U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin highlighted her experience working across the aisle in a speech at Central Michigan University Thursday. The Democrat representing Michigan's 7th District is running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.
Recent polling shows the race is very close, and both campaigns are crisscrossing the state in the runup to the November 5 election.
Slotkin said she has 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 called for change to reduce gun violence. “Twenty 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 with the race less than three weeks from the finish line. Absentee ballots are already available.
One of Rogers' campaign events this week was in the Thumb, where he met with members of the Michigan Cattlemen's Association and touted his endorsement from the Michigan Farm Bureau's AgriPac, with famers expected to be a key constituency in the close race.
