U.S. Rep.
Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) and former U.S. Rep.
Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) were each targeted in swatting attempts days after winning their party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.
During a campaign event on Friday, Slotkin confirmed there had been an incident of swatting — falsely calling emergency services to and deceiving them into sending armed police to another person’s address — at her home in Holly. “I wasn’t there. It, you know, pulled out a bunch of law enforcement who should have been doing other things and should have been working on real security threats,” Slotkin told reporters “We’ve turned it over to the [U.
S.] Capitol Police, they’re doing an investigation and we want to hold people accountable.” Rogers spoke out against the incident prior to a notice from his own campaign reporting a swatting attempt against Rogers’ family.
“The reports that Rep. Slotkin’s home was ‘swatted’ last night are horrific and I am glad to hear that she was not harmed,” Rogers said in a post on X . “As a former FBI agent I can tell you that diverting law enforcement toward fake crimes is dangerous and can lead to very bad outcomes.
I know this because I was a victim of a similar incident in 2013. It’s my sincere hope that the perpetrators are found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Rogers said. Former U.
S. Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Grand Rapids) also weighed in, calling the attempt “disgusting.
” “Unfortunately in Michigan, candidates for office have to publicly list the address of their home residence in order to qualify for the ballot,” Meijer said in a post . “It’s important to confirm candidate residency requirements, but given threats to public officials there has to be a better way to balance this need with privacy and security concerns.” On Friday, Rogers spokesperson Chris Gustafson released a statement reporting Rogers’ family had also been targeted in a swatting incident.
“Today, family members of Mike Rogers were the target of a swatting attempt at their home in Livingston County. Michigan State Police responded to the false threat and thankfully no one at the home was harmed. Mike and his family are beyond grateful for the professionalism and swift response of law enforcement,” Gustafson said.
“This is the second time that Mike has been the target of a swatting, first in 2013 as a member of congress, and reports that Rep. Slotkin was also the target yesterday are a clear example of the deeply concerning trend of political violence that has quickly become the norm,” Gustafson said. “This kind of violence cannot be tolerated and it is our hope that those responsible will be quickly prosecuted and held accountable.
.” Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez confirmed state police told the Advance in an email that an MSP sergeant responded to an address in Genoa Township for a report of a domestic situation who later determined it was a false report after making contact with the female homeowner.
While state police could not confirm if the home was connected to Rogers, Gustafson previously confirmed that Rogers was living with his sister-in-law in Genoa Township near Brighton while awaiting construction of his home in White Lake Township. Slotkin later responded to the incident on X , calling the news “deeply troubling.” “I am glad to hear both he and his family were not harmed.
This type of behavior is not acceptable in public life. I thank Michigan State Police for their swift and professional response and I hope those responsible are investigated and held accountable by law enforcement,” Slotkin said. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.
com . Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X . A massive and enthusiastic crowd gathered Friday evening at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale to cheer on Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov.
Tim Walz. Arizona’s top Democrats came out in full force to sing the praises of the top of their ticket, including U.S.
Sen. Mark Kelly and his wife, Gabby Giffords, along with Congressman Ruben Gallego, who is running for the Senate, and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. The more than 15,000-strong crowd that nearly filled the 20,000-seat arena, per the campaign’s estimate, danced to popular hip-hop and rap songs from artists like Lizzo and Saweetie while they waved signs in support of Harris, and ones that signified their affection for Walz’s history as a football coach.
Harris hit on many of the key points her campaign has focused on since it began just over a few weeks ago, including making sure life is more affordable for the middle class and ensuring that young people will be able to afford their own homes in the future. And she made sure to highlight the differences between her plans for the presidency and those of her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. “We are witnessing a full-on assault against our hard-fought freedoms and rights,” Harris said, including the freedom to vote, to be free of gun violence and for everyone to love who they love openly.
The vice president honed in on key issues for Arizonans, such as climate change, immigration and the right to reproductive freedom. “I was attorney general of a border state,” she said. “I went after the transnational gangs and traffickers.
I prosecuted them in case after case — and I won.” Harris added that she knows the country’s immigration system is broken, but that strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship were the solutions. Trump didn’t support an immigration reform bill introduced in the Senate earlier this year, and the bill failed with little Republican support.
Harris promised to sign a reform bill, if elected. The vice president placed the blame for the fall of Roe v. Wade , and with it the loss of a constitutional right to abortion access, at the feet of her opponent, who appointed three U.
