Slotkin looks to ‘level with’ American people as Democrats try to counter Trump address
Newly elected Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan will deliver her party’s response to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday, as Democrats work to define the party’s future following tough losses last fall.
Slotkin’s remarks will be Democrats’ opening volley as the party searches for a compelling, united answer to Trump and the administration’s actions so far amid Republican control of Washington.
The speech will give a high-profile platform to Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who in November held off an experienced Republican challenger in a state that voted for Trump. Congressional Democratic leaders views her as up-and-coming in the party and believe her ability to win a Senate seat in a state Trump won is evidence of her broad appeal to voters
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Slotkin “a rising star in our party,” telling reporters “the American people are going to love what she has to say. She’s just great on both economic and national security.”
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Slotkin acknowledged to CNN last fall that the Democratic Party has struggled to communicate its message to voters. “We also got to get that message out, and we haven’t always been great at that. That’s on us,” she said.
The Michigan Democrat has said that her goal will be to “level with” the American people during her speech on Tuesday.
“The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country. From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out,” she said in a statement.
Slotkin has warned that Trump’s tariff policy could set off a trade war that would be a “gift to foreign automakers.”
Protecting the US auto industry was a central concern for voters in battleground Michigan, where Slotkin and other Democrats argued that Trump’s trade policies and opposition to bolstering electric vehicle production would threaten the critical American industry.
Her Tuesday night delivery comes with high-expectations and risk. GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama faced a backlash after her response to then-President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last year. Britt told a story of a sex-trafficked woman as she criticized former Biden’s immigration policies, but later acknowledged that the incident did not occur during Biden’s presidency.
At 48 years old, Slotkin is the youngest Democratic woman elected to the Senate, but she has entered less as a disruptor and more as a potential swing vote on key issues like immigration. In one of her first votes as a senator, she joined Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act, a GOP-led bill to require detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes.
Her November win kept a crucial Senate seat in Democratic hands in Michigan, where President Donald Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 80,000 votes. Slotkin, who had previously won competitive House races to hold onto a Lansing-area seat, defeated former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers to win her Senate seat in November by a slim margin of about 19,000 votes.
Slotkin campaigned on key Democratic issues, like abortion access and gun control, while also making an effort to reach out to Republican voters.
“You will always have an open door in my office. You will always have a place at the table, because I want to hear from you,” Slotkin said in a direct appeal to conservatives during one of her debates against Rogers.
Slotkin asked voters throughout her campaign to “join us on team normal,” casting herself as a commonsense problem solver focused on the concerns of a broad coalition of voters.
Before serving in the House for six years, Slotkin worked as a CIA analyst and in national security roles under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
As a graduate student in New York City at the time of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Slotkin said that fateful day changed the trajectory of her career and led her to a life of public service.
“I did not go into graduate school thinking I would choose national service as a career,” she had told CNN, reflecting on what was her second day at Columbia. “By the end of that day, I knew national service was what I was going to do.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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Who is Elissa Slotkin, the Democrat chosen to rebut Trump’s speech?
Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat who won the US Senate seat in the swing state of Michigan last year, will provide her party’s response to President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst, Slotkin became the youngest Democratic woman elected to the Senate at 48 when she won her seat in a state that former Vice-President Kamala Harris lost last November.
Slotkin will give her speech after Trump’s, which is not a traditional State of the Union address but is expected to serve the same purpose.
She is due to lay out the Democrats’ vision for the US to rebut Trump’s speech.
“From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out,” Slotkin said in a statement.
In her rebuttal, she plans to “communicate that Democrats are fighting to lower the cost of living and protect Social Security and Medicaid while Republicans cut taxes for their billionaire donors and Elon Musk”, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Slotkin a “rising star” in the party last week as he announced her as the pick to provide the Democratic Party’s rebuttal. He said she was “great on both economic and national security” topics.
Slotkin is new to the US Senate, but she served in Congress as a member of Michigan’s delegation to the House of Representatives. She was first elected in Democrats’ 2018 wave of success, flipping a Republican seat.
