Elissa Slotkin and Gretchen Whitmer stoke 2028 speculation as Michigan Democrats

Sen. Elissa Slotkin has stepped onto the national stage with a "war plan" against Trump — taking a more confrontational approach than Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has.

LANSING, Mich. — As she spoke Friday night in the high school gymnasium where Magic Johnson starred as a prep basketball player, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., reached for a football analogy while wrestling with the existential questions facing the Democratic Party.

“We know the Lions are going to the Super Bowl this year because they have a good defense and a good offense, right?” Slotkin, referring to Detroit’s NFL team, told an audience of roughly 400 people at a town hall forum.

“So we have to be able to do both,” Slotkin added. “We have a strong defense, but then you’ve got to have a vision, an alternative vision, to what is being provided to us every day. And that is the charge of the next generation of leaders in the Democratic Party.”

Slotkin narrowly won her Senate seat last year, prevailing in a competitive state that backed Donald Trump for president. Almost instantly, given her against-the-current victory and Midwest perch, Slotkin became a go-to voice for a party struggling with its identity. She delivered the Democratic response to Trump’s joint address to Congress in March.

She also has thrown herself into advocating for a robust takedown of the president’s agenda.