Elissa Slotkin to Fellow-Democrats: “Speak in Plain English”
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What challenges did Alyssa Slotkin face winning her Senate seat?
When Alyssa Slotkin narrowly won her Senate seat in Michigan last fall, she was one of four Democratic senators to claim victory in states that also voted for President Trump. And it made other Democrats sit up and take some notice. Since then, the party has turned to her as someone who can bridge the red-blue divide. She delivered the Democratic Party's response to Trump's speech before Congress back in March. And so the party is putting Slotkin front and center. But she's also giving the Democrats a dose of tough love. She thinks that they need to start projecting what she calls alpha energy. She said identity politics needs to go the way of the dodo and that Democrats should drop the word oligarchy from their playbook. Senator Slotkin prides herself on bipartisanship. She believes that finding a path forward for the Democrats absolutely demands old school collaboration in Congress.
For me, as someone who's new to this body, 30 days in this body, I will always seek to work where I can with my colleagues, but not at the expense of the fundamental freedoms and our democracy. That may not be politically palatable back home, but I don't care. Because if we can't do it, what is the point? What is the point of being senior elected leaders in this body if you don't stand up for the country that you love? There's no king in this country. There's an elected president. Please stand up on behalf of your country.
I spoke to Alyssa Slotkin last week. Senator, you won the Michigan Senate seat in a state that voted for Donald Trump. And given your own track record, what do you think those voters saw in both you and the person they voted for for president?
What does 'alpha energy' mean in politics?
Well, you know, I think the way that I've boiled it down is basically two things. Number one, I focused pretty religiously on economic issues. I mean, the vast majority of my TV ads and my mailers and my digital stuff was about pocketbook issues in one way or another. And I think there was a question about Democrats in general and what their priorities were and if their priorities were actually like lowering costs. And then the second thing is a little bit more ephemeral. It's harder to grab. And that's just kind of an alpha energy thing, right? I mean, I think people are looking for leadership and to sort of lead through the dark tunnel into the light of a very complicated time in our country's history. And so they want a little alpha. And that's not a male-female thing. That's just a leadership thing. And I obviously have major disagreements with the way Trump leads, but I don't think most people would deny he's got alpha energy.
Why does Slotkin believe Democrats should avoid identity politics?
And for me, especially going into communities, you know, in order to win and represent my state, I got to go into very conservative, very red areas, very Republican areas. My whole strategy is lose better in red areas, right? Go in and meet enough people and surprise enough people that you peel away some of those voters and you lose better, you know, with 41 percent of the vote instead of 35 percent of the vote in a certain county or an area. And I think part of that is it's not about your policy papers that you write on your website. It's not about wonky stuff. It's just like, do they get the leadership vibe from you? And I think I had a few more ounces of that than maybe the average Democrat. And it helped me in some of those areas where Democrats kind of lost pretty big.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What challenges did Alyssa Slotkin face winning her Senate seat?
1:03–2:56
2
What does 'alpha energy' mean in politics?
2:56–4:03
3
How should Democrats address economic issues?
4:03
4
Why does Slotkin believe Democrats should avoid identity politics?
3:34–10:06
5
What are the sacred cows in American politics?
10:06–14:51
6
How does Alyssa Slotkin propose to change immigration policy?
14:51
7
What is the importance of bipartisanship for Slotkin?
2:37–13:06
8
Why does Slotkin argue against the term 'oligarchy'?
13:06–30:25