Elissa Slotkin

Elissa Slotkin
Elissa Blair Slotkin (born July 10, 1976) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from since 2019. The district, numbered as the from 2019 to 2023, is based in Lansing and stretches into Detroit's outer western suburbs.
Slotkin is a member of the Democratic Party. Before entering politics, she served as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and Department of Defense official. She is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the 2024 election to succeed Debbie Stabenow.
Early life and education
Slotkin was born on July 10, 1976, in New York City, the daughter of Curt Slotkin and Judith (née Spitz) Slotkin. She is Jewish. Slotkin spent her early life on a farm in Holly, Michigan. She attended Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills. Her family farm was part of Hygrade Meat Company, founded by her grandfather, Hugo Slotkin. Hygrade was the original company behind Ball Park Franks which is now owned by Tyson Foods.
Slotkin earned a bachelor of arts in sociology from Cornell University in 1998 and a master of international affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 2003.
Early career
Slotkin was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency after graduate school. Fluent in Arabic and Swahili, she served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst. During the George W. Bush administration, she worked on the Iraq portfolio for the National Security Council. During Barack Obama's presidency, she worked for the State Department and the Department of Defense. Slotkin was acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 2015 to 2017.
After leaving the Defense Department in January 2017, Slotkin moved back to her family's farm in Holly, where she owned and operated Pinpoint Consulting.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2018
In July 2017, Slotkin announced her candidacy for Michigan's 8th congressional district. She said she was motivated to challenge two-term Republican incumbent Mike Bishop when she saw him smile at a White House celebration after he and House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. On August 7, Slotkin defeated Michigan State University criminal justice professor Christopher Smith in the Democratic primary with 70.7% of the vote.
In November 2018, Slotkin defeated Bishop with 50.6% of the vote. She is the first Democrat to represent Michigan's 8th district since 2001, when Debbie Stabenow gave up the seat to run for the U. S. Senate.
2020
Slotkin was reelected in 2020 with 50.9% of the vote, defeating Republican Paul Junge.
In 2019, Slotkin held multiple town halls about her decision to vote in favor of President Donald Trump's impeachment. The meetings drew hundreds of protestors and received nationwide media coverage.
Slotkin adapted to campaigning during the COVID-19 pandemic with virtual and socially distanced campaign events, contactless door canvassing, and running advertisements on gas pumps.
2022
Due to redistricting, Slotkin ran for reelection in Michigan's 7th congressional district. During the campaign, Slotkin leased a condominium in Lansing, Michigan, that belonged to Jerry Hollister, a medical manufacturing firm executive and donor to Slotkin's campaign. Slotkin signed a seven-month lease at a fair market rate that ended a week after the election. According to the Detroit News, Slotkin advocated for a government program that Hollister's company benefited from, though both Slotkin and Hollister denied there was anything improper about the arrangement. After the election, Slotkin moved out of the condominium back to her family farm in Holly, which is in Michigan's 9th congressional district.
In the general election, the most expensive U.S. House race of 2022, she defeated Republican nominee Tom Barrett with 51.5% of the vote to Barrett's 46.5%.
Slotkin criticized Barrett's stance on abortion, specifically his statement that he is "100% pro-life, no exceptions". She also criticized his multiple votes against incentives for a new General Motors electric vehicle battery plant in Delta Township.
Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney endorsed Slotkin.
Slotkin raised $9.8 million and attributed her victory to "losing better" in the district's Republican-leaning areas. Her win, along with other congressional and state level victories in Michigan, defied other states' trends, mainly in New York and California, that resulted in Democrats losing control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Campaign finance
In June 2019 Elissa Slotkin received $2800 from Harlan Crow, cofounder of Club for Growth and a major donor to the Republican Party.
In 2023 Slotkin received more than $35,000 from executives of the studios involved in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, including more than $26,000 in contributions from Disney executives, $2,500 from a Sony Pictures film executive, and $2,250 from an executive vice president for Paramount Pictures.
Committee assignments
Committee on Armed Services
Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Subcommittee on Readiness (vice chair)
Committee on Homeland Security
Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence (chair)
Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs
Caucus memberships
New Democrat Coalition
Problem Solvers Caucus
U.S. Senate candidacy
On February 27, 2023, Slotkin announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Debbie Stabenow in 2024.
She has led the field in fundraising support with nearly $7.9 million raised for her Senate campaign as of October 2023.
Political positions
Slotkin has been described as a moderate Democrat. According to GovTrack, she was among the most conservative Democrats in Congress in 2019.
Abortion
Slotkin received a 100% rating from the pro-choice group NARAL Pro-Choice America for her voting record on abortion in 2019 and 2020.
Build Back Better Act & Inflation Reduction Act
She also voted for the Build Back Better Act. She stated that "there are things I would have preferred to be taken out of the bill" and that she believed the Senate would "slim down" the measure.
Slotkin voted for the Inflation Reduction Act and has particularly highlighted the law’s provisions around lowering prescription drug prices and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Campaign finance reform
In 2022, Slotkin co-sponsored the Ban Corporate PACs Act, which if enacted would prevent corporations from operating a political action committee.
