Elissa Slotkin

Elissa Blair Slotkin ( ; born July 10, 1976) is an American politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Michigan. From 2019 to 2025, she served as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 7th congressional district. The district, numbered as the 8th from 2019 to 2023, stretches from Lansing to the outer northern suburbs of Detroit. A member of the Democratic Party, Slotkin was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and Department of Defense official.

Slotkin was elected to the Senate in 2024, defeating Republican nominee Mike Rogers in a close race. She became the second female senator from Michigan after Debbie Stabenow. She is expected to become Michigan's senior senator when Gary Peters retires in 2027.

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 great-grandfather Samuel Slotkin, who emigrated from Minsk in 1900. 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 by 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 with 50.9% of the vote, defeating Republican Paul Junge.

In 2019, Slotkin held several town halls about her decision to vote in favor of President Donald Trump's impeachment. The meetings drew hundreds of protesters and received nationwide media coverage.

Slotkin adapted to campaigning during the COVID-19 pandemic by holding campaign events both virtually and socially distanced with contactless door canvassing and by running advertisements on gasoline pumps.

2022

Due to redistricting, Slotkin's district was renumbered as the 7th district.

She defeated Republican nominee Tom Barrett with 51.5% of the vote to Barrett's 46.5%. The general election was the most expensive U.S. House race of 2022, with Slotkin raising $9.8 million.

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.

She was endorsed by Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

During the campaign, Slotkin signed a seven-month lease on a condominium in Lansing, Michigan. The owner of the condominium was a donor to Slotkin's campaign but the campaign said the lease was at a fair market rate. After the election and before her February 2023 divorce, Slotkin moved back to her family farm in Holly, in Michigan's 9th congressional district.

Slotkin attributed her victory to "losing better" in the district's Republican-leaning areas. Her win defied trends in other states that resulted in Democrats narrowly losing control of the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress.

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
* Rare Disease Caucus

U.S. Senate

Elections

2024

On February 27, 2023, Slotkin announced her candidacy in the 2024 Michigan U.S. Senate election after Debbie Stabenow announced that she would vacate the seat. She won the Democratic primary on August 6, 2024, with 76% of the vote, and defeated Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the general election, outperforming the top of the ticket.

Tenure

In 2025, Slotkin was one of 12 Senate Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for the Laken Riley Act. After Trump's 2025 State of the Union address, she gave the official Democratic response. She called Trump's economic policies reckless, accused him of favoring billionaires at the expense of ordinary Americans, warned of rising costs and increased national debt, and said President Ronald Reagan would be "rolling in his grave".

Committee assignments

Source:

* Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
** Subcommittee on Commodities, Derivatives, Risk Management, and Trade
** Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, and Food Safety (Ranking Member)
* Committee on Armed Services
** Subcommittee on Airland
** Subcommittee on Cybersecurity
** Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities (Ranking Member)
* Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
**Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
** Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce, and Regulatory Affairs
** Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census
* Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Political positions

Slotkin has been described as a centrist Democrat. According to GovTrack's 2022 scorecard, she was the fifth-most right-wing House Democrat. She was ranked among the most bipartisan members of the House.

Abortion

In 2024, Slotkin said she supported federal legislation to codify the abortion rights established in ''Roe v. Wade''. She was endorsed by pro-choice organizations Reproductive Freedom for All and Planned Parenthood Action Fund during her 2024 race for U.S. Senate.

Campaign finance policy

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, Minnesota, 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 opposes abolishing the death penalty. She has said it should be used in rare cases.

Economic policy

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Slotkin supported the bipartisan CARES Act relief package, which passed in March 2020. In May 2020, she voted for the HEROES Act, a $3trillion stimulus package. In November 2021, she voted for the Build Back Better Act.

In August 2022, Slotkin voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. In May 2025, she was the only Senate Democrat to vote for a bill that would prevent California from banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. She said she had a "special responsibility" to stand up for over 1 million Michiganders employed by the auto industry.

Foreign policy

Slotkin is a self-described Zionist. She condemned Representative Rashida Tlaib for controversial statements about Palestinians, including using the phrase " from the river to the sea". Slotkin expressed support for the Israeli government's actions amid international allegations of genocide in Gaza. She also signed a letter criticizing South Africa's genocide case against Israel, calling it "grossly unfounded." Slotkin voted against the 2023 funding bill to Israel because it left out Ukraine and Taiwan, did not include humanitarian aid, and called for domestic spending cuts. In April 2024, she voted to send $17 billion in military aid to Israel.

Slotkin is one of five Democratic House members who voted against an amendment to prohibit support to and participation in the Saudi-led coalition's military operations against the Houthis in Yemen. She was the main sponsor of the 2020 Iran War Powers Resolution, which sought to restrict President Donald Trump's ability to commit the U.S. 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.

After the 2023 Michigan State University shooting in her district, Slotkin and Senator Ed Markey introduced the Gun Violence Prevention Research Act. The bill would provide $50 million each year for the next five years for research on firearms safety and gun violence prevention by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health care

Slotkin supports the Affordable Care Act. During her 2020 campaign, she said the protection of health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions was the most important issue in her district. She supports allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for those it insures.

Slotkin opposes Medicare for All but supports a 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 Trump. Its publication led to widespread Democratic support for an impeachment inquiry. Slotkin voted to impeach Trump in both his first and second impeachments.

LGBT rights

In both the 116th and 117th Congresses, Slotkin received a 100% rating from Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Congressional Scorecard, which measures "support for equality" among members of Congress based on their voting record. HRC endorsed her in each of her campaigns for the House.

Student debt

In 2020, during the Trump administration, Slotkin voted against an amendment, supported by 93% of the Democratic caucus, that would provide $10,000 debt relief for student loan borrowers. She 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, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that initiative.

Identity politics

After the 2024 presidential election, Slotkin said that identity politics "needs to go the way of the dodo", adding that "people need to be looked at as independent Americans, whatever group they're from, whatever party they may be from."

Personal life

Slotkin married Dave Moore, a retired Army colonel and Apache helicopter pilot, in 2011. They had met in Baghdad during Slotkin's third tour in Iraq and lived in Holly. The two filed for divorce in 2023. Slotkin had two stepdaughters while married to Moore.

Electoral history

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

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External links

Senator Elissa Slotkin
official U.S. Senate website

Elissa Slotkin for Senate
campaign website

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Slotkin, Elissa
1976 births
Living people
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women politicians
21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives
21st-century Michigan politicians
21st-century United States senators
American civil servants
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
American women civil servants
American Zionists
Cornell University alumni
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan
Democratic Party United States senators from Michigan
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Female United States senators
Jewish American people in Michigan politics
Jewish American women in politics
Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives
Jewish United States senators
People from Holly, Michigan
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
United States Department of Defense officials
Women government officials