Prior to her political career, she held a variety of government jobs. She held national security positions in Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations.
She served in Bush’s National Security Council, and, under Obama, she served as acting assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs and in the State Department.
The CIA recruited Slotkin, who is fluent in Arabic and Swahili, shortly after she earned a graduate degree in international affairs at Columbia University in New York City. She served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst.
The moderate Democrat focused her 2024 Senate campaign on lowering costs for Americans, a move that helped propel her to a narrow victory over former Congressman Mike Rogers, even as Trump won the state.
Slotkin is a member of the committees on Armed Forces; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and Veterans Affairs.
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‘Moderate’ Dem giving rebuttal to Trump’s joint address promoted staffer who boosted Farrakhan
Michigan Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin admonishes Democrats to not obsess over identity politics in the future and focus on kitchen-table issues.
FIRST ON FOX: The Democratic senator who is being billed as a “moderate” and was tapped to give the rebuttal to President Trump’s Tuesday address to a joint session of Congress is still employing a staffer who faced backlash last year for her public support of Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who will deliver the rebuttal to Trump, employed a deputy political director during her campaign last year who posted on Facebook in 2017 about her “full week” of “supporting the Nation of Islam and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan” at the Nation of Islam’s “Saviours’ Day Convention.”
The staffer, Dr. Terra DeFoe, posted a photo of herself standing next to Farrakhan and wrote, “Great time with my Brothers at Savior’s Day Convention.”
Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, has been vocal about what he thinks of Jews, comparing them to termites and saying they are “Satanic.” He has also praised Adolf Hitler as a “great man” and has become one of the most controversial religious figures in the United States due to his derogatory comments about Israel.
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Sen. Elissa Slotkin has faced backlash from pro-Israel groups over her staffer who promoted Minister Louis Farrakhan. (Getty/Terra DeFoe Facebook)
In 2019, two years after DeFoe attended the Nation of Islam convention, she invited Troy Muhammad onto her talk show. Muhammad, who serves as a “State Representative for Minister Louis Farrakhan and Minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 1” and was pictured in DeFoe’s 2017 Facebook post, was described by DeFoe in the introduction as a “valued community leader in Detroit.” The interview, which lasted nine minutes, according to an archived copy, did not include any questions about Farrakhan’s controversial antisemitic comments.
After the conclusion of Slotkin’s successful Senate campaign, DeFoe was given the position of regional director starting in January 2025, according to Legistorm.
Federal Election Commission records show that DeFoe was paid tens of thousands of dollars from the Slotkin campaign between July 2023 and December 2024, weeks before she was promoted to the regional director position.
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A photo of Terra DeFoe alongside Minister Louis Farrakhan, center, posted to her Facebook page in 2017. (Facebook)
After Fox News Digital exclusively reported on DeFoe’s ties to Farrakhan last May, multiple Jewish activists called for Slotkin’s staffer to be fired.
“StopAntisemitism is dismayed to learn that Representative Elissa Slotkin still employs a Farrakhan supporter who has openly praised one of America’s most notorious antisemites. Farrakhan uses antisemitic slurs, and pushes Jew-hating rhetoric, yet Rep. Slotkin has refused to fire this staffer, despite public outcry,” Liora Rez, StopAntisemitism’s executive director, told Fox News Digital on Monday.
“How can a Representative who enables this kind of extremism be considered a moderate? Rep. Slotkin’s silence needs to be addressed,” she continued. “If she won’t take a stand against antisemitism within her own team, why should her constituents trust her to stand up for American values at all?”
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Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan delivers a speech and talks about President Donald Trump at the Watergate Hotel on Nov. 16, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Tudor Dixon, who ran for governor of Michigan as a Republican in 2022, told Fox News Digital in a statement, “No one will be fooled by Elissa Slotkin’s sudden ‘moderate’ rebrand.”
“There’s nothing moderate about defending open borders, higher taxes, EV mandates, and coddling criminals. Elissa Slotkin is a far-left progressive who continues to surround herself with activists that are completely disconnected from the average American.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Slotkin’s office and DeFoe multiple times but did not receive a response.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
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