Michigan will choose between Democrat Elissa Slotkin and Republican Mike Rogers for US Senate

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers has secured the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan and will face Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the November election.

Slotkin and Rogers, long considered the front-runners for their respective party nominations, will now shift focus to the general election. Slotkin enters with a massive fundraising advantage and emerges nearly unscathed from a sparse primary, while Rogers has the backing of national Republican groups and former President Donald Trump.

Slotkin defeated actor Hill Harper in the Democratic primary, while Republicans chose Rogers over former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell. Both candidates will now compete for a seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement.

The retiring incumbent joined Slotkin onstage at an event in Detroit shortly after the race was called to endorse her. Slotkin praised Stabenow for her years of service before delivering a speech positioning herself as the “normal” and “rational” candidate.

North of Detroit, in Oakland County, Rogers thanked supporters at a watch party for “not giving up on politics.” Like Slotkin, Rogers represented a mid-Michigan swing district in Congress, and he similarly positioned himself as the common sense candidate in his speech. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Michigan since 1994.

With Democrats holding a razor-thin majority in the Senate and Republicans in the House, competitive races like those in Michigan have drawn lots of attention. The state's status as a key presidential swing state raises the stakes for those seats even higher, with party control on the line from the top of the ballot all the way down to the state Legislature.

Michigan’s open Senate seat is one of a handful of races nationwide that will determine control of the upper chamber in November. With a later congressional primary, Slotkin and Rogers will have a short period to transition from competing against their own party members to appealing to a broader base of voters for the Nov. 5 general election, which may explain why they have campaigned with their eyes on the general election.

National groups on both sides have already reserved millions of dollars worth of advertisements after the primary. Both Slotkin and Rogers, viewed for months as the overwhelming favorites in their primaries, have skipped debates and refrained from holding large campaign events.

Several U.S. House seats with primaries on Tuesday could influence the balance of power in the lower chamber, but there, too, the biggest battles will be fought in the fall campaign.

Slotkin’s entry into the Senate race left her mid-Michigan 7th Congressional District seat open, historically one of the nation’s top battleground districts. Both party candidates ran unopposed in their primaries there, setting the table for a November matchup between Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. and Republican Tom Barrett.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee’s retirement will leave an open seat in the 8th Congressional District, which extends northward from the outskirts of Detroit and covers areas such as Flint, Saginaw and Midland. First-term state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, who had been endorsed by Kildee, defeated state Board of Education President Pamela Pugh and Matt Collier, the former mayor of Flint, to secure the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, former TV anchor Paul Junge defeated Mary Draves, a former chemical manufacturing executive at Dow Inc., and Anthony Hudson to win the GOP nomination. Junge lost to Kildee by over 10 percentage points in 2022.

Meanwhile, several incumbents in battleground districts now have their November matchups set following Tuesday’s primaries.

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who in 2022 became the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in decades, will face Paul Hudson, an attorney who defeated Michael Markey Jr. in the western Michigan district's GOP primary.

A district just north of Detroit will see a rematch between freshman GOP Rep. John James and Carl Marlinga, a longtime Macomb County prosecutor who defeated three other Democrats in the primary. Marlinga lost to James by 1,600 votes, and national Democrats have made the seat a top target this cycle.

In a heavily Democratic district encompassing downtown Detroit, U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar defeated Detroit City Council member Mary Waters, who had been endorsed by Mayor Mike Duggan. Thanedar significantly outraised her, and his win likely leaves Detroit — a city that is nearly 80% Black — without Black representation in Congress for a second consecutive term.

Down-ballot races held primaries across the state on Tuesday. Control of the state House of Representatives will be at stake in November, with all 110 seats up for election. Democrats took control of both chambers and the governor's office for the first time in four decades in 2022 and will be trying to defend those majorities.

Associated Press writer Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.

Former U.S. Rep. and Republican candidate for Michigan Senate Mike Rogers waits to address supporters at a post election gathering, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Lake Orion, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., left, holds hands with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., at a primary election night event in Detroit, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Former U.S. Rep. and Republican candidate for Michigan Senate Mike Rogers talks to supporters at a post election gathering, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Lake Orion, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks at a primary election night event in Detroit, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., left, speaks in North Charleston, S.C., March 18, 2023, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks in Rochester, Mich., Dec. 16, 2019. (AP Photo)

BALTIMORE (AP) — So far, it's the opposition taking advantage of the latest change in dimensions at Camden Yards.

The Boston Red Sox hit three two-run home runs Thursday in an 8-4 win over Baltimore, and all of them went to left field, where the Orioles moved the wall in a bit during the offseason. Alex Bregman's drive in the first reached the seats, meaning it would have been gone in 2024 as well, but the other two homers didn't.

Baltimore moved the wall back and made it significantly taller before the 2022 season, then decided that was excessive and moved it in before this season. The Orioles moved the wall in approximately 13 feet in the left field corner and about 26 feet near the bullpens in left-center. The team also lowered the previous 13-foot wall near the left field foul pole to 8 feet, and the wall height was lowered to just below 7 feet near the bullpens.

“Very nice, very nice,” Bregman said, laughing. “It was very far away before.”

In the first home series of the season, the Orioles dropped two of three to the Red Sox. The home run tally was Boston 4, Baltimore 1 — with all four of the homers by the Red Sox going to left.

The only home run by the Orioles was by Cedric Mullins on Thursday, and it went over the unchanged wall in right.

Bregman said he did not use a new torpedo bat Thursday after trying it out Wednesday. His homer in the first made it 2-0, and then Kristian Campbell's an inning later gave Boston a 4-1 advantage. Triston Casas added a homer in the seventh to put the Red Sox up 7-3.

Casas bats left-handed but was able to hit the ball out to the opposite field. That was a tough task with the previous dimensions in Baltimore.

“I try to not focus too much on the dimensions of the field,” Casas said. “I did hint at wanting to hit the ball to the opposite field at Fenway, but it's just obvious — it's just all in your face right there. I know the ball flies to right here. That's typically the jet stream out there to right-center.”

On Thursday, the Red Sox made the ball fly to left as well.

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Boston Red Sox's Kristian Campbell hits a home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Thursday, April 3 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)

Boston Red Sox's Alex Bregman celebrates after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Thursday, April 3 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)

Boston Red Sox's Triston Casas hits a home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Thursday, April 3 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)