Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, after a primary in which she skirted controversies involving President Joe Biden’s age, the Israel-Hamas war, campus anti-Semitism, and electric vehicle policies.
Slotkin received 78 percent of the vote, beating out far-left Hollywood actor Hill Harper. She will face off in November against Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who won the GOP nomination against former Rep. Justin Amash on Tuesday.
The U.S. Senate race is expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive in the country and could determine party control of the upper chamber next year. The seat is currently held by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who announced her retirement in 2023.
While RealClearPolitics’s polling average shows Slotkin with a 5-point lead over Rogers, the Democrat claimed in a leaked private donor call last month that her campaign’s data-crunching showed the race in a "dead heat."
Slotkin, who has served in the House since 2019, has worked to brand herself as a moderate in a bid to attract general election voters in the swing state.
But she has faced some obstacles, including Biden’s waning popularity and anti-Israel sentiment among progressive and Muslim voters in Michigan.
Slotkin declined to campaign with Biden when he traveled to Detroit in July. She also ducked questions about whether she supported his continuation in the presidential race before he stepped aside for Vice President Kamala Harris.
She expressed concerns with his election chances behind the scenes, telling donors on a leaked phone call that "President Biden is behind Trump in all of our polling" and "this Senate race is in a dead heat."
Slotkin, whose state has a large Muslim and Arab-American population, also struggled to navigate the fallout from Hamas’s Oct. 7 mass attacks in Israel. She was criticized for her "weak response" to a pro-Hamas rally in Dearborn and for staying silent after her Michigan Democratic colleague, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, spoke at an anti-Israel conference.
Slotkin has also faced attacks from the left. Her Democratic opponent, Harper, accused Slotkin of failing to call for an Israeli ceasefire because of donor "checks." In fact, Slotkin called for a ceasefire in February and has been critical of Israel’s military operations.
Last month, Slotkin came under fire from Rogers, her Republican challenger, over her energy policies. Rogers accused Slotkin of "getting into bed with the Communist Party of China" after she signed a non-disclosure agreement involving Chinese battery company Gotion, which is building a factory in Michigan.
Rogers argued that electric vehicle mandates and other Democratic energy policies would "destroy American jobs" and undermine the automobile manufacturing industry in Michigan.