Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) is considering a run for the presidency in 2024, declaring that his mission is to come up with “real solutions” to get the country back on track while taking a poke at his competition, stating that “sometimes ideas and these solutions are bigger than shallow name ID.”

(Video Credit: FOX 2 Detroit)

Rogers is a former FBI agent. He served 14 years in Congress and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

He has not formally declared he is running for the GOP nomination in 2024 yet, but all indications look like he will do so. He would be up against former President Trump and potentially Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, both wildly popular with Republicans though DeSantis has made no formal announcement. The list of potential contenders is growing and many have much bigger name recognition and more money than Rogers does. He is not known very well outside Michigan or the Beltway and is likely to be viewed as an establishment Republican with a penchant for appearing on CNN.

The former representative discussed plans in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital Monday as he appears to lay the groundwork for a run.

Rogers and his wife have formed a group called “Lead America” which aims to counter Americans’ frustration with politicians in general and to find solutions to national problems.

https://twitter.com/LEADAmerica_org/status/1634272945190195204

He is calling for greater opportunities for innovation to increase economic prosperity on the American front. He’s also pushing support for families “by recognizing their needs and lowering barriers to those needs being met.”

The potential candidate wants to focus on civic education to “encourage Americans of all ages to take an active interest in the success of their own communities and of our nation as a whole.” Rogers is also coming up with ideas to strengthen America’s standing on the global stage.

To many, those ideas sound good but rather vanilla and it is yet to be seen how they will play with Americans who have developed a taste for flashier candidates who can still get results.

Rogers has taken his messaging on the road to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Those are the first four states to vote in the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar. However, his didn’t exactly cause a stir. In Nevada, he didn’t make much of a splash at all.

Former Congressman Mike Rogers is a #CNN Republican with NO chance to win the nomination from President Trump

— LeoTerrell (@TheLeoTerrell) November 23, 2022

“If you want to change the narrative, and that’s what Lead America is set out to do, you have to go out to early primary states. And what we found is people have been very encouraging,” Rogers claimed. He contends that people have been telling him, “Hey love this. Would you consider taking this into 2024?”

“What we have to do is decide are people ready for a hopeful, optimist, solutions-oriented candidate,” Rogers stated.

When Rogers was asked about his 2024 timeline for declaring his candidacy, he responded, “Late spring, early summer, you would really need to drill down on firing the flare if you were going to do it.”

Aside from Trump and possibly DeSantis, Rogers would be competing with other big names such as former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and, if they choose to join the race, also former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. But he believes that if he has a strong showing in the early nominating states, that could make all the difference.

“I think if you win, place, or show early on, you won’t have to worry about name ID. That’s going to take care of itself,” he posited.

“This is not a vanity project for me,” Rogers said. “If enough people believe that too, then I think there could be something to this.”

2024 Watch-NEW: Former @RepMikeRogers of Michigan visiting Iowa, N.H., S.C., mulling long shot bid for #GOP presidential nomination, tells @FoxNews if he runs, it would "not a vanity project for me," https://t.co/v5SuqHBDa3 #2024Election #FITN #iacaucus #scpol #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/sO6tr35mNg

— Paul Steinhauser (@steinhauserNH1) March 21, 2023

When Fox News Digital asked how he could compete with candidates that have much larger campaign war chests, Rogers replied, “You don’t have to have $100 million in the bank to win. But you do need to have enough to get over that first hump, get known, and then go from there.”

“I talk to a lot of donors, and I can just tell you I’m not discouraged,” he noted. “I certainly wouldn’t get in if I didn’t believe we could meet that financial challenge.”

Rogers is a proponent of free-market conservatism and national security. He bowed out of politics in 2016 when Trump won the presidency. He has thoroughly rejected Trump’s election fraud claims and that it was a “rigged” election that was “stolen.”

“I think the Trump, Trump-lite lane is pretty crowded. The lane that is not talking about Trump, that is talking about solutions and the way forward and what the real challenges we face – I just don’t find a lot of people in that lane,” he argued.

Rogers commented on the potential indictment of Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Briggs, stating, “As a former FBI guy, I find the timing of this indictment distasteful at best.”

Then he turned on Trump and his calling for his supporters to protest the indictment, citing the Jan. 6 protest.

“I don’t believe he should call for protesting of any sort at this point given the sensitivities of what happened the last time. And protesting is one thing, but violence is absolutely another. And I don’t think that helps anybody,” Rogers commented to Fox News Digital.

He took the opportunity to say that he thinks Trump should bow out of the 2024 race if he’s indicted.

Rogers remarked that Trump “has lots of issues to worry about and this might be a really good time for him to stop and focus on those issues and get all of that taken care of. We have to think of a country from ’24 on that needs new direction desperately, and I just think that doubling down on chaos and confusion and acerbic conversations is not going to be the kind of America that Americans are willing to support moving forward.”

“For his own well-being, I think he needs to stop and focus on this process. Being indicted – I don’t care what you say – is not helpful,” the Republican argued. “It may galvanize a small percentage of Trump supporters, but that is going to so fractionalize the party going forward. I think it would be best that the country move on from this.”

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