GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Candidates are hoping their answers on the many topics covered during WOOD TV8’s U.S. Senate debate Tuesday night will help voters make their decision.

“We are feeling great,” former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, told News 8 in the spin room after the debate. “The momentum is catching fire, people are starting to ask questions about both candidates.”

“I think it went good. I think this is what you’re supposed to do in a democracy: You’re supposed to come together and show the real differences between us,” U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, said.

Slotkin and Rogers both felt the weight of the debate on this race. In less than a month, votes will be tallied and Michigan voters will select the state’s U.S. senator. Many remain undecided and each candidate hopes their debate performance solidified voters’ decisions.

“If you care about people getting up every day and playing by the rules trying to make it and you end up finding yourself in a food pantry in the last two days of the month, we should have those voters (choosing Rogers). We are going to fix that, we know how to fix that. What you heard tonight is more of the same. (Suggesting that) ‘we are going to do exactly the same thing we have done for four years and we are going to do it another four years,’ I don’t know if we survive that,” Rogers said.

“At the end, I made a direct sort of outreach to Republicans like my dad. My dad is a lifelong Republican who feels like his party has left him and I just wanted them to know that they have always an open door in my office. I am just an independently-minded person. I came from a national security background. There is no knee-jerk answer. If something makes sense, it’s concrete, you support it, you’re going to sway me and get me to see your side,” Slotkin said.

Both are hoping to get to Washington, D.C., and have a plan for what day one would look like.

“We are going to close the border, secure the border. We are going to make sure we are energy independent. Those are things that are going to kick off on the first day. And then we are going to sit down and start finding ways to stop wasting taxpayer dollars, we just have to stop doing it,” Rogers said.

“So whether it’s about making sure we have good jobs, jobs with dignity; making sure that you are not going to go into retirement and poverty, affording health care, affording big things in your budget — those to me are my sun and my moon. It’s what drives me and I believe it’s existential and that’s what I am going to be working on day one in the Senate,” Slotkin said.

News 8 asked both candidates how their campaigns are feeling ahead of election day, with 28 days until their fate is decided.  

“It’s Michigan and we are in the last month. Anyone who turns on the television, the number of ads and stuff is just crazy. And we are still a place where people can split their tickets they can vote for Democrats and Republicans, and I think that is a good thing. That means they are independently-minded,” Slotkin told News 8. “So it’s all coming down to: Who is going to put in the work? Who is going to get people out to vote, and who is going to really lay out the choices for people? So we are going to do our best and we will sleep when we are dead.”

“We were, I guess, down (in the polls) about eight points a month ago, we are down to two points now,” Rogers said. “I know my opponent wants to pretend she wasn’t in Congress the last six years —she was. The problems you see today, she voted 100% with (President Joe) Biden and (Vice President Kamala) Harris. If you want more of that, do it. That’s why our numbers are catching up. I am talking to people in factories who are worried about China stealing their jobs. I am talking to people in factories who are wondering about how they are going to have their paycheck go to the end of the month. All of that is starting to catch up and seep in and that is why we are going to win this in November.”

During spring polling, prior to the primaries, around 56% of people were undecided, which probably meant they didn’t know much about the race, according to News 8 political reporter Rick Albin, who moderated the Tuesday debate. He said this debate will be influential in voters’ decisions.

“People are already voting right now and they are making their decisions,” Albin said. “One of these people that we saw on this stage tonight will make a difference in the balance of power in Washington, D.C., and (voters) got their first, best chance to see them.”

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See a replay of the entire debate here.