Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) announced on Monday she will be running for Senate, entering a race expected to be a key battleground in the fight to control the chamber in 2024.
I was rather hoping Gretchen Whitmer would run, which may of course still happen. She’s better known state-wide and she’s also more progressive than Slotkin. The race for this nomination may be divisive and therefore problematic for Democrats in Michigan.
Edit: actually Whitmer’s current term runs until 2026, so never mind…
I still think she’d make a great senator
Whatever it takes to keep Republicans out of office.
“Elissa” will be the most Gen Y name in the Senate.
While the Bernie/AOC wing may prefer a more doctrinaire “progressive,” Slotkin appears to be the type of moderately liberal Democrat who is best positioned to win a general election in Michigan.
I have no idea who the best Blue candidate for Stabenow’s seat will be but a CIA grad doesn’t strike me as any less doctrinaire than a talented progressive.
In case anyone has failed to notice, which clearly the media to include TPM have failed, Michigan is no longer a swing or purple state. That said, if the Democrats do not carry Michigan’s electoral votes and win the senate seat, 2024 will be a terrible year.
The only way Michigan is close is if you throw out all the votes from Detroit, as Republicans tried to do in 2020.
Did you see the article I posted yesterday? Republicans have to be less crazy to win an election like this.
David Trott is best known as a Republican congressman who served from 2015 through 2018. But long before he ran for federal office, Trott was a successful Oakland County attorney who wrote the state party 10 checks totaling $187,500 between 2003 and 2013. He has given nothing since, records show.
“I wouldn’t give any kind of significant money to the party, let alone $10, at this point,” Trott said Wednesday. “I didn’t leave the party, it left me. What it stands for today is reprehensible and endangering our democracy.” To be successful, the state party needs not just money, but organization, he said. When it comes to the present state GOP leadership, “I don’t think I would put them in charge of a popsicle stand.”
Shorter Michigan… “Happily recovering from our gerrymandered past”.
(Looking at you, Wisconsin)
Ah yes, my former Congressional Rep. I don’t miss him.
I’d bet the republicans currently in charge don’t either. 
Bernie beat Clinton in Michigan in 2016. She then famously lost the state to Trump, who ran on blue-collar jobs, in the general. In 2022 Sanders only lost marginally to Bidden in Michigan. All of that is to say I am not clear why you think a moderately liberal Democrat is best positioned to win a general election in Michigan. It seems to me that pro-union pro-blue-collar bonafides are what carry the most weight. Clinton did not have that. I don’t know much about Slotkin other than she is a moderate, a retired CIA officer and a meatpacking heir. I am not sure how that will excite blue-collar voters.
“In 2022 Sanders only lost marginally to Bidden in Michigan.”
BIden: 840,360 votes for 52.9%
Sanders: 576,926 votes for 36.3%
Biden got over 263,000 more votes than Sanders—that’s a much bigger difference than “marginal.”
I’m not sure we can count on that. 2022 was a high turnout year because 1) abortion rights were, in the most literal way possible, on the ballot and 2) state governance (guv, ag, and sos) were also all on the ballot
Wanna know the dumbest move the DNC is making in Michigan? Making the presidential primary change to February 27th. That’s today’s date. Wanna know what the weather is in Michigan today? We’re having a fucking ice storm. Who thought of this genius move? I get that they wanna move up the date but…February in Michigan? Give me a break.
As for Slotkin. Feh. Conserva-Dem for her district. May not sell that well in the rest of the state as a Senator from Michigan. Stabenow is a progressive but more importantly she gets the rural areas of our state and works well with the agricultural as well as environmental issues in our state concerning the Great Lakes. Never heard Slotkin talk about any of those things…but we shall see.
Hi there, y’all. Been gone awhile. Kinda back, but not really.
Great to see you. Had been wondering.
(COVID made me worry like hell about everyone who’s been away.)
Since you acknowledge that you don’t know much about Slotkin, here is some additional information:
As of October 2022, Slotkin has voted in line with Joe Biden’s stated position 100% of the time.