WASHINGTON (Michigan News Source) – Third term Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-Lansing) announced early Monday morning she will be running to fill the Senate seat of retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow for the next term.

In a Tweet, she was the first Democrat candidate to announce her candidacy,  and explained how Michigan is where everything started for her. 

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“I’m a third generation Michigander, and my family has lived the American dream,” Slotkin said in a video, “We all know American is going through something right now, we seem to be living crisis to crisis,” she said.

 

 

She continued by expressing what simple guarantees for American citizens ought to be. 

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“But there are certain things that should be really simple.” like living a middle class life in the state that invented the middle class; like making things in America, so that we’re in control of our own economic security; like protecting our children from the things that are truly harming them, and preserving our rights and our democracy so that our kids can live their version of the American Dream,” Slotkin said in her Senate Announcement video, “This is why I’m running for the United States Senate. We need a new generation of leaders that thinks differently, works harder and never forgets that we are public servants.”

While other Democrat leaders such as Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II and State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) were initially thought to run; they have recently confirmed that they will not seek to fill the vacant Senate seat. 

“Serving our state in Washington, DC would be a great opportunity, but instead I will keep standing tall for Michigan, right here at home, as Lieutenant Governor. The Governor & I have more work to do. I look forward to working with our next US Senator to get it done,” Gilchrist Tweeted on Sunday. 

Republican U.S. Representative James Johnson (R-Farmington Hills) has also revealed he will not be running for the open Senate seat.  So far, only Nikki Snyder,  a member of the state Board of Education, and businessman Michael Hoover, are the only Republicans to file to run for the position. 

In an email to supporters on Sunday, Slotkin also reiterated her interest in gun reform and lowering medication costs.

“I believe the United States Senate is in need of practical, reasonable, independently-minded people who are willing to work with others to get things done. That was brought home to me again last week when we had a shooting at MSU, the second in my district in 15 months,” Slotkin said.“There are too many people in Congress right now who refuse to even come to the table and have a reasonable discussion about how we can do things like protect our children from gun violence or lower the cost of prescription drugs.”

Slotkin has previously served as an intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, and fought in three tours in Iraq. Before Congress, she also worked for the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and in the Department of Defense for President Barack Obama.