How Elissa Slotkin, a Moderate Michigan Democrat, Is Fighting Trump Tooth and Nail
Good morning. Elissa Slotkin isn’t necessarily a household name. But just over two months into her term as Michigan’s new senator, the former US representative and ex-CIA analyst is already drawing headlines—along with an invite to The View—and is proving to be a formidable voice in a Democratic Party that’s in desperate need of new leaders.
In a sweeping profile, Marie Brenner unpacks Slotkin’s combative yet calculated rhetorical approach, which we saw most recently with her blistering critique of Donald Trump’s Oval Office showdown with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But Brenner also chronicles how the rising Democratic star has become a “future standard-bearer for a more moderate vision”—a vision that the James Carvilles of the world believe is key to reclaiming the Midwest from the GOP. “If the party had more candidates like Elissa Slotkin” in the 2024 race, he says, “they would have won.”
Whatever the case may be, Slotkin’s style as a “radical pragmatist” is in for a major stress test over the next four years of Trump-induced chaos. So far, she’s taken Elon Musk to task for his conflicts of interest and made a fool of Pete Hegseth during his confirmation, all while displaying empathy and urgency on the issues that matter to her most. “The thing I pride myself on the most is that I am independently minded,” she tells Brenner. “I never like the bullying that [goes] on in certain Republican circles. It really bothers me.”
Speaking of Republican bullying, will someone, anyone, put a check on Elon Musk? Well, Gabriel Sherman reports that Susie Wiles is leading a behind-the-scenes effort to clip the billionaire’s wings after the shouting that erupted between Musk and Marco Rubio last week. “It was, like, one step short of a fistfight,” one source tells him. Oh, and there’s also the Supreme Court, which, thanks to Amy Coney Barrett, recently ruled against Trump’s foreign-aid funding freeze. The justice is the subject of the latest episode of Inside the Hive, in which editors are joined by VF’s legal affairs writer Cristian Farias to unpack why the MAGA movement is beginning to believe she’s a “stealth liberal.”
Elsewhere, Eric Lutz catches up with Bernie Sanders on his anti-oligarchy tour in Wisconsin, where the senator is offering a glimmer of hope and energy in the Democratic resistance. “People are really, really concerned about what’s going on in Washington right now,” Sanders tells Lutz. Plus, in tech, Issie Lapowsky observes Meta using a very familiar PR playbook amid the release of a damning new memoir from a former Facebook employee. Thanks for reading.
—Jon Skolnik, associate editor