Criminal justice
Following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, Slotkin co-sponsored and voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. She voted in favor of the bill again in 2021. Slotkin was the only House Democrat in Michigan who voted for a bill to overturn DC criminal code modernization.
Death penalty
Slotkin opposes abolishing the death penalty.
Flags
In 2023, Slotkin was one of only two House Democrats to vote for a Republican-backed amendment which prevented Department of Defense facilities from displaying non-official flags, including the pride flag. After facing criticism for the vote, Slotkin claimed that it was intended to prevent the flying of "hateful flags [...] particularly the Confederate flag", adding that she would "rather support a no-flag policy than allow hateful imagery above U.S. military bases".
Foreign policy
Slotkin is one of the only 5 Democratic House representatives who voted against an amendment to prohibit support to and participation in the Saudi-led coalitions military operations against the Houthis in Yemen.Slotkin was the main sponsor of the 2020 Iran War Powers Resolution which sought to restrict President Donald Trump's ability to commit the United States to a war with Iran without a Congressional Declaration of War. Slotkin voted against H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.
Gun policy
In 2022, Slotkin voted for H.R. 1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022. She also introduced H.R. 6370, the Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act, which would require secure firearm storage in the presence of children. The bill was introduced after the 2021 Oxford High School shooting, and passed by the House as part of the Protecting Our Kids Act.
In 2023, following the mass shooting at Michigan State University in her district, she introduced the Gun Violence Research Prevention Act with Sen. Ed Markey. The bill would provide $50 million each year for the next five years towards the research on firearms safety and gun violence prevention by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health care
Slotkin supports the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). During her 2020 campaign, she described the protection of health care coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions as the most important issue for her district. She supports allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for those insured by Medicare.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Slotkin supported the bipartisan CARES Act relief package, which passed Congress in March 2020. In May 2020, she voted for the HEROES Act, a $3trillion stimulus package. Slotkin opposes Medicare for All but support buy-in Medicare option.
Impeachment
In September 2019, Slotkin and six other freshman House Democrats authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post calling for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Its publication led to widespread Democratic support for an impeachment inquiry. Slotkin voted in favor of impeaching Trump in both his first and second impeachments. Slotkin also said, "I can’t think of an issue I wanted to work on less in my first term in Congress than impeachment, and I was against impeachment for a long time.” in a debate held by WDET-FM in 2020.
LGBT rights
In both the 116th and 117th Congresses, Slotkin received a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Congressional Scorecard, which measures “support for equality” among Members of Congress based on their voting record. She was endorsed by the HRC in each of her campaigns for the House.
In 2022, she voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified protections for same-sex and interracial marriage and repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, and was invited to attend its signing by President Joe Biden at the White House.
Student debt
During the Trump administration in 2020, Slotkin voted against one amendment, supported by 93% of the Democratic caucus, that would provide $10,000 debt relief for student loan borrowers. Slotkin also pushed the Department of Education to assist federal employees with student loan payments during the partial government shutdown. Slotkin voted twice against a Republican-led measure that would have overturned the Biden administration’s student debt forgiveness initiative. In 2023, that initiative was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
UAW Strike
Towards the beginning of the 2023 United Auto Workers strike, when interviewed by Detroit Free Press Slotkin said that “No one wants a prolonged strike, it is not good for Michigan, it is not good for our country” "no one should let the perfect deal be the enemy of the good deal" and that she hoped the parties would "negotiate in good faith to reach a fair agreement as quickly as possible." She also made a post on Twitter saying:” I stand with the men and women of the UAW who are doing the most American thing you can do: fighting to make sure a hard day’s work means a good life for you and your family. For the last two years, we’ve passed bills to incentivize American manufacturing and bring supply chains home from places like China. But the companies that benefit from these policies need to do right by the workers who make their success possible. I’m looking forward to joining our auto workers on the picket line this weekend. For Michigan’s sake, I hope the strike is short lived. As someone who used to negotiate international agreements, I know that no one should let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Even though the UAW is asking for 32 hour work weeks, Slotkin misrepresented their position as supporting a 40 hour work week.
Veterans
Slotkin was a co-sponsor of the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, which provided funding for veterans exposed to toxic substances during military service.
Electoral history
Personal life
Slotkin married Dave Moore, a retired Army colonel and Apache helicopter pilot. They met in Baghdad during the Iraq War and resided in Holly. The two filed for divorce in 2023. Through her marriage to Moore, Slotkin had two stepdaughters.
Slotkin's mother died of ovarian cancer in 2011.
Notes
See also
List of Jewish members of the United States Congress
List of Jewish American politicians
Women in the United States House of Representatives
References
Specific
General
External links
Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin official U.S. House website
Elissa Slotkin for Senate campaign website
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1976 births
American civil servants
American women civil servants
American Jews from Michigan
Jewish American people in Michigan politics
Cornell University alumni
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives
Jewish women politicians
Living people
People from Holly, Michigan
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
United States Department of Defense officials
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women