S. Supreme Court Justices who ruled to strip a right away from Americans. “Now, in over 20 states in our nation, there is a Trump abortion ban — many like Arizona, with no exceptions even for rape or incest,” Harris said.
Arizona currently has a ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape or incest, that was enacted by Republicans in 2022. Voters will decide in November whether to approve the Arizona Abortion Access Act. If voters favor it, the act would enshrine abortion as a right in the state constitution and ban any laws or policies that restrict or deny that right, both up to fetal viability — considered to be around 24 weeks of gestation — and beyond, if a health care provider deems an abortion is necessary to preserve a woman’s life, physical or mental health.
But a ban at the national level would supersede that, and Harris reminded the crowd that both Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D.
Vance , have favored total bans on the procedure. “When I am president of the United States, and Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom for every woman in America, I will sign it into law,” Harris said to cheers from the crowd. The stakes are particularly high this election, she said, with a Supreme Court ruling last month that Trump is “effectively immune” from prosecution for his actions as president and his promise to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies.
The crowd was overwhelmingly positive, cheering every time anyone mentioned that Walz, who has ramped up enthusiasm among Democrats since he joined the ticket, is a former teacher and football coach. But at one point, protesters advocating for a ceasefire in Palestine interrupted Harris. She responded that she respected their voices, and that now is the time for a ceasefire, promising that she and President Joe Biden are working around the clock to make it happen.
Both Harris and Walz worked to bolster their everyman appeal, a clear attempt to strike a contrast with billionaire Trump, who was a child of wealth and famously owned an apartment that was adorned in gold . Harris spoke of her middle class upbringing, with a working mom and a summer job at McDonald’s and Walz’s childhood on a farm in Nebraska. Walz walked out on stage to raucous applause and cheers from the crowd as “Small Town” by John Mellencamp blasted from the arena’s speakers.
He said that Republicans used to be the party of freedom but that now they want to “invade your exam rooms.” “When we talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make your own health care decisions, and for your children to go to school without worrying they will be shot dead,” Walz said, adding that he believes in the Second Amendment as well as common sense gun reform. He reminded supporters in the crowd that they only had 87 days to persuade voters to support them, saying they could do anything for 87 days.
“We believe in settling our political differences not through violence, but through voting,” he said. As Harris and Walz headed to their campaign stop in the Valley yesterday, Republicans criticized their lack of action to secure the border. “Arizona is already bearing the brunt of failed Border Czar Kamala Harris’ open border policies, but the dangerously liberal Harris-Walz ticket wants to further open the floodgates to migrant criminals and deadly fentanyl,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.
He predicted that Arizonans would reject their “radical open border agenda” and elect Trump in November. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: [email protected] .
Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X . Vice President Kamala Harris told attendees at a rally in Detroit Wednesday where she stands in the upcoming election: with the middle class and on the picket line. Harris was joined at the boisterous rally of about 15,000 at a hanger at Detroit Metropolitan Airport by union leaders, like UAW President Shawn Fain; Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer ; most of the Democratic congressional delegation; and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz . She announced Walz as her partner in the race Tuesday ahead of her tour of battleground states around the country.
Detroit garnered the largest attendance for a rally since Harris began her campaign for president, Walz said. A rally earlier in the day in Eau Claire, Wisc. drew more than 12,000 .
Michigan is a critical state in the presidential election in November, Harris told the crowd. With reproductive rights and the economic future of Americans on the line, she said another Donald Trump presidency would bring ruin. “While fighting for a brighter future may take hard work, we all here know hard work is good work,” Harris said.
“I am clear, the path to the White House runs right through this state and with your help, we will win in November, we will win.” Vice President Kamala Harris addresses a crowd in Detroit at a rally for her campaign for president on Aug. 7, 2024.
| Anna Liz Nichols Last month, the United Auto Workers Union endorsed Harris, citing her decision to walk the picket line with striking UAW workers in 2019 as more than 40,000 workers walked out on the job at dozens of General Motors plants for 40 days. The UAW’s endorsement carries weight in the Midwest where Harris is seeking votes, and there’s been a host of social media posts in support of Walz’s “Midwestern dad” energy . Walz is the type of guy that would tell you to “always keep jumper cables in your car,” Rep.
Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) said at the rally, adding that the Midwest recognizes men like Walz: a veteran, a former high school teacher and football coach, and “the dad making bad jokes.” After walking out to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” Walz began lauding Minnesota culture, mainly the state’s golden rule of, “Mind your own damn business.” “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors’ personal choices.
We may not agree with them or make them for ourselves. ..
