Fact check: ‘Florida man’ tag follows Mike Rogers in new US Senate bid

Claims about Mike Rogers’ residency and his connections to Michigan have come back as he runs for US Senate
Opponents have claimed that Rogers is more “Florida man” than Michigander, pointing to a home in Coral Gables, Florida.
Rogers is a Livingston County native who represented the region in Congress from 2001 through 2014. He lives in White Lake.

Republican US Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ ties to Florida are once again being used to cast him as out of touch with the needs of Michiganders.

Rogers, a Livingston County native who formerly served in the US House, is running against former Detroit Health Director Abdul El-Sayed to succeed retiring US Sen. Gary Peters, a long-serving Democrat.

The day after his primary election win, El-Sayed portrayed Rogers as a “Florida man” who turned his back on Michigan after he retired from Congress.

“As soon as he left Congress, after having taken corporate check after corporate check after corporate check to empower the corporations to pick your pockets, he went and he cashed out,” El-Sayed told a crowd on Aug. 5. “Not in Michigan. No, winters are too cold for him. He’s got thin skin after all. He went to Florida.”

While Rogers lives in Michigan, claims about his residency aren’t new. They came up during his 2024 race against Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who narrowly won that election to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

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Rogers’ residency is among the claims Bridge Michigan is reviewing in the state’s fiercely competitive US Senate race between El-Sayed, who won a heated primary race, and Rogers.

So what’s true about Rogers’ residencies in Florida and Michigan?

The claims

Democrats have criticized Rogers for moving to Florida after he retired from Congress and suggested he only returned to Michigan to run for US Senate.

“He left Congress, became a millionaire off of his connections that he made while he was in Congress, and then now that he wants to serve, he decides to move back to Michigan,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel Jr. said this week in an interview with Bridge Michigan. “He left us, and he left the people that he served.”

In a speech the day after his primary win, El-Sayed addressed Rogers: “So, Mike, if you want to be a Florida man, go be a Florida man. If you want to golf in Florida, go golf in Florida. But I promise you, in November, we are going to send you back to Florida.”

And in a social media post on Aug. 19, El-Sayed used the fact that Rogers still owns a home in Cape Coral, Florida, to criticize him for not quickly accepting an invite to a televised debate, saying he checked for flights that would get Rogers from Florida to Detroit on time for the Sept. 5 event.

Rogers responded to El-Sayed on social media, and while he didn’t directly address the Florida connection, he wrote that “my calendar has been a little jammed up, I’ve been traveling the state meeting with the majority Democrats who didn’t vote for you.”

Alyssa Brouillet, a spokesperson for the Rogers campaign, did not answer specific questions from Bridge about Rogers’ time in Florida.

But in a statement, she said El-Sayed should explain his “luxury residence in the Middle East,” an apparent reference to a rental property in Dubai the Democrat reported owning with his wife on a recent financial disclosure. “…It appears he’s running to be a senator for Palestine. Meanwhile, Mike Rogers will be a senator for Michigan,” Brouillet said.

The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to a message seeking comment on his Florida comments about Rogers.

The facts

Rogers, a Livingston County native, represented the region in Congress from 2001 through 2014. He sold his home in Howell in 2014, according to reporting by Business Insider. Property records show he bought a condo in Maryland that year and already owned a property in Virginia.

In 2022, Rogers and his wife, Kristi, bought a home in Cape Coral, Florida, for about $1.6 million, Florida records show. The following year, the couple indicated that it was their permanent residence to receive a property tax exemption. It was the only year that they received an exemption for that property.

Rogers has been trying to sell the two-story, five-bedroom home for more than a year. Located near Fort Myers in Lee County, it’s currently listed on the real estate website Zillow for $2.4 million. The listing says it was put back on the market at least 170 days ago “with significant enhancements.”

Online property records indicate that a pier and boat lift were added in 2025.

Rogers’ campaign has said he currently lives in White Lake Township in Oakland County. Property records show he and his wife received a principal residence exemption for the four-bedroom home, which under Michigan law can only be applied if the homeowner files a signed affidavit with the local assessor saying the property is their primary residence.

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, some had questioned whether Rogers actually lived in Michigan. He called those insinuations “absolutely nuts” and said the only people asking where he lived were members of the media.

In 2024, he and his wife had not yet moved into the White Lake Township home, but his campaign attributed that to ongoing construction on the property. Rogers was living in Genoa Township, near Brighton, at a home reportedly owned by his sister-in-law, where he was also registered to vote.

As of April 2024, Rogers reportedly was still registered to vote in Florida, but his campaign said at the time he was in the process of canceling the registration.

As of Aug. 24, Rogers was no longer registered to vote in Florida and his Michigan voter registration was active for his White Lake Township home.

The bottom line

The record is clear. Rogers left Michigan after serving in the US House and later bought a house in Florida in 2022. He and his wife listed the home as their primary residence as recently as 2023.

But Rogers currently lives in Michigan, and no one is questioning his qualifications to be on the ballot or his current residency. It’s up to voters to determine whether living a few years in Florida is an issue.