So far, Slotkin is the only candidate with “the level of organization, the level of financial support that you’d expect to see from a winning statewide campaign,” said Richard Czuba, a longtime Michigan pollster and founder of the Glengariff Group Inc.
Slotkin said one of her main focuses is addressing the “over the top” costs of child care, education, housing, health care and prescription drugs, noting that “if you’re not talking about the economy and the future of work and the middle class, you’re only having half the conversation.”
She’s also concerned about ongoing access to reproductive rights at the federal level, arguing that Michigan’s 2022 passage of state-level abortion rights could be jeopardized by future federal restrictions.
But her opponents contend Slotkin missed multiple chances to address voter concerns during her nearly six years in Congress.
“There’s so many people that don’t feel represented, they don’t feel that Washington is actually helping them, they think it’s actually hurting them,” Harper said in a recent campaign video. “They want real representation.”
Beydoun told Bridge he believes Michigan voters are “waking up” to U.S. foreign policy shortfalls amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and would support his platform of downsizing funding for foreign wars to invest in domestic interests such as health care and education.
Slotkin, who supported Congress’ recent foreign aid package but has called on Israel to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, acknowledged that the conflict is “roiling our state” and said she’s spent considerable time meeting with groups on both sides of the issue.
“I hear so many of the same feelings and frustrations and pains from groups that are on very different sides of this conflict,” she said. “I try and be aware and present for any conversation I have with people, even when we don’t always agree, and I think that’s my job…That doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
The Detroit factor
Much of Slotkin’s primary focus is centered around the city of Detroit, a heavily Democratic and majority Black region capable of making or breaking Democrats’ chances in the general election.
It’s a place where Slotkin, who hails from northern Oakland County and represents a swath of mid-Michigan in Congress, hasn’t previously had to court votes or build community relationships.
That’s meant at least 90 appearances so far in the city and more coming, according to her campaign.
“I know that I’ve never represented the city of Detroit, and it’s on me to show up, introduce myself, listen, and then keep coming back,” Slotkin said. “I am completely aware that it is on me to earn people’s votes, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Harper has made inroads among prominent Black officials in metro Detroit, picking up endorsements from Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and former U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, a Southfield Democrat who at one point considered running herself if no other African-American candidates were in the race.
Evans, in particular, has been critical of Democrats’ engagement with Black voters in Wayne County, writing in a recent Detroit Free Press column that Democrats up and down the ticket could be in peril if their votes are taken for granted.
