GOP Senate Hopeful Backing Iran War Took $420K From Pentagon-Linked Firm

Republican Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers received more than $420,000 from a defense consulting firm now helping the Pentagon shape the future of warfare amid the unpopular Iran war.

Rogers, a former House Intelligence Committee chairman and until recently, a vocal supporter of the Trump administration’s war in the Middle East, garnered a payout while serving on MITRE Corporation’s board of trustees, according to tax filings cited by Drop Site News on Monday. The nonprofit is now leading Project Meridian, a Pentagon initiative announced by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to examine future military capabilities, raising questions about the relationship between Washington’s defense establishment and the politicians supporting American military operations abroad.

The sum of $420,000 is more than double the annual salary of a rank-and-file U.S. Senator, which is $174,000.

The news comes one day before Rogers faces Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, a staunch opponent of the Iran war, in Michigan’s hotly contested Senate race. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as “Leans D.”

Rogers’ office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

After leaving Congress in 2015, Rogers served on MITRE’s board from 2016 to 2023, including about two years as its chair at the end of his tenure.

He was brought onto the board for his “vast national security experience”, having previously served on the House Intelligence Committee, per Drop Site.

“Project Meridian will leverage critical perspectives from outside the Pentagon, drawing upon a group of top technologists, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and national security experts,” Hegseth said in a Sept. 30 memo.

The project’s “primary function will be to map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy,” the secretary added, citing both campaigns against Iran, Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury.

Trillionaire Elon Musk, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, were all named in the memo as the top officials heading Project Meridian. Musk financially backs Rogers’s campaign via America PAC, according to Drop Site.

This news comes after the outlet first reported Sunday that two staffers on Rogers’ campaign, Abigail Ronson and Jesse Stokes, are both registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as foreign agents for Israel.

Throughout his campaign, Rogers was a stalwart supporter of the Iran War.

“People say, well, ‘What date is it going to end?’ It shouldn’t be a date. It should be conditional,” Rogers argued on the Joe Pags show in March, “This is why Americans need to stop for a minute, come together and say, “let’s get this done, get it done right.’”

As the Iran war grew in unpopularity among voters, Rogers eventually changed his tune.

“We need to start wrapping it up,” he said on an Oct. 6 Fox News segment.

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