Slotkin on Democratic divisions: ‘We’re like a solar system with no sun’

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin delivered a blunt assessment of what’s wrong with her party on Thursday.

Slotkin expressed frustration with how she said the Democratic Party was “disparate,” allowing itself to be split by internal disagreements.

“We’re like a solar system with no sun … We don’t act as a team, and when we don’t work as a team, we turn our guns on each other, and it’s so, so, so, fruitless,” she said in a speech at the Center for American Progress.

Asked after her speech by ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis if she had confidence in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Slotkin declined to answer.

“They are the leaders of the House and Senate,” she said. “I work with them every single day. I push on them every day, especially in the Senate. I think they would attest to that. And we need to work as a team, and we need wartime generals who are gonna get us there because of what’s going on in the country. And I have no big announcement to make. I would just say the pressure is there from inside the caucus, but also from the grassroots.”

Slotkin characterized the central split within the party as between those who saw the second Trump administration as “an existential threat to democracy” and would actively resist, and those who saw it as “bad, but kind of like the first Trump administration: survivable.”

“These labels of progressive, moderate, whatever — that’s less relevant. It’s fight or flight,” Slotkin said. “I think we are churning behind closed doors to figure out which camp can win.”

Slotkin pushed her party to focus their priorities on Americans who are struggling the most. A shrinking middle class is the “single greatest security threat to the U.S.,” she said.

“I believe deep in my bones that if we lose our middle class and, by association, the American Dream, we will lose our democracy and eventually our country,” Slotkin said.

In her speech, meant to present “A New Vision for the Democratic Party”, Slotkin laid out a plan to focus on affordability and “pocketbook” issues. During her speech, she said Democrats needed to “get back to the basics”, which included creating more and better jobs, affordable options in education, and building more housing.

As the Democratic Party seeks a message that will resonate with voters after its losses in 2024 election, Slotkin emerged as a voice proposing a way forward for the party. Slotkin prevailed over Republican candidate Mike Rogers by 0.34 percentage points last November in a state that President Donald Trump won by more than 1 percentage point.

“In a multiracial, multiethnic democracy like ours, when people don’t feel like they can get ahead, when the system is rigged against them, they start blaming people who don’t look like them, or who sound different, or who pray differently. It’s how we begin to tear each other apart from the inside,” Slotkin said. “So in order to attack that threat, we need to get government back to the basics of what it was designed to do.”

“And to me, those fundamentals are the following: jobs that pay enough to save every month; schools that prepare kids for those jobs; a home you can call your own; safety and security from fear; energy to power our lives; and an environment to pass on to our kids; and health care you can actually afford,” she added.

Slotkin highlighted impacts from artificial intelligence as an area that would require wholesale changes to how the government approaches jobs and education.

“We need to invest heavily in certification programs, community colleges, trade schools and apprenticeships. Key to that is taking a stick of dynamite to our federal workforce training programs. Just blow it up,” Slotkin said. “We have to align all those programs around one goal: training and retraining people for a future economy.”

Another area Slotkin addressed was housing costs and the need to build more homes. She said the country needed 4 million homes to catch up with what she called a “housing emergency.”

“The single biggest thing holding us back is overlapping and outdated housing regulations … We need to