Elissa Slotkin Announces Run For Michigan Senate—As Democrats Risk Losing Their Majority In 2024

Topline

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) is running to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, making her the first Democrat to enter the race for a swing-state seat in an election year when Democrats will have to win more than 20 races to retain their majority in the Senate.

Key Facts

Slotkin, 46, announced her candidacy in a video on Monday in which she spoke about her time as a Middle East analyst for the CIA and the need for “a new generation of leaders.”

Stabenow, 72, announced in January she will retire after two decades in the Senate, setting up what could be a crowded and competitive race in a state that has increasingly leaned blue since former President Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016.

In addition to Slotkin, who was widely expected to run, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D) is also weighing a bid, Politico reported in January, while Democratic Reps. Brenda Lawrence and Leslie Love have also publicly expressed interest.

On the Republican side, state Board of Education member Nikki Snyder and small business owner Michael Hoover have formally announced their bids, while state Sen. Ruth Johnson has also said she is considering running.

Key Background

Slotkin defied odds in November when she beat Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett by six points in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, rated a toss-up by Cook Political Report. The contest was the most expensive House race in the country. Slotkin, who was first elected to the House in 2018, was the first-ever Democrat endorsed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who backed several Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections in a rebuke of their Republican challengers who backed Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Tangent

23. That’s the number of Democrat-held Senate seats up for reelection in 2024, compared to 11 GOP seats, a map that puts Democrats at risk of losing their 51-49 majority in the Senate. None of the Republican-held seats up for reelection are in states won by Biden, but Democrats are on the ballot in three states Trump won in 2020 (Montana, Ohio and West Virginia), along with five others that Biden won by five points or less. All of the GOP senators up for reelection in 2024 represent states that voted for Trump.

Tangent

Democrats also risk losing a Senate seat in Arizona after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced she was defecting from the party to become an Independent, a move that could split Democratic votes between Sinema and the party’s nominee in a general election race. Progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) became the first candidate in January to announce he would run for Sinema’s seat.

Further Reading

‘Democrat Civil War’: Kyrsten Sinema Will Face Progressive Challenger Ruben Gallego For Senate Seat In 2024 (Forbes)

Rep. Katie Porter Will Run For California Senate Seat—As Questions Loom Over Feinstein’s Future (Forbes)

Liz Cheney Endorses Democrat Elissa Slotkin — A First As She Plots Post-Congressional Political Career (Forbes)