. It’s amazing what minding your own damn business does to make things work better. Don’t like a book? Don’t read it,” Walz said slamming Republican efforts to ban books, particularly those on racial and LGBTQ + issues.
Minnesota, like Michigan, is full of individuals who support the Second Amendment, Walz said. But part of being a midwestern state is caring for your neighbors and supporting common-sense gun violence prevention laws. What Harris represents is simple, but so needed, Walz said.
After Republicans have done everything they could to “steal the joy” from the country, Harris emanates joy and hope for the presidency. Walz railed against Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S.
Sen. J.D.
Vance , for deviating from age-old Republican talking points on freedom and instead being solely interested in taking rights away from people. He referenced Project 2025 , which aims to ban same-sex marriages and outlaw abortion , among other measures. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to a crowd in Detroit at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president on Aug.
7, 2024. Walz was announced as Harris’ running mate one day prior. | Anna Liz Nichols “These ideas that they’re putting out there, they are weird as hell.
No one’s asking for it. ..
. We’re asking for health care and childcare. We’re asking for an education.
We’re asking for safety in our streets. That’s what we’re asking for,” Walz said. “We’re gonna get it because that’s what this campaign is about.
It’s about moving forward. ..
.. You know that Kamala Harris believes that you should be making your own choices in your life.
She believes that every person should have an opportunity to enter the middle class. She believes in something so beautiful and simple with joy. She believes in the promise of this great nation.
” Vance held a small event in Macomb County the morning before Harris’ rally, largely blasting Harris’ handling of law enforcement and illegal immigration . “The failure to protect our communities is a law and is a policy choice,” Vance said. “It is a policy choice to defund the police, which is what Kamala Harris wants to do.
It is a policy choice to open up the American Southern border and allow migrant criminals to come into this community and make it less safe. It is a policy choice to not deport people, to suspend deportations, which is what Kamala Harris did.” Setting the tone for her remarks at the airport, Harris walked on stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” cautioning Michiganders that the election is not simply her versus Trump, but a fight to build into a better future and not return the past.
“We fight for the future. We fight for a future where every worker has the freedom to join a union, where every senior can retire with dignity, a future with affordable housing, affordable childcare, affordable health care and paid leave,” Harris said. “Unlike Donald Trump, I will always put the middle class and working families first, because Coach Walz and I know the middle class built this great country of ours, and when the middle class is strong, America is strong.
” Trump is not interested in supporting the middle class and instead would seek to pad the pockets of billionaires like himself, Harris said. She said that as a prosecutor and California attorney general, she dedicated her time to pursuing justice, but Trump is a convicted felon with no regard for the law. “The man has openly vowed, if reelected, that he will be a dictator on day one .
Think about what that means when he said that he will even ‘ terminate the Constitution of the United States ,’” Harris said. “Let us be very clear, someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States. Never again.
" Hoards of members of the UAW and other labor groups were in the crowd and Fain gave remarks leading up to Harris and Walz taking the stage. In October 2023, The UAW took on the “Big Three” Detroit automakers — GM, Ford and Stellantis — by going on strike for 46 days in a successful effort to change the pay scale and increase benefits for workers. Fain said throughout the strike that it wasn’t just for autoworkers, but for every member of the working class to be treated fairly by their employer.
“As president of UAW, I have the honor of fighting for economic and social justice for our members, for the entire working class. From the bargaining table to the ballot box, what we bargained for can be taken away tomorrow in the halls of Congress,” Fain said. “To me, this election is real simple.
It’s about one question. It’s a question we made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?” “Donald Trump’s always going to be a scab,” Fain added, calling for support for Harris. “This is our generation’s defining moment and this election is our opportunity to take our lives back.
So, Michigan, let’s get to work,” Fain said. Harris and Walz were scheduled to head to North Carolina on Thursday, before visiting Georgia, but those stops have been postponed due to a tropical storm. In the coming days the pair will go out West to Arizona and Nevada on their battleground states tour.
Before Harris and Walz took the stage, several elected officials also spoke in support of the campaign, including U.S. Sen.
Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing), U.S. Rep.
Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and Whitmer, who said she woke up Wednesday in “Big Gretch mode.” Michigan can send Trump “packing,” Whitmer said, but people are going to have to engage with new voters and help them to decide a side in the election. “We need you to knock doors, because if you knock doors, we win.
We need you to make calls, because if you make calls, we win. We need you to donate a buck or two. We can win.
