EXCLUSIVE – Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who’s under consideration as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, is weighing in on the GOP Senate primary in a key battleground state.

Scott on Wednesday endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, a former House Intelligence Committee chair who is the front-runner in the August Republican primary in the fight to succeed longtime Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who is not seeking re-election this year.

The seat is one of a handful that Republicans are aiming to flip from blue to red in the autumn elections as they push to regain the Senate majority they lost in the 2020 cycle.

“Mike Rogers’ commitment to service has always been about putting the American people first. When Mike and I served together, he was a leader who delivered results and fought to expand opportunities for working families and those pursuing their American Dream,” Scott said in a statement. “I’m proud to endorse him to be Michigan’s next U.S. Senator because I know Mike will bring his servant leadership to the U.S. Senate.”

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Scott’s backing of Rogers, which was shared first with Fox News, is his first formal endorsement in a Senate race this election cycle, although he’s helped other Republican candidates raise money.

Rogers, an Army veteran and a former FBI special agent before serving in Congress, enjoys the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP. And in March, Rogers landed the endorsement of Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

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“Senator Scott has been a tremendous champion for conservative values in the U.S. Senate and I’m honored to receive his endorsement,” Rogers said in a statement. “Together in the Senate we will work with President Trump to help Michigan families, lower the cost of gas and groceries, and secure the southern border.”

Rogers has also been endorsed in recent months by seven other Republican senators, as well as Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State and CIA director in the Trump administration. He’s also been endorsed by former Detroit police chief James Craig, who backed Rogers after ending his own Republican Senate nomination bid earlier this year.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as Michigan Senate candidate former Rep. Mike Rogers speaks at a campaign rally in Freeland, Mich., Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

As they work to win a Senate election in Michigan for the first time in three decades, Republicans were hoping to avoid a potentially costly and combustible primary.

But Rogers doesn’t have the field to himself.

The primary race also includes wealthy businessman and investor Sandy Pensler, who’s making his second run for office and has been spending big bucks to run ads targeting Rogers. Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy endorsed Pensler.

Among the others running for the GOP nomination are former Rep. Justin Amash, who as an independent House member joined Democrats in voting to impeach then-President Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2019.

The state primary in Michigan will be held on August 6.

Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, ran unsuccessfully for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination but remains a very popular and influential figure in the party.

The senator, who was known for his ferocious fundraising as he cruised to a Senate re-election in 2022, has strong ties with many leading figures in the GOP donor class. The money raised two years ago served as a down payment for his 2024 national run.

Besides raising money for himself, Scott has also been very active in helping fellow Republicans running for office.

In the 2022 cycle, the senator raised nearly $1 million for other candidates and donated more than $1 million to down ballot races. And two outside groups aligned with Scott spent $13 million on top Senate and House races, while also transferring $5 million to the top super PAC supporting Senate Republicans.

A super PAC allied with Scott announced earlier this month it would spend $14 million to help Republicans grow support among Black voters.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

California has made significant progress helping small communities address problems of contaminated drinking water, but the costs of bringing safe tap water to hundreds of communities over the next five years will run more than $11.5 billion, according to a new state estimate.

In a newly released report, the staff of the State Water Resources Control Board estimated that at the start of this year approximately 913,000 Californians depended on public water systems that are failing to comply with drinking water regulations, while an additional 1.5 million people depended on water systems that are determined to be “at-risk.”

Officials carried out the assessment nearly five years after the state established the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience, or SAFER, drinking water program. They said in the report that under the program, the state water board has since 2019 given more than $831 million in grants for drinking water projects in disadvantaged communities, and that about 250 failing water systems serving more than 2 million people have come into compliance with drinking water standards.

“What our analysis has shown time and again is that the common denominator is size,” said Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the state water board. “Small systems struggle, especially in communities that have experienced discrimination and disinvestment, and their challenges will be amplified as weather grows more extreme, new contaminants emerge and costs increase.”

California declared access to clean, safe and affordable water a human right in 2012, but the state has faced significant challenges in developing policies and securing adequate funding to bring solutions for communities where people live with contaminated tap water.

