Democrat Elissa Slotkin announces run for open Michigan Senate seat

Elissa Slotkin, 46, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D), the Michigan representative announced Monday. She is the now first Democrat to enter what very well could be a heated "marquee general election fight" in a "major battleground state" during a presidential election year, writes The New York Times.

"We need a new generation of leaders that thinks differently, works harder, and never forgets that we are public servants," Slotkin, a former intelligence officer for the CIA, said in a campaign video posted on Twitter.

Slotkin's moderate politics have so far served her well among the Michigan electorate she represents — Indeed, "she flipped a Republican-held district in 2018, held it in 2020 and was widely seen as endangered last fall, but ultimately won by five percentage points," the Times writes. That she recaptures Stabenow's open seat would also prove crucial to Democrats' hopes of maintaining a narrow majority in the Senate, where the party currently boasts a 51-member edge, adds The Associated Press.

"We seem to be living crisis to crisis," Slotkin continues in the video. "But there are certain things that should be really simple, like living a middle-class life in the state that invented the middle class. Like making things in America so that we're in control of our own economic security. Like protecting our children from the things that are truly harming them. And preserving our rights and our democracy so that our kids can live their version of the American dream."

To that end, Slotkin's campaign is expected to focus on gun violence prevention and the economy, both the Times and AP write.