Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin announces she is running for the Michigan Senate

Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin announced her bid Monday for Michigan’s open Senate seat, a key battlefield contest that will help determine which party controls the upper chamber.

Slotkin, 46, is seen as a formidable contender and the early front-runner for the nomination.

She has won three tough House races in her swing district, proving to be a great fundraiser and campaigner.

She won her first election in 2018, when she flipped a traditionally Republican district to the Democrats, and was one of several women motivated to run for public office in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election.

She also has an excellent resume: She is a former CIA analyst who joined the agency after the September 11 attacks and served in intelligence and defense roles for two presidents: George W. Bush and Barack Obama. She also served three tours in Iraq as an intelligence officer.

However, her announcement for public office comes shortly after her announcement that she is divorcing her husband, Dave Moore.

“After careful consideration, we are saddened to announce that we are separating after 12 years of marriage,” Slotkin and Moore said in a joint statement earlier this month.

She had told reporters in Michigan that the divorce had nothing to do with her political career.

Her Senate announcement came in a nearly three-minute biographical ad, in which Slotkin highlights that background and her Michigan roots. She also discussed her mother, who died of ovarian cancer and had no insurance, and her family history – her grandfather founded Ballpark Franks.

“I’m a third-generation Michigander and my family has lived the American dream,” she says in the ad.

“We seem to be living from crisis to crisis. But there are certain things that should be very simple, like living a middle class life in the state that invented the middle class, like making things in America so that we can control our own economic security, like protecting our children from the things that really harm them, and the preservation of our rights and our democracy. So that our children can live their version of the American dream. This is why I’m running for the United States Senate.”

Slotkin announced her interest in the race shortly after longtime Senator Debbie Stabenow stunned Michigan Democrats with her decision not to run for reelection last month.

Many other prominent Democrats in the state — such as Governor Gretchen Whitmer (left) and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (right), who has a residence in Michigan — have said they will not run for Senate.

Many other prominent Democrats in the state — such as Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who has residency in Michigan — have said they will not run for the Senate, paving the way for Slotin to become the early frontrunner. become.

Republicans immediately pounced on Slotkin as a liberal elitist. Still, the GOP has yet to field a strong candidate for the race.

Republican Representative John James was running for re-election in his House seat. He made two strong but unsuccessful Senate bids in the past — against Stabenow in 2018 and against Senator Gary Peters in 2020.

So far, Nikki Snyder, a Republican member of the State Board of Education, has run, as has Michael Hoover, a small business executive and first-time candidate.

Since the GOP surge in 1994, no Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan.

Slotkin has positioned himself as a moderate and an advocate of democratic principles such as protecting abortion rights and banning assault weapons.

She has seen two mass shootings in her district: at Oxford High School in November 2021 and the second was at Michigan State University two weeks ago.

Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney (right) campaigned for Elissa Slotkin (left) in the 2022 election

Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney campaigned for her in the 2022 election.

Appearing with Slotkin in her district shortly before that election, Cheney said it was the first time she had ever campaigned for a Democrat, but that “it wasn’t a hard decision at all.”

“If we want to ensure the survival of our republic, we must leave politics as usual,” Cheney said. We must stand up, each of us, and say that we are going to do what is right for this country. We are going to look beyond party politics.’