Swing state Sen. Elissa Slotkin to deliver rebuttal to Trump’s speech to Congress

It is a high profile assignment for a newly minted U.S. senator considered a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Elissa Slotkin ran for Senate last year after three terms in the House representing Michigan’s 7th District, which includes the state capital of Lansing in the midsection of the state, miles and miles of farmland, as well as suburbs of Detroit. Now, the first-term senator will take the national stage.

Slotkin will deliver the Democrats’ rebuttal to President Trump’s first address in his second term to a joint session of Congress. Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday night.

In each of her campaigns, Slotkin has focused on her background in national security. She’s a former CIA analyst who joined the agency in response to Sept. 11 and did tours in Iraq. She served in both the Bush and Obama presidencies.

Slotkin highlighted her bipartisan background and political leanings in both her runs for office. Her home district, in an important swing state, is also considered one of the most competitive in the country.

On the campaign trail last fall, she asked supporters in Grand Rapids, Mich.: “Raise your hand if when you were growing up, one part of your family was Republican.”

Slotkin then lamented the current state of politics, adding, “raise your hand if in the past six or seven years, a relationship with a family member, a friend, a colleague has become strained because of national politics.”

She looked around the room at the hands raised and said “I’ve always believed that public service should mean reaching across the aisle to get things done.”

“And I say that proudly as a Democrat representing a Republican-leaning district,” Slotkin said.

If anything, the political divide has only widened in the weeks since Trump — and Slotkin — took office. Since then, she’s voted against Trump cabinet nominees, including Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.

“[Hegseth] couldn’t unambiguously say that he will push back if the president asked him to do something that wasn’t constitutional, and that, to me, is why I couldn’t confirm him,” Slotkin said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

Slotkin’s rebuttal is a way for the Democratic Party to highlight someone it sees as a rising star, according to Matt Grossman, a political scientist at Michigan State University.

But, Grossman cautions there’s also risk that such a speech will come across “as strained or small next to the pomp of the presidency.”

It’s a problem every speaker who’s taken on this task has faced. Plus, Grossman cautions, Democrats who are ready for a fight with Trump likely don’t want to hear talk of reaching across the aisle.

“Slotkin won an open seat in a [state Trump won]. From the beginning, she ran as someone who worked with presidents of both parties and put national security before party. But the Democratic base is looking for signs of aggressive fighting.”

“It will be a difficult line to tread,” Grossman added.

The Trump presidency so far does give Slotkin plenty to attack — from the potential economic impact of tariffs on Canada, to massive layoffs in the federal workforce that have reached into small towns and communities, to the thousands of veterans caught up in the layoffs. The key will be to pull off the criticism while remaining true to the persona she’s embodied to date.

The Democratic response to Trump will be broadcast and streamed shortly after the conclusion of the president’s speech.