Debbie Stabenow, a senator from Michigan and the number three Democrat in the Senate, announced her retirement in January.
Democrat congresswoman Rep. Slotkin quickly convened a team to prepare for a challenge to a United States Senate seat that the party had not anticipated would be difficult to retain in the deeply split legislature. Slotkin, a formidable fundraiser, became the preferred candidate of the Democrat Party establishment and wasted no time in starting to collect money.
Republicans were able to get Mike Rogers, a former U.S. Representative, to run for the unexpected seat when he came out of retirement. With Trump’s support, Rogers had a better chance of prevailing in his party’s primary without getting mired in the infighting that has beset the Michigan GOP lately.
Slotkin and Rogers have challengers in the August primary, but their advantages make a November fight in a swing state possible.
Actor Hill Harper and billionaire Nasser Beydoun will challenge Slotkin in the Democrat primary. Rogers’ opponents are Former Reps. Justin Amash and Peter Meijer, who quit recently, and entrepreneur Sandy Pensler.
Rogers’ biggest benefit is Donald Trump’s support, although conservative Republicans have criticized him for previously denouncing the former President. Rogers appeared with Trump at a Michigan campaign rally recently, aligning himself with a past president he had condemned when the Trump administration sought to investigate the validity of the 2020 election.
Wayne County, which encompasses Detroit and has the state’s biggest Democrat voting base, has been the hub of resistance to Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, and some have stated they would skip the election.
Some have criticized Jewish foreign policy expert and ex-CIA analyst and Defense Department official Slotkin for not taking a tougher stance against Israel.
Slotkin may need the support of Arab Americans if she wants to win in November, but she still hasn’t resolved her relationship with one of the leaders in that group.
Slotkin engaged with Dearborn, Michigan, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, in one of America’s few majority-Muslim communities, just before launching her Senate candidacy in early 2023.
The discussion took a turn for the worse when Hammoud took exception to the suggestion that community members would not back Slotkin due to her Jewish background, even though this has not been an issue with previous Jewish candidates. Slotkin and Hammoud have not spoken to one another since.
