Republican Senate candidate and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-White Lake, and U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, left, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., right, at a rally in Grand Rapids on Oct. 16. (Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers is urging President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard to Detroit in response to what he calls a surge in violent crime, prompting backlash from Democratic lawmakers who say such action would repeat historical mistakes.

“The numbers don’t lie: Detroit has become a hub for violent crime,” Rogers, a Republican, said in a statement published on his campaign website Thursday. “These aren’t just statistics – they’re people and families, whose lives have been flipped upside down because they aren’t even safe in their own community anymore. We have got to make our cities safe again.”

Despite that assertion, Detroit saw a 19% drop in homicides in 2024, from 252 in 2023 to 203 last year, the lowest rate in more than 50 years. Nonfatal shootings, meanwhile, were down 25% year-over-year, from 804 in 2023 to 606 last year.

Regardless, Rogers, a former Michigan congressman, called on Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to reach out to Trump to request federal intervention.

“The Mayor of Detroit should be on the phone with the President now calling for backup,” Rogers said.

Duggan is a lifelong Democrat who is running an independent campaign for governor. When asked to comment, the city’s director of media relations, John Roach, emailed the Advance the following statement;

“Rogers is proving himself just another uninformed, grandstanding politician. In 2013, the City of Detroit had more than 750 carjackings. In 2025, we had 57 as of yesterday, a 90% reduction. Our strong partnership with US Attorney Jerome Gorgon has just added several more federal prosecutors to drive the violence down even further. The historic drop in Detroit crime in recent years has come from the efforts of serious law enforcement professionals, not from non-serious politicians like Rogers,” Roach said.

The proposal drew immediate condemnation from U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, who likened the call to the 1967 deployment of the National Guard during the Detroit uprising — a move that resulted in over 40 deaths and widespread destruction.

“Mike Rogers just called to deploy the National Guard to Detroit,” Stevens said in a statement. “Was wrong in ’67 and it’s wrong now. This is exactly why I introduced a bill to stop Trump’s abuse of power, because this chaos won’t stop in someone else’s community. It’ll come to ours unless we do something.”

Stevens referenced her “Stop Trump’s Abuse of Power Act,” a bill she introduced earlier this year to limit presidential authority in deploying federal forces domestically without congressional approval. It was referred to the House Armed Services Committee, where it is unlikely to advance in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, also condemned Rogers, referring to her statement last year when Trump, on the campaign trail, denigrated Detroit.

“As a proud elected representative of tens of thousands of Detroiters: F*** this guy. Don’t come back,” McMorrow posted.

Former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed also issued a statement:

“Serving the City of Detroit as its health director even decades afterward, I saw the painful echoes of the summer of 1967. So no, Mike: Detroit doesn’t need masked agents cosplaying cops. Michiganders in Detroit and beyond need the Medicaid Trump just cut, the paychecks he’s making smaller, and the food he’s making less affordable. Stop being a Karen, and go back to Florida. Nobody wants you here.”

Stevens, McMorrow and El Sayed are all seeking the Democratic nomination in the August 2026 primary, along with research health specialist Rachel Howard.

Rogers, who has been endorsed by Trump, is the lone GOP candidate seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills, who is retiring at the end of his term next year.

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