In fact, do everything short of biting the kneecaps,” Whitmer said, a reference to the Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell’s team philosophy when he took the position three years ago. Despite the hot weather, where staff at the rally handed out water bottles and several individuals required medical attention, energy levels were high and the crowd was vocal. During Harris’ speech, a small group of individuals began chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide! We won’t vote for genocide,” referring to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Harris initially said, “It’s all good. I’m here because we believe in democracy. Everyone’s voice matters, but I’m speaking now.
” And as the protest went on, Harris addressed the group saying, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise, I’m speaking.” Michigan had more than 100,000 “uncommitted” voters during the February primary, with many protesting President Joe Biden’s pro-Israel policy. Many uncommitted delegates want to see Harris adopt a more pro-Palestinian agenda.
Harris has called for a ceasefire. The protest went on for several minutes before the group was escorted out by police. Prior to the rally, Harris met with several Michigan leaders in the “uncommitted” movement about their concerns, the New York Times reported .
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J.
Demas for questions: [email protected] . Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X .
Project 2025 , a contentious policy blueprint for the next Republican presidency, seeks to dramatically concentrate power in the White House while fundamentally changing how the federal government operates on nearly every front. And when it comes to overhauling public education, the sweeping right-wing manifesto borrows heavily from Arizona’s playbook. The roughly 900-page “Mandate for Leadership”—crafted by think tank the Heritage Foundation and other conservative heavyweights—lays out an aggressive roadmap for dismantling the federal Department of Education, rethinking funding for low-income students and those with disabilities, and broadly diverting public school dollars to less-regulated alternatives like private schools and homeschooling.
Promoting universal school choice as “a goal all conservatives and conservative Presidents must pursue,” it argues that “every parent should have the option to direct his or her child’s share of education funding through an education savings account (ESA), funded overwhelmingly by state and local taxpayers.” That’s precisely how school vouchers work in Arizona, a longtime darling of the school choice movement and the first in the nation to offer universal voucher eligibility. Heritage education policy expert Lindsey Burke, who authored Project 2025’s education section, references Arizona as a school choice pioneer almost immediately.
Burke also advocates a change to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that would partially redirect IDEA funding to families instead of schools, citing “the way in which parents use education savings accounts in states such as Arizona and Florida.” And she promotes a funding model in which donors receive tax credits in exchange for contributions to nonprofits that provide private school scholarships, much like Arizona’s school tuition organizations , or STOs. Burke and others from the Heritage Foundation, which declined an interview with AZCIR , use conservative buzzwords like “freedom” and “choice” to sell their vision of a new educational landscape that empowers parents to select a “set of education options that meet their child’s unique needs.
” But experts in education policy and constitutional law suspect a much different endgame: setting public schools up to fail by stripping their funding while concentrating higher-need, harder-to-educate kids there. “The implications for students and public schools and the communities that rely on them are disastrous,” said Jessica Levin, litigation director at the Education Law Center, a nonprofit that advocates for public education. “And Arizona, unfortunately, is Exhibit A.
” Arizona’s initial foray into school choice came in 1994, when the state passed a far-reaching education-reform package that authorized charter schools to operate here. Three years later, the state became the first in the U.S.
to establish nonprofit school tuition organizations to fund private school scholarships, offering dollar-for-dollar tax credits to donors. By 2006, the Legislature had created an explicit school voucher option limited to students with disabilities and those in foster care. The Arizona Supreme Court later deemed that program unconstitutional, because it directly funded private, often religious schools.
Policymakers soon changed course, launching the nation’s first “ Empowerment Scholarship Account ” program in 2011. ESAs, initially available to students with disabilities, similarly diverted state money to public school alternatives, but they circumvented the court’s decision by giving the cash to parents to spend. Republican leaders first expanded program eligibility incrementally, then dramatically.
Today, Arizona has the largest share of charter school students in the country. Its STOs rake in hundreds of millions annually, funneling would-be tax revenue to private schools. And its now-universal voucher program enrolls nearly 75,000 students , to the tune of more than $700 million.
The state also has some of the worst-funded public schools in the U.S., ranking 49th on the U.
S. Census Bureau’s most recent Annual Survey of School System Finances. Even before the state universalized voucher eligibility, Columbia University researchers who analyzed education budgets from 2008 to 2019 found Arizona was one of the few states where public school spending declined even as enrollment increased.
Per-pupil public school spending dropped by 5.7% during that period, according to the analysis, while spending on voucher and tax-credit programs climbed by 270%. “(Arizona) has consistently refused to create quality public schools, and therefore forced people—and I think that’s the key, forced people—to make other choices,” said University of South Carolina Professor Derek Black, who specializes in the intersection of constitutional law and public education.
