EXCLUSIVE – Former Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan wants to take the GOP back to the future.
The former FBI agent, who later served in Congress for 14 years and drew a lot of attention in the nation’s capital as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says his latest mission is to come up with “real solutions” to get the country back on track. getting on the rails could lead to a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
If Rogers does eventually run for office, he will be considered a long shot against former President Donald Trump and a large roster of current and potential candidates who enjoy much stronger name identification and better financial backing than Rogers, who is not well known outside of Michigan or the United States. States. ring road.
But Rogers emphasized in an exclusive interview Monday with Fox News Digital that “sometimes ideas and these solutions are bigger than superficial name identifiers.
WHAT ROGERS TOLD FOX NEWS ABOUT THE CHINESE SPY BALLOON INCIDENT
Rogers and his wife formed a group called “Lead America” to try to remedy the growing discouragement related to politics and find solutions to national problems.
He urges more opportunities for innovation to increase economic prosperity and support families “by acknowledging their needs and lowering the barrier to meeting those needs.”
Rogers wants to put more emphasis on civic education to “encourage Americans of all ages to take an active interest in the success of their own communities and of our nation as a whole,” and also formulates ideas to strengthen America’s position in the global marketplace . phase.
He has been road testing his message and his proposed solutions in recent months in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the first four states to vote on the Republican Party’s presidential nomination calendar.
“If you want to change the narrative, which is what Lead America plans to do, you have to go to the early primary states. And what we found is that people are very encouraging,” Rogers said. He said people said to him, “Hey, love this. Would you consider taking this into 2024?”
WHO’S IN IT AND WHO’S ON THE SIDELINES – YOUR GUIDE TO THE 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE
Rogers said, “What we need to do is decide if people are ready for a hopeful, optimistic, solution-oriented candidate.”
“Late spring, early summer, you should really be zooming in on firing the torch if you were going to do it,” Rogers said when asked about his timeline for 2024.
Former Republican Representative Mike Rogers speaks at the Lansing, Michigan Chamber of Commerce on March 2, 2023. (Lead America/Mike Rogers)
If Rogers is a candidate, he will run against big names like Trump, who launched his third White House campaign in November, and most likely Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who will be sidelined in 2024, but probably later this year will make its own offer. Other well-known current or potential candidates include former Vice President Mike Pence, former Ambassador and former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
But Rogers says a strong showing in the early nominees could make a difference.
“I think if you win, place or show early, you don’t have to worry about name ID. It goes without saying,” he argued.
“This is not a vanity project for me,” he said. “If enough people believe that too, then I think there could be something going on here.”
When asked if he could compete against candidates with much larger war chests, Rogers argued, “You don’t have to have $100 million in the bank to win. But you do have to have enough to get over that first bump, to be known, and then go from there.”
POLL PROPOSES TRUMP TO INCREASE LEADING ON DESANSTIS IN 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE
“I talk to a lot of donors and all I can tell you is I’m not discouraged,” he shared. “I certainly wouldn’t get in if I didn’t believe we could handle that financial challenge.”
Rogers, who emphasizes free-market conservatism and national security, retired from politics in 2016, the same year Trump won the White House. And he has been clear in rejecting Trump’s repeated unsubstantiated claims that his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to a “rigged” election that was “stolen.”
Referring to the emerging GOP field of 2024, Rogers said, “I think the Trump, Trump-lite job is pretty busy. The job that doesn’t talk about Trump, that talks about solutions and the way forward and what the real challenges are are we’re facing – I just don’t find many people in that job”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on Monday, March 13, 2023 in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ron Johnson)
Asked about the looming indictment of the former president over alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, Rogers said “as a former FBI man, I find the timing of this indictment distasteful at best.”
But he criticized Trump’s call this week for his supporters to protest any charges, citing the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as the reason.
“I don’t believe he should be calling for protests of any kind at this point given the sensibilities of what happened last time. And protesting is one thing, but violence is definitely another. And I don’t think anyone has something to do with it.” Rogers told Fox News Digital.
Rogers suggested Trump should drop out of the 2024 race if indicted.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
He said the former president “has a lot of issues to worry about and this could be a really good time for him to stop and focus on those issues and take care of all that. We need to think about a country as of ’24 that desperately needs a new direction, and I just think that doubling down on chaos and confusion and sharp conversations isn’t going to be the kind of America that Americans are willing to move forward.
“For his own good I think he should stop and focus on this process. Being sued – I don’t care what you say – won’t help,” he argued. “It may incentivize a small percentage of Trump supporters, but that’s going to make the party so fractional going forward. I think it’s best for the country to get away from this.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter from New Hampshire.