In small rural communities across the state, the water pumped from wells contains harmful levels of contaminants including naturally occurring arsenic, bacteria from sewage leaks, nitrate from animal manure, fertilizers or other sources, and carcinogenic chemicals.

Not all systems that are deemed to be failing deliver water that is contaminated, but many of them have at least one contaminant at levels that violate safe drinking water standards.

According to state data, about 56% of the 385 failing water systems supply disadvantaged communities, and 67% of them supply majority communities of color.

“All of our current failing water systems are on track to come off the failing list,” said Kristyn Abhold, senior environmental scientist for the state water board. “They are working on long-term solutions, and our staff and funding resources are being targeted to the ones that are in most need.”

State water regulators have found that the vast majority of the failing water systems serve a small number of residents, while 98% of the state’s population receives water from sources and suppliers that meet drinking water standards.

For a water system to come into compliance with regulations, it takes not only funding but also planning, engineering work and permits, Abhold said.

State officials have assessed other communities that are at risk by analyzing the potential for water quality violations or water shortages, among other factors.

The number of people affected has fluctuated in recent months as some water systems have come off the list and others have been added. The state’s latest estimates show that 738,000 people currently receive water from failing systems, while more than 1.8 million people depend on 548 systems with drinking water supplies determined to be at risk.

The state’s report includes estimated costs for infrastructure solutions such as installing treatment systems, drilling a new well, or consolidating by connecting one water system to another.

The estimated costs of solutions in the latest report were substantially higher than previous state estimates. In a 2021 report, the state water board included a range of estimated costs up to $9.1 billion. Officials said they used new methods and improved data this time, including more water systems and risks in their analysis.

According to the report, the estimated costs of long-term solutions for failing and at-risk public water systems total $6.6 billion over five years, while the costs of solutions for “high-risk” small water systems and domestic wells total $4.9 billion.

Those combined costs, totaling more than $11.5 billion, would be significantly higher if loan repayment costs and operations and maintenance costs are included, the report said, pushing the total estimated cost of “achieving the human right to water” to $15.9 billion.

Officials projected that $2 billion in state grant funds will be available over five years, as well as $1.5 billion in state loans, leaving a substantial gap in available funding. Officials said a large portion of the money to address the problems may need to come from “local cost share” funds collected through rates, fees and taxes.

The report’s higher cost estimates were released amid discussions about budget cuts in Sacramento.

Citing recent cuts, more than 180 organizations, including environmental groups and other organizations, wrote to state leaders urging them to approve placing a $10 billion bond on the November ballot to provide “direct and meaningful investments in the California communities and natural resources most impacted by climate change.”

As part of that ballot measure, they called for including $1 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure for communities and tribes.

Leaders of the groups wrote that “recent and proposed cuts to funding for such programs have prompted consensus that additional bond funding is necessary to ensure priority programs continue beyond this year.”

Jennifer Clary, California director for the group Clean Water Action, said: ”drinking water infrastructure isn’t a luxury item. Without these projects, thousands of Californians will continue to lack access to safe and clean drinking water.”

Clean water advocates have also voiced concerns as state officials have reviewed the costs of a program that provides household tanks and hauls water by truck to thousands of low-income families whose wells have gone dry.

More than 3,000 domestic wells have run dry throughout California since 2020, according to reports submitted to the state. Those with dry wells have started relying on water delivered by tanker trucks to fill their tanks, while also receiving bottled water.

Leaders of the nonprofit group Self-Help Enterprises, which manages the water-hauling effort, recently urged Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state leaders to reject proposals that would take away critical funding for the program. They wrote in a June 11 letter that taking away $17.5 million would “cut off access to water for more than 20,000 people who are still awaiting a permanent solution.”

The letter, which was first reported by the news site SJV Water, was also signed by leaders of other organizations, including the Community Water Center and Union of Concerned Scientists.

“The reversions of these funds will cut off access to water for more than 20,000 people who are still awaiting a permanent solution,” the groups said. “Cutting funding for such a crucial program would have devastating effects on rural and disadvantaged communities by immediately cutting them off from their sole source of water supply, and doing so with no warning.”

Leaders of some groups said later that the funding for the program has been restored.