In other words, the harder you make it for public schools to succeed, the easier it is to sell the alternatives. And there are plenty of well-financed conservative groups working to do just that. Former U.
S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ American Federation for Children, the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council have all doggedly pushed for expansions in vouchers and other school choice programs throughout the country in recent years, using Arizona as a proving ground. Libertarian think tank the Goldwater Institute, the primary architect of Arizona’s ESA program, has repeatedly said it “won’t stop until parents in every state in the nation are empowered to decide what educational path truly meets their children’s needs,” though it declined to discuss the implications of Project 2025’s voucher proposal with AZCIR.
Framing education as a consumer product rather than a public good, these groups argue families should have the ability to escape subpar, out-of-touch public schools in favor of private or self-directed options that better serve their kids and more closely reflect their values—all on the taxpayer’s dime. That argument has gained traction amid some families’ frustrations over how public schools navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as ongoing culture wars over issues of race, gender and sexuality. (Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts writes in Project 2025’s forward that the “noxious tenets of ‘critical race theory’ and ‘gender ideology’ .
.. poison our children.
”) But in most cases, it’s Republican lawmakers , not families, who have pushed hardest to make it easier for public dollars to go toward private alternatives. Every time major voucher expansions have been put to the public, including in Arizona, voters have rejected them. Project 2025 paints a rosy picture of an educational marketplace where parents hold the ultimate power to customize their child’s learning experience.
As Roberts puts it in his introduction, “Schools serve parents, not the other way around.” Indeed, parents of some public school students—from those with disabilities who needed special instruction, to those from lower-income families who felt trapped at failing or unsafe schools—have successfully used vouchers to find and afford placements better tailored to their children’s learning styles. “A family may have three children, two of whom thrive at their neighborhood public school, but one struggles, and the parents choose to get ESA funds to send that child to a school that meets his needs,” Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said.
“I believe school choice options should be available to parents throughout the country as decided on a state-by-state basis.” At the end of the day, though, only public schools must be open to all. Private schools can generally pick which students to accept or reject, meaning they ultimately do the choosing, not families.
In Arizona, that has left some parents who’ve pursued vouchers for children with disabilities unable to find spots for them. Those who do secure private school placements give up certain anti-discrimination and disability protections present at public schools. These considerations apply to the minority of Arizona ESA recipients who’ve left district or charter schools in favor of private schools since the state universalized eligibility.
Over the past two school years, more than 60% of ESAs went to students who weren’t previously enrolled in public school, state data shows, indicating families are likely using vouchers to subsidize expenses they had formerly covered. Rather than saving the state money, as school choice advocates claimed ESAs would, both of these shifts have created budgetary strain. School districts, which rely on consistent enrollment for state funding, have seen cash disappear alongside students, even as fixed costs have remained steady.
The state, meanwhile, has taken on hundreds of millions in new spending for kids who were already attending private school, a trend that contributed to a $1 billion-plus budget deficit this year. Under Arizona’s existing laws, it’s almost impossible to see how students who use vouchers for private schools or homeschooling are performing, since they generate very little data . They don’t have to participate in state or national assessments, for instance, and their grades, graduation rates and postsecondary attainment go unreported.
Levin cited a lack of accountability metrics as a key concern if vouchers go national, particularly given the associated price tag. In 2021, National Education Policy Center researchers estimated U.S.
education spending would increase by anywhere from $67 billion to $203 billion a year to accommodate universal vouchers, depending on program parameters and enrollment. Most troubling to experts interviewed by AZCIR, though, were the possible impacts of Project 2025’s school choice proposals on student equity. When the quality and safety of public schools decline, families with the money and resources to leave will often do so.
Even with vouchers in play, lower-income families may not be able to fully afford private school tuition, not to mention related costs like transportation and technology. Further concentrating high-performing, well-resourced students at some schools and lower-performing, lower-income students at others would exacerbate segregation and create a fragmented educational landscape, according to Black, the constitutional law expert. Project 2025’s recommendation to phase out Title I funding , designed to close achievement gaps at poorer schools, would only add to the divide.
Such a fractured system would be at odds with the American tradition of using public schools to bring together children of all backgrounds and produce an informed citizenry, Black said. “The people who propose these types of things, in my mind, are either highly ignorant of or highly dismissive of a 200-year commitment to public education with the understanding that democracy itself rests upon it,” he said. If Project 2025’s vision is brought to life, “you’ve really got to worry about how America moves forward.
” This article first appeared on Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence.
Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: [email protected] . Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X .
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