Michigan’s longtime Senator Debbie Stabenow is retiring this year, meaning an open U.S. Senate seat is up for grabs. There is a multitude of candidates running, both Democrats and Republicans, but the odds-on favorite looks like Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who raised $1.2 million within the first day of her candidacy. Slotkin currently serves in the House of Representatives for Michigan’s 7th district which includes both the state capital, Lansing, and arch-conservative Livingston County. From the outset, it was clear that Slotkin was no liberal, let alone progressive. 

Her background was as a CIA analyst during the criminal war in Iraq, not as one of those marching against it. She worked under John Negroponte, a Reagan-era official who covered up Central American war crimes. She was an architect of the failed Iraqi troop surge, although she claimed it was a success against all evidence. During the campaign Newsweek profiled her in the article “Not Your Average Democrat”, which mentioned Slotkin’s opposition to Medicare for All style single payer healthcare.  After her election, the media attempted to create a phenomenon of “the Badasses” by grouping Slotkin with other freshman Democratic Representatives who had served in the military or the CIA. This name prompts the question: what’s so “badass” about Slotkin’s record?  

Opposition to war? That can’t be right. Slotkin opposed ending support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen, even after the autocracy dismembered journalist Jamaal Kashoggi. She also voted against withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria. Of course she is also a lockstep supporter of Israel as shown by AIPAC’s endorsement of her and her signature on a letter expressing “disgust” at South Africa for bringing a charge of genocide against Israel to the International Court of Justice. 

Support for LGBTQ rights? It can’t be that either. Slotkin was one of only two Democrats to join Republicans in Congress in voting to ban the Pride flag from military bases. Slotkin claimed that the ban also banned the Confederate flag and that’s why she voted the way she did. But, you can read Kansas GOP Senator Roger Marshall’s press release introducing the ban where he says “It’s a sad state of affairs when the White House prioritizes their radical social agenda over patriotism…The One Flag For All Act ensures that the American Flag never gets sidelined for culture wars…” It seems like he properly understood the bill was meant to ban the Pride flag even if Slotkin did not. 

What about criminal justice reform? Eh. In a tough 2022 reelection fight, Slotkin expressed support for the death penalty “in rare cases”, a mostly moot point given that Michigan has never had capital punishment, but the remark showed the congresswoman’s “tough on crime” bonafides. She voted to overturn criminal justice reforms in Washington D.C. plus, in something out of Reefer Madness, bar security clearance to anyone who has used marijuana. This is an incredible vote given that recreational marijuana has been legal in Michigan since 2018.  

Well surely any Democrat from Michigan is a staunch supporter of organized labor, right? Think again. When the UAW embarked on its historic “stand up” strike last year, she all but asked workers to accept a substandard contract saying she hoped the strike would be short lived; moreover that the union should not “let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

Slotkin’s record then, is less “badass” than boringly conventional. In fact, the figure Slotkin is most reminiscent of is Krysten Sinema. Like Sinema, she’s another conservative Democrat in the House anointed to run for an open seat in the Senate. Sinema infamously torpedoed bill after bill before leaving the Democratic Party altogether to sit as an independent. 

It’s not looking like there will be much chance to avoid a Slotkin victory. Her three Democratic primary opponents, Harper Hill, Nasser Beydoun, and Zack Burns are all far behind in fundraising as well as endorsements. The only excitement in the primary so far came when both Hill and Beydoun claimed they were offered what was in effect a $20 million bribe by pro-Israel donors to drop out to run against Rashida Tlaib.  Neither took the offer.

On the Republican side, things are even bleaker. The main fight is between to ex-Congressmen and ex-FBI agent, Mike Rogers and comparative moderate Pete Meijer (of the grocery chain fortune.) Meijer lost his Congressional primary to an even more right-wing Republican boosted by cash from the Democrats. If he’s too moderate for GOP voters in Grand Rapids, the same is probably true statewide. Rogers on the other hand, was the best friend the NSA had on Capitol Hill, even going so far as to offer his help in assassinating NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden with a drone strike. He’s endorsed by Congressman Tim Walberg, who despite having the look and name of an accountant is one of the House’s most notorious homophobes. Walberg voted against the Respect for Marriage Act and traveled to Uganda to urge the country to “stand firm” against international pressures due to its laws mandating capital punishment for homosexuality. 

Given the three letter agency backgrounds of Slotkin and Rogers, November’s showdown could be termed COINTELPRO vs. CHAOS. Whether the eventual winner is Slotkin, Rogers, or Meijer, it’s clear who the real losers will be: peace activists, civil libertarians, fighters for single payer healthcare, and anti-death penalty activists. Another loser is our democratic process which puts up such awful choices in the first place.

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