Detroit-area businessman Sandy Pensler has withdrawn from the Republican Senate race in Michigan just ahead of the state’s primary, throwing his support behind former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., for the party’s nomination.

Pensler made the announcement at Donald Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids on Saturday after being called onto to stage by the former president. Trump endorsed Rogers earlier this year and many in the party have begun to coalesce around Rogers, who served in the House for 14 years and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

“We need control of the Senate,” Pensler said onstage. “A divisive continued primary effort hurts the chances of that.”

“President Trump endorsed Mike Rogers,” he added. “Tonight, so am I.”

With Pensler dropping his bid, Rogers’ only remaining high-profile opponent is Justin Amash, a former U.S. representative who left the GOP in 2019 after calling for the impeachment of Trump, who was president at the time. Amash represented Grand Rapids from 2011 to 2021.

“We are unifying the Republican Party, and it’s a beautiful thing,” Trump said, before taking back the microphone after Pensler’s announcement.

Rogers, taking to the stage, told rallygoers he has never seen a more unsafe America than under “the Democrats over the last four years.”

“As a former law enforcement guy,” Rogers praised Trump for the way he handled last week’s assassination attempt on his life in Bulter, Pennsylvania.

“It wasn’t that the bullet took you to the ground. It was the fact that you got back up for America,” Rogers said to an eruption of applause.

Pensler hailed his major announcement of backing Trump and Rogers as the way forward for a unified Republican Party,

“My campaign was always about making America better, the best way to do that is to enact president Trump’s politics,” Pensler said. “Let’s go, Trump. To do that, we need control of the Senate. A divisive continued primary effort hurts the chances of that. And that’s not OK.”

“I want you guys to look around the room tonight, because everything goes through Michigan: the presidency, the Senate, the House, and the state House. Look around; make a pledge to each other. We’re going to fight, fight, fight, like hell to save America and elect Donald Trump,” he said.

Trump endorsed Rogers in the race, saying he is just as adamant as he and will “stop the invasion and inflation, halt the outsourcing of Michigan jobs, and bring back the auto industry.”

Pensler was seen as a long-shot candidate, having previously lost the GOP primary for Senate in 2018 by over 9 percentage points to now-Rep. John James, R-Mich. who would go on to lose to incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Stabenow announced she would retire next year, opening up one of the most competitive seats in the nation.

Democrats have coalesced around Rep. Elissa Slotkin, R-Mich., as their candidate. She faces actor Hill Harper in the Aug. 6 primary but has a massive cash advantage.

National Republicans had hoped Rogers would have a similarly easy path to his party’s nomination. But the campaigns of former Reps. Amash and Peter Meijer, who ended his bid earlier this year, made his task a little more complicated.

Trump’s endorsement in March of Rogers — who in the past had been critical of Trump before changing his tune on the Senate trail — has pushed many other GOP candidates out of the race.

Despite the turmoil within the Democratic Party regarding their top of the ticket, the party has not lost a Senate race since 1994 and has exceeded expectations in recent Michigan elections.

Material from The Associated Press was used to compile this report.

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