Mike Rogers launches statewide bus tour ahead of midterm election

With less than two weeks before the midterm election, Republican Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers launched a statewide bus tour. 

"This is the race of our lifetime. This is no longer left versus right," Rogers said at the launch.

The Rogers campaign team said he will start the bus tour in the Upper Peninsula after debating his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, on Wednesday night in Detroit. The first day of the tour includes stops in Marquette and Cheboygan counties. 

"We're going to get our kids reading again; we're going to bring jobs back here; we are absolutely going to make sure that kids or young adults have the ability to get into a home before the age of 30. We have plans for all of these things, but we can't get to any of it if we don't get people to turn up and vote," he said. 

The campaign team said that through Nov. 2, they're planning get-out-the-vote-style stops, as well as opportunities to talk with voters at places like distilleries.

Rogers encouraged attendees at the tour bus launch to inspire others to vote, too, with a story about a Detroit resident. 

"Will you vote for us? She said, ' No, I'm going to do something even better,' and I said, 'Oh, really. What's that?' 'I'm going to tell everyone in my neighborhood that you're 100% gangsta," Rogers said. 

Rogers didn't take any questions at the launch. His team said he wasn't made available because of Wednesday night's final debate with El-Sayed.