Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

Livingston County area resident Mike Rogers has one less primary competitor for the US Senate seat he is seeking this fall. Over the weekend, multi-millionaire businessman Sandy Pensler formally dropped out of the GOP primary race against Rogers, a former congressman from the Brighton-Howell area.

Pensler had been urged to withdraw from the race on behalf of Rogers, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed. At a Trump rally Saturday in Grand Rapids, Pensler said, in his words, “President Trump endorsed Mike Rogers….Tonight, so am I.”

When US Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, announced last year she would be retiring after her current term expires, it opened the door for Republicans seeking the key senate seat to throw their collective hats into the ring.

Among Democrat candidates, the frontrunner is 7th District Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Holly. Her only primary opponent is actor and lawyer Hill Harper.

With the exodus of Pensler, the only noteworthy primary opponent of Rogers is former Congressman Justin Amash of Grand Rapids, who left the Republican Party in 2019 and announced he was a Libertarian. However, he is back now as a Republican on the August 6 primary ballot along with little-known conservative Dr. Sherry O’Donnell, an osteopath in the Niles area of West Michigan.

Rogers, who was raised in Brighton Township, now lives in Oakland County’s White Lake Township. Grosse Pte. Park resident Pensler, who has been running far behind Rogers in the polls, publicly endorsed Rogers, with Trump standing in the background. Rogers, who was at the rally, thanked Pensler for his support.

Pensler said, in his words, “A divisive continued primary hurts the chances (of Republicans gaining control of the Senate).” Currently, Democrats have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, not counting Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

Rogers, who graduated from Adrian College, is US Army veteran and was an FBI special agent for five years, specializing in organized crime and public corruption. After being elected to Congress in 2001, Rogers served as chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

He served in Congress until 2015, when he opted not to run for an eighth term. Since then, he has served as a consultant for CNN and was a producer for CNN’s “Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies”. His older brother, Bill Rogers, is supervisor in Livingston County’s Genoa Township.