Rogers confirmed she is running in a phone call with the Journal-News on Thursday.
“Why wouldn’t I?” she said. “I think the fact that I’ve survived all this makes me a really good candidate.”
Rogers will run in the March Republican primary against Congressman Warren Davidson (R-Troy), who was first elected in 2016 to replace former House Speaker John Boehner. Davidson’s stature has grown since then, as he’s worked closely with ultra-conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus.
Butler County GOP Chairman Todd Hall expressed support for Davidson, calling him “one of the greatest members of Congress.” Hall declined to comment on Rogers’ decision to run.
Last November, Davidson defeated Democrat Vanessa Enoch by a margin of 65% to 35%. The 8th District includes all of Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami, and Preble counties, and the southernmost part of Mercer County.
Rogers, a West Chester Republican, spent two years in federal prison more than a decade ago. Since then, she has spent years trying to clear her name. In 2018, she filed a civil lawsuit against bank executives and the U.S. Department of Justice, accusing them of a “litter of lies.”
The lawsuit was terminated after a motion to dismiss was granted in 2019.
“It’s hard to fix things and change things if you haven’t been through them,” Rogers told the Journal-News. “What I’ve been through is like the never-ending story. It’s a life sentence, and I don’t think people realize that.”
Rogers declined to answer questions over the phone, although she mentioned there is a “new knowledge of what the facts are” in her case. She also stressed she is not a “one-issue person.”
Rogers’ felony conviction stems from an FBI investigation that began in 2005 about whether fiber optics firm Dynus Corp. took out a multimillion dollar loan in the county’s name without approval. The loan was to allow Dynus to operate Butler County’s fiber-optics system, which was built to spur development in the county.
Rogers was at the core of the scandal, according to Journal-News archives, falsifying documents that secured loans for Dynus while in the name of the county. Prosecutors said Rogers conspired with three others to persuade National City Bank to loan $4 million to a company identified only as DC, and failed to report income she got from that company.
The former auditor said she never personally profited from the deal. Rogers was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud and filing a false income tax return.
Rogers, a single mother of six, later said she took the plea deal “against her inner will” to “protect her family from further embarrassment and public humiliation.” She was ordered to pay $4 million in restitution for the loan.
Since her release from prison, much of Rogers’ litigation has centered around about stopping those payments.
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