LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is launching another Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, following a narrow loss to Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin last year in a hotly contested open race.
This time, Rogers is vying for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who announced earlier this year that he will not seek reelection in 2026. Rogers is aiming to become the first Republican to win a Senate seat in Michigan in more than 30 years — falling just 19,000 votes short of doing that in 2024.
In a video announcing his candidacy on Monday, Rogers quickly aligned himself with President Donald Trump, pledging to “stand with” him. Trump endorsed Rogers during the 2024 race and carried the battleground state of Michigan on his path back to the White House.
“Alongside President Trump, I’ll fight to bring good, high-paying manufacturing jobs back to Michigan,” Rogers said in the launch video.
Michigan’s U.S. Senate race is shaping up to be one of the most fiercely contested in the nation, as Democrats fight to hold a seat without the advantage of an incumbent while also seeking to reclaim control of the chamber.
While a number of people have been eyeing a run for the seat, it's been slow to fill up after Peters' surprise announcement in January. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow announced a Democratic bid earlier this month, and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is also weighing a bid.
On the Republican side, Rogers is the first high-profile candidate to announce a bid.
An Army veteran and former FBI agent, Rogers was elected to Congress in 2000 and served seven terms in the House, the last two as chair of the committee that oversees U.S. intelligence agencies. He left office in 2015 and served briefly on Trump’s transition team as a national security advisor.
Rogers enters the race in a stronger position than last cycle, with increased name recognition and several extra months to campaign — unlike the previous cycle when he joined nearly six months after Slotkin.
FILE - Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers R-Brighton, is interviewed in Detroit, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, file)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.
Removed from office last April, Yoon faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.
Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court.
The Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February. Experts say the court likely will sentence him to life in prison. South Korea hasn't executed anyone since 1997.
Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday's hearing. He has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”
Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.
On the night of Yoon's martial law declaration, thousands of people rushed to the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation in dramatic scenes. Enough lawmakers, including even those in Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.
Observers described Yoon’s action as political suicide. Parliament impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.
It was a spectacular downfall for Yoon, a former star prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.
Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon's impeachment bid, became president by winning a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho’s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.
Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.
Yoon’s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country’s political divide. In January last year, he became the country’s first sitting president to be detained.
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside of Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
FILE - Then South Korea's ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool, File)
