Michigan Democrats are reportedly demanding an investigation be launched into three Republican U.S. Senate candidates, as well as another who is out of the race, regarding alleged forgery.
The Detroit Free Press reported on Friday that members of the Michigan Democrat Party and Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee are pushing state election officials to look into the issue:
The Free Press obtained a copy of the letter submitted by lawyers for the groups and a Michigan voter, Emily Judd, to the Board of State Canvassers. It said an “initial review” into petitions submitted by former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, former U.S. Reps. Justin Amash and businessman Sandy Pensler, as well as those submitted by former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, who has since left the race, showed “patterns that indicate the presence of potential forgery and other fraudulent signature gathering tactics.”
If an investigation is conducted and any of the candidates were found to have less than 15,000 valid signatures, they could be taken off the Aug. 6 primary ballot for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan.
Michigan’s U.S. Senate race has become one of the most “hotly contested” since Stabenow revealed she would be retiring, the Associated Press (AP) reported Saturday.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
It is interesting to note that an Emerson College/Hill poll found that Republican U.S. Senate candidates were in competitive positions in hypothetical races in states early in the general election season, those states being Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Breitbart News reported April 30.
During an interview on Breitbart News Daily in March, Rogers said the huge shift from Democrat to Republican in Michigan could be attributed to President Joe Biden’s policies.
“How often do you get an opportunity to say, ‘Okay, under President Trump, my 401k was bigger, my gas prices were lower, I had more income to spend on other things other than food, my neighborhood was safe?’” he posed.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) (Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Rogers added, “And then, you go to the Biden years and see all of that change. And now, you get to say, ‘Okay, now you get to choose between two of these’…I think that’s what you see changing across the landscape.”
According to the Press report about the Democrats’ letter, Pensler advisor Stu Sandler said, “Democrats can’t beat Republicans at the ballot box, so it looks like they’re trying to eliminate Republicans from the ballot.”
