WASHINGTON — Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin will run for Senate, she said Monday, opening up a key race in a battleground state.
“We all know America is going through something right now. We seem to be living crisis to crisis, but there are certain things that should be really simple,” Slotkin, 46, said in a video announcing her run. “We need a new generation of leaders that thinks differently, works harder and never forgets that we are public servants.”
Slotkin has used her past experience as a CIA analyst to focus on national security issues since she joined Congress in 2019. She also has focused on health care issues and in her announcement video Monday she spoke of her mother, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer while she didn’t have health insurance.
Republicans view Michigan as a pickup opportunity next year, although the state hasn’t had a Republican in the Senate since 2001. Four-term Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in January she would not run again next year.
“Elissa Slotkin is a liberal politician with some serious ethical baggage,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Maggie Abboud said in a statement.
Her decision to run for Senate will also open up a competitive House race in the 7th District.
“The path to growing the Republican majority runs through seats like Elissa Slotkin‘s,” Jack Pandol, the National Republican Congressional Committee communications director said in a statement. “Democrats are scrambling for the exits in Hakeem Jeffries‘ extreme House Caucus, and this latest development makes their climb out of the minority that much steeper.”
Slotkin won her 2022 race over then-state Sen. Tom Barrett by 5.4 points. She partially attributed her win, which was a larger margin than in her previous two victories, to young voters at Michigan State University who registered on Election Day and were motivated by abortion rights.
Slotkin ended 2022 with $129,000 on hand after an expensive 2022 race in which she raised $10 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
She was one of six freshman Democrats who in 2018 called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment in a Washington Post op-ed that preceded the effort by the House to oust the Republican chief executive.
Slotkin is the first major candidate to enter the race. Rep. Haley Stevens previously said she would not run, while fellow Rep. Debbie Dingell has not ruled out a run. On the Republican side, Rep. John James filed for reelection to the House, while former Rep. Peter Meijer is a potential candidate.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Gary Peters, Michigan’s junior senator, told CQ Roll Call earlier this month that it was too early to say whether the committee would get involved in the state’s primary, but noted that it did not under his leadership in the 2022 cycle.
