Michigan Senate: Elissa Slotkin (D)
Though she was born in New York City, Elissa Slotkin is a third-generation Michigander whose early life was shaped by the time she spent on her family farm in Holly, Michigan.
The farm itself was actually part of the Hygrade Meat Company, which was founded by her great-grandfather Samuel Slotkin after he emigrated from Minsk in 1900.
Samuel Slotkin’s hard work and dedication made Hygrade a success, but it wasn’t until two generations later that the company’s fortunes reached the stratosphere.
In 1958, the Detroit Tigers became dissatisfied with the hot dogs being sold in their ballpark, and held a competition for a replacement. The Slotkin family-run Hygrade won the competition and became the club’s exclusive supplier.
In time, Hygrade’s “Ball Park Franks” became the toast of Major League Baseball, and the brand was acquired by Tyson Foods.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Cornell University and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Slotkin, who is fluent in Arabic and Swahili, was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to be an agency analyst.
Within a year, she was sent on the first of three tours in Iraq alongside the U.S. military.
Upon her return, she worked on the Iraq portfolio for the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, and then, during Barack Obama’s presidency, went to work for the State Department and Defense Department.
She was acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 2015 to 2017.
After leaving the Defense Department in January 2017, Slotkin moved back to her family’s farm in Holly, where she owned and operated Pinpoint Consulting until she felt called back to public service.
Slotkin says she first decided to run for office because of her mom, who had died of ovarian cancer in 2011.
Slotkin recalls how her mother struggled to afford health care for years because of an earlier case of breast cancer that prompted insurance companies to gouge her for years based on that pre-existing condition.
Slotkin’s tipping point came in 2017, when she saw two-term Republican incumbent Mike Bishop smile at a White House celebration after he and House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Since winning that election, Slotkin has made protecting people with pre-existing conditions and bringing down the exorbitant cost of health care and prescription drugs one of her top priorities.
She has also fought to bring critical supply chains back to the U.S., creating jobs with dignity, and getting money out of politics.
The above information was sourced from the candidate’s website.
