History of Elissa Slotkin in Timeline
1900
Slotkin was born on July 10, 1976, in New York City, the daughter of Curt Slotkin and Judith (née Spitz) Slotkin. She is Jewish. Slotkin spent her early life on a farm in Holly, Michigan. She attended Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills. Her family farm was part of Hygrade Meat Company, founded by her great-grandfather Samuel Slotkin, who emigrated from Minsk in 1900. Hygrade was the original company behind Ball Park Franks, which is now owned by Tyson Foods.
July 10, 1976
Elissa Blair Slotkin (/slɒtkɪn/; born July 10, 1976) is an American politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Michigan. From 2019 to 2025, she served as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 7th congressional district. The district, numbered as the 8th from 2019 to 2023, stretches from Lansing to the outer northern suburbs of Detroit. A member of the Democratic Party, Slotkin was previously a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and Department of Defense official.
1998
Slotkin earned a bachelor of arts in sociology from Cornell University in 1998 and a master of international affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 2003.
2011
Slotkin married Dave Moore, a retired Army colonel and Apache helicopter pilot, in 2011. They met in Baghdad during Slotkin's third tour in Iraq and lived in Holly. The two filed for divorce in 2023. Slotkin had two stepdaughters while married to Moore.
January 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.
July 2017
In July 2017, Slotkin announced her candidacy for Michigan's 8th congressional district. She said she was motivated to challenge two-term Republican incumbent Mike Bishop when she saw him smile at a White House celebration after he and House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. On August 7, Slotkin defeated Michigan State University criminal justice professor Christopher Smith in the Democratic primary with 70.7% of the vote.
November 2018
In November 2018, Slotkin defeated Bishop with 50.6% of the vote. She is the first Democrat to represent Michigan's 8th district since 2001, when Debbie Stabenow gave up the seat to run for the U. S. Senate.
2019
In 2019, Slotkin held several town halls about her decision to vote in favor of President Donald Trump's impeachment. The meetings drew hundreds of protesters and received nationwide media coverage.
September 2019
In September 2019, Slotkin and six other freshman House Democrats authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post calling for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Its publication led to widespread Democratic support for an impeachment inquiry. Slotkin voted to impeach Trump in both his first and second impeachments.
2020
In 2020, during the Trump administration, Slotkin voted against an amendment, supported by 93% of the Democratic caucus, that would provide $10,000 debt relief for student loan borrowers. She also pushed the Department of Education to assist federal employees with student loan payments during the partial government shutdown. Slotkin voted twice against a Republican-led measure that would have overturned the Biden administration's student debt forgiveness initiative. In 2023, that initiative was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
March 2020
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Slotkin supported the bipartisan CARES Act relief package, which passed in March 2020. In May 2020, she voted for the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion stimulus package. In November 2021, she voted for the Build Back Better Act.
May 25, 2020
Following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020, Slotkin co-sponsored and voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. She voted in favor of the bill again in 2021. Slotkin was the only House Democrat in Michigan who voted for a bill to overturn DC criminal code modernization.
2022
In 2022, Slotkin co-sponsored the Ban Corporate PACs Act, which if enacted would prevent corporations from operating a political action committee.
2022
In 2022, Slotkin voted for H.R. 1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022. She also introduced H.R. 6370, the Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act, which would require secure firearm storage in the presence of children. The bill was introduced after the 2021 Oxford High School shooting, and passed by the House as part of the Protecting Our Kids Act.
August 2022
In August 2022, Slotkin voted for the Inflation Reduction Act.
2023
In 2023, Slotkin was one of two House Democrats who voted for a Republican-backed amendment that prevented Department of Defense facilities from displaying non-official flags, including the pride flag. After facing criticism for the vote, Slotkin said that it was intended to prevent the flying of "hateful flags [...] particularly the Confederate flag", adding that she would "rather support a no-flag policy than allow hateful imagery above U.S. military bases". LBGTQ+ rights group Human Rights Campaign endorsed Slotkin in her 2024 Senate campaign.
2023
In 2023, after a mass shooting at Michigan State University in her district, Slotkin and Senator Ed Markey introduced the Gun Violence Prevention Research Act. The bill would provide $50 million each year for the next five years for research on firearms safety and gun violence prevention by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
February 2023
During the campaign, Slotkin signed a seven-month lease on a condominium in Lansing, Michigan. The owner of the condominium was a donor to Slotkin's campaign, but the campaign said the lease was at a fair market rate. After the election and before her February 2023 divorce, Slotkin moved back to her family farm in Holly, in Michigan's 9th congressional district.
February 27, 2023
On February 27, 2023, Slotkin announced her candidacy in the 2024 Michigan U.S. Senate election after Debbie Stabenow announced that she would vacate the seat. She won the Democratic primary on August 6, 2024, with 76% of the vote and narrowly defeated Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the general election, outperforming the top of the ticket.
2025
In 2025, Slotkin was one of 12 Senate Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for the Laken Riley Act.