Iran war indefinitely.”
“$10 will get approximately two gallons of gas!” noted Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum.
“Lmao what a parody,” wrote political strategist Alexander McCoy.
Other users went even further. “Bribing voters. The desperation,” wrote the account That Gay Guy. “So now they’re buying votes with $10 gas cards….this gotta violate some campaign laws, no?” asked the political commentary account Wu Tang is for the Children. Attorney and former Judge Pro Tem Tracey Gallagher said she would contact the elections board. Robinson’s reporting did not indicate the cards were tied to voting.
Notably, El-Sayed also backs suspending both the state and federal gas taxes, the Michigan Advance reported, though he has argued taxes aren’t what’s driving prices.
To boot, Rogers previously took the other side. As a state senator in 1997, he voted to raise Michigan’s gas tax, and he has previously warned that “there is no guarantee that if state leaders suspend the gas tax that prices consumers pay at the pump will go down,” the Detroit Metro Times reported.
Rogers has more recently called for a quick end to the Iran war after previously backing it, Bridge Michigan reported, as Rust Belt voters struggle with gas prices and Trump brushes off affordability concerns at his rallies.
