U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) highlighted her experience working across the aisle in a speech at Central Michigan University Thursday. She's running for Michigan’s open Senate seat against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.
Polling shows the race is a toss up, and both campaigns are crisscrossing the state in the runup to the election.
Slotkin spoke on her bipartisan appeal, pointing to her history working with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama on the National Security Council.
“I represent a district that voted for Mitt Romney and then Trump, and then Trump again. So, the only reason I'm standing in front of you is because the very independently minded voters of Michigan voted for Donald Trump and Elissa Slotkin on the same ballot, and I'm proud of that,” she said.
On the issues, Slotkin assailed gun violence and called for change. “20 years from now, they're going to look back on this period and be like ‘what was wrong with them, they let our children get murdered in their schools and they didn't do anything about it,’” she said.
She pointed to her experience in dealing with mass shootings at Oxford High and Michigan State University. She compared the experience to her service in the Iraq War.
“I've seen terrible things in my time in Iraq, I've lost people I care about," she said. "But nothing has been worse than explaining post-traumatic stress disorder to a 14-year-old who got it in their social studies class.”
Slotkin also discussed other issues impacting Michiganders, including the opioid crisis. “We just do not have our arms around the mental health issues and the needs of our community, the diseases of despair, opioid addiction, drug addiction, fentanyl,” she said.
On climate she said that Michigan was already becoming a state for those looking to escape the impact of climate change. “They're shopping. Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin because they know we're going to do better in climate change and they're moving and buying a second home here. Right, that's already happening.”
Slotkin and Rogers have been traveling across the state to drum up support for their respective campaigns as the race draws to a close. According to the University of Florida Election Lab, over 800,000 Michiganders have voted early.
In an interview after the speech, Slotkin said she knew the race would be close, but expressed confidence Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign was making the right moves. “I think the ground game is good. People should volunteer if they want to do some door knocking or texting. But to me, we're doing what we need to do. We just need to do more of it.”
