Federal Filings Reveal Two Mike Rogers Senate Campaign Staffers Are Registered Foreign Agents for Israel Under $46.5M Contract

Two communications operatives on Republican nominee Mike Rogers’ Michigan Senate campaign are actively registered as paid foreign agents for the State of Israel under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Federal records and public reporting show the two consultants are tied to a massive $46.5 million foreign influence initiative led by political strategist Brad Parscale while drawing substantial payments directly from the campaign.

The overlap surfaced publicly when Abigail Ronson, a paid consultant and spokeswoman for the Mike Rogers campaign, appeared directly behind former Democratic primary contender Rep. Haley Stevens during Stevens’ high-profile endorsement of Rogers. Independent reporting by Drop Site News cross-referenced official FARA filings to identify Ronson and communications specialist Jesse Stokes as registered agents working on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Rogers’ campaign team did not respond to requests for comment regarding the dual roles of its senior communications staff.

Inside the $46.5 Million Digital Initiative

The connection runs directly through Clocktower X LLC, an entity directed by Parscale, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential bid. Parscale enlisted Ronson alongside 14 other digital strategists from Convergence Media to carry out work under a massive $46.5 million contract with the Israeli government.

Their mandated scope of work included distributing pro-Israel messaging across social media channels and training large language models (LLMs) with targeted pro-Israel data. At the same time, Convergence Media was pulling millions of dollars in consulting fees directly from Rogers’ federal committee, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) disclosures.

Federal transparency mandates require individuals acting at the direction of a foreign government to publicly catalog their domestic outreach, public relations, and digital consulting activities.

Stokes, the second operative identified in federal records, filed FARA paperwork as an agent for Israel in connection with the Havas Media contract. Document metadata revealed that Stokes authored press releases announcing Rogers’ bid for the United States Senate, confirming that foreign-registered operatives were drafting primary campaign announcements from the start.

The High-Stakes Michigan Senate Showdown

The disclosures arrive during an intense, high-dollar battle for Michigan’s open Senate seat. Rogers faces Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated Stevens by just one percentage point in a heated August primary.

The race has drawn historic financial intervention from foreign policy-aligned political action committees. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated super PAC, United Democracy Project, poured tens of millions of dollars into boosting Stevens during the primary before shifting millions into the general election to back Rogers against El-Sayed.

The AI Strategy and the Digital Footprint

Ronson played a central role in several high-profile campaign rollouts for Rogers. Reports credit her with producing a viral, digitally altered “buff AI” photo of Rogers, as well as coordinating the public press conference announcing the “Democrats for Mike Rogers” coalition.

Funding for that crossover effort traces back to the Great Lakes Conservatives Fund, an outside group that contributed over $4 million to support Rogers. Records show that super PAC maintains an active vendor relationship with Eyesover LLC, an artificial intelligence analytics company operated by Parscale that was also deployed in his foreign agency contract with Israel.

Lobbying Disclosures vs. Campaign Operations

Separating Misconceptions from Documented Reality

Public scrutiny surrounding foreign lobbying often sparks confusion about what federal campaign regulations actually prohibit. Widespread online speculation routinely suggests that foreign nationals are directly directing campaign funds, or conversely, that these dual roles are entirely unregulated private consulting agreements.

The documented reality sits firmly in between. While federal election laws strictly bar foreign nationals from making political contributions or spending money to influence US elections, American citizens are legally permitted to operate as domestic political consultants while simultaneously registered as foreign agents—provided all foreign activities, funding sources, and media contracts are explicitly declared to the Department of Justice.

“Parscale accidentally registered Clock Tower X as directly working with Israel in his FARA filings before correcting them to show that his client was instead an Israeli media company.”

Those disclosures uncovered that Parscale initially listed his firm as directly contracted by the State of Israel, before amending the filings to identify a partner media company as the formal intermediary.

📱 With millions flowing through political committees and digital consultancies, the line between domestic strategy and foreign agency continues to shrink across high-profile races.

✨ Voter oversight relies almost entirely on the strict enforcement of mandatory FEC and FARA transparency disclosures.

👇 How should federal election regulators approach campaign staff members who double as registered foreign agents? Share your perspective in the comments below.