For years, the billionaire Moroun family fought to stop the publicly owned Gordie Howe International Bridge from breaking their monopoly at the Detroit-Windsor border.
They poured millions into campaigns, bankrolled a failed ballot measure, and spread donations to friendly politicians, predominantly Republicans.
One of them was Mike Rogers, who is now the leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
Despite what’s at stake for Michigan’s economy and international trade, Rogers is defending President Donald Trump’s threat to block the $4.7 billion bridge from opening, a move that would directly benefit the Morouns, who own the competing Ambassador Bridge. It could also damage Michigan’s economy and disrupt the flow of trade across one of North America’s busiest border crossings, economists and trade experts have warned.
Campaign finance records show that Rogers’s congressional campaigns received 19 donations from the Moroun family for a total of $21,400.
The family’s company, the Detroit International Bridge Company, has spent years trying to derail the publicly financed crossing, which is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan.
One of their reliable allies is Rogers, who said last month in Sterling Heights that he gives Trump “all the leash he needs” on the bridge to get “leverage” in trade negotiations with Canada and China. What he didn’t address were the warnings from trade economists, manufacturers, and business groups about the potential economic consequences of delaying the bridge.
Rogers dismissed fears about an economic fallout, saying the Ambassador Bridge “has been operating for decades” and that supply chains will continue to function.
“Remember, no commerce is lost,” Rogers said during a news conference on Feb. 10. “I saw a lot of people run around with their hair on fire. There’s a bridge, it’s open, it’s been operating for decades, and all of the supply chains that we use for going back and forth for Canada are still going to be existing.”
At the news conference, Rogers blamed Democrats, saying they “have overblown this completely,” even though many Republicans are also opposed to Trump’s threats.
“I’m not even sure why we’re arguing this,” he insisted.
Rogers’s arguments downplay what’s at stake. The Gordie Howe bridge was designed to ease congestion, increase trade capacity, and end the Moroun family’s decades-long chokehold over one of North America’s most important commercial crossings. Blocking it would preserve a lucrative private monopoly by a family that has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to influence politicians.
Rogers’s campaign declined to answer questions about the donations and whether they influence his position on the bridge.
“Mike’s only interests are in supporting Michigan families and workers,” Alyssa Brouillet, spokeswoman for the campaign, said in a written statement. “The bridge will open. It’s just a matter of when it opens, will Chinese cars be pouring over that bridge or not. If Mike’s opponents want to abandon Michigan autoworkers by shipping our jobs and business off to China, he’ll have that fight all day long.”
Yet Rogers has not publicly criticized Trump after the president suggested in January that Detroit automakers should “let China come in” to the U.S. market.
Rogers’s relationship with the Morouns dates back to at least 2000, when he first received a donation from the family. In a February 2012 article in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, a Rogers spokesperson acknowledged the family had been a “long-time supporter,” but Rogers declined to take a position on the bridge.
During the debate over the crossing more than a decade ago, Rogers and other Republicans repeated arguments made by the Ambassador Bridge’s owners. At the time, the Moroun family was pushing its own proposal to build a privately owned second span next to the Ambassador Bridge. Rogers and other Republicans expressed support for the private expansion, arguing it could address congestion without government involvement.
Never mind that a privately owned bridge would have left control of a major international crossing in private hands, allowing one company to set tolls and operate a key trade span with far less public oversight.
By 2014, critics were openly questioning whether political donations were influencing the delay in Washington over funding for a Homeland Security inspection plaza, which would be needed for the bridge to move forward.
In a July 7, 2014, column in the Jackson Citizen Patriot, longtime political reporter Tim Skubick wrote that Detroit Regional Chamber President Sandy Baruah said Rogers was “not exactly gung ho” about the project and criticized him for “not doing more to land federal funds for a Homeland Security plaza.” The column noted that “Ambassador Bridge mogul Matty Moroun is spreading around political contributions to help maintain his monopoly.”
In a separate Jan. 26, 2014, column, Skubick called the plaza funding a “major sticking issue” and wrote that “without the plaza you can’t have a bridge,” raising the question of whether Moroun had persuaded members of Congress to sit on the money.
Rogers retired from Congress later that year and endorsed Mike Bishop, a leading opponent of the bridge in the Michigan Senate, as his successor. As Michigan Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2010, Bishop had been one of the biggest obstacles to the bridge by refusing to allow a vote on legislation that would authorize the publicly owned crossing. After leaving Lansing, he continued opposing it, pledging during his congressional campaign to block federal funding for a customs plaza required for the crossing to operate.
During Bishop’s two terms in Congress, the Morouns donated $36,700 to his campaign.
The Morouns’ political spending has not let up. Matthew Moroun, the son and business heir to the Moroun family’s transportation empire and the primary manager of the Ambassador Bridge company, donated $1 million in January to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super political action committee (PAC), less than a month before meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to lobby against the new bridge, The New York Times first reported. Hours after that meeting, Trump publicly threatened to block the bridge’s opening.
Former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who negotiated the deal with Canada that allowed the bridge to move forward without Michigan taxpayer funding, warned that stopping it would create “one big winner: the Moroun family.”
In a statement after this story was published, the Michigan Democratic Party accused Rogers of prioritizing wealthy donors over residents.
“Mike Rogers’ corrupt pay-to-play relationship with the Morouns is a decades-long betrayal of Michigan,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Joey Hannum. “Rogers has once again chosen his billionaire donors’ interests over Michigan families—and voters will hold him accountable in November.”
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Trump’s threat to block Gordie Howe bridge is pure oligarchy
President Donald Trump’s threat to block the opening of the publicly owned Gordie Howe International Bridge stands to benefit one politically connected billionaire family.
