Michigan's U.S. Senate race: Meet Democratic candidate Elissa Slotkin

Michigan’s primary election is on Aug. 6. The U.S. Senate race is on the ballot. Voters will decide who advances to the general election in November in the race to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who’s retiring.

Michigan Public's Morning Edition is featuring a series of interviews with major-party candidates. (You can link to the rest of the candidate interviews at the bottom of this page.)

There are two Democrats running for their party’s nomination. One of them is U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin. Slotkin currently represents Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, which includes Ingham, Livingston, Clinton, and Shiawassee counties.

Slotkin spoke with Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.

Doug Tribou: You've been in office in the U.S. House for three terms. What do you see as your most important accomplishment in that time?

Elissa Slotkin: What I'm most proud of is big pieces of legislation, particularly that have brought home jobs to my state. So the CHIPS Act, the infrastructure bill, in addition to the PACT Act, which got another 3 million veterans across the country, access to VA health care.

Bringing home bacon, frankly, to my district on things that people care about: gun violence, getting more social workers on the Lansing police, opening up childcare centers. Those are things we've been able to get money for.

And then lastly, just on style, I mean, look, I'm a Democrat who represents a district that leans Republican. Most of our mayors and town supervisors, and most of the counties I represent are Republican. But I find it my job to reach across the aisle when I can.

DT: The seat you're running for is held by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who first won it in 2000 after serving in the House. And Stabenow has earned a reputation for being a big figure in some major budget and finance legislation, especially related to agriculture. You're not new to Congress, but you would be new to the Senate. How would you work to fill the role that she has played in looking out for the state's interests?

ES: Even before I knew I was running for Senate, I got myself on the House Agriculture Committee. And obviously committees that she's on affect the autos, manufacturers, big stuff in our state. So you can't know what committees you actually get, but I'd certainly be lobbying to get on "ag," for sure, take her seat on the Ag Committee, and then a whole bunch of other things she has her hands in.

DT: Your opponent, Hill Harper, has said that voters don't want a race in November between a former CIA agent and a former FBI agent, referring to you and Republican primary candidate Mike Rogers, respectively. That's if you were both to win the primary in August. And in our interview with him, Harper also said he believes the winning candidate should have more life experience outside of Washington, D.C.. What's your response to that?

ES: That can be his opinion. I'm not sure how many Michiganders are looking for an actor to represent them. That doesn't represent our experience, I think, any better. But I've been elected three times, so I have some receipts there.

But I think more importantly, to me being a public servant and choosing to do that. It's a choice. And it's because — in my case, and most public servants — we're built a different way. What's important to us is the mission and helping people and actually accomplishing something.

DT: How would you rate the Biden administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and what would you have done differently?

ES: Yeah, I think it's hard to overstate how this issue is roiling our state. And it's because we have obviously a huge Arab and Muslim-American population. We have a big Jewish population. Any country has the right to respond to an attack on their soil, just like we did on 9/11.

But I also bring with it my own experience serving in places like Iraq. And I think as someone who's supportive of the state of Israel, I've been trying to urge them to learn the lessons that we learned the hard way, the United States, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Early on, you know, the conversations I was having with Arab and Muslim-American leaders, you know, that I passed along to the administration is, you just... you got to understand that people see themselves and their kids in what's going on in the Middle East. It's not just a foreign policy issue on paper. It's personal. People are losing family members.

And I think there was some empathy that could have been added to the mix very early on. And what's best for everyone is a negotiated ceasefire that brings those hostages [being held by Hamas] home. That ends the humanitarian situation in Gaza. And that's what I believe people are trying to do in these negotiations. But it's just proving really difficult.

DT: Well, you mentioned that you support Israel. How do you walk the line? Are you at a point where you're condemning the actions of Israel in Gaza?

ES: First of all, I mean, Hamas is a terrorist organization that perpetrated a grievous terrorist attack on Israeli soil. So, of course, I condemn the terrorist action that put us in this situation.

But I've also been very vocal, again, based on my experience [with the CIA in Iraq]. I remember being in Anbar Province, and our goal was to get rid of al-Qaida in Fallujah. And it took us two separate major initiatives to do that. It was bloody. At the end of it, we thought we had routed out al-Qaida, and six months later they were reconstituted, sometimes with a different name. And the population had been through hell. To me, I just, I can't break from my experience.

DT: But have they crossed the line in the response?

ES: I think that there's been choices that have been made that I would not recommend, let's say, to the U.S. military. Democracies have different responsibilities in a war zone, right? A terrorist organization uses people as human shields. They help bring the suffering onto the civilian population because they hide within them. But that doesn't change the facts that a democracy has different responsibility. So I've been open in my comments, and critical at times when I feel like the Israelis are not learning those lessons from us.

DT: You voted against the latest Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which passed the House late last month. It's an $833-billion defense bill. Why did you oppose it?

ES: Yeah. You know, it's a sad thing. I actually voted for it in committee. I sit on the Armed Services Committee, and we voted on it 57-1. So it passed on a wide bipartisan basis because in committee it wasn't larded up with all these really over-the-top culture-war items that were put in by the Speaker of the House and the Republican majority. And I voted against it, even though it had, I think, 30-plus provisions that I wrote myself. I voted on it in committee, but could not stand by it on the floor of the House.

DT: After the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in the past week. Do you feel pressure on yourself to maintain a cooler atmosphere or a cooler tone in the campaign and in Washington in general?

ES: Well, obviously, an assassination attempt against a former president is just a really, really big moment for our country. And it should be a moment of reflection for everyone. Responsible Americans solve their differences through the ballot box and advocacy and not through violence.

And we are just going through, unfortunately, a terrible moment in American history where we've normalized the threatening of violence, intimidation. Everyone has a responsibility to make sure their speech isn't threatening and intimidating and promoting violence, but [also] that they're calling it out even when it's their side of the aisle. The use of violence or the threatening of violence is not free speech.

Editor's note: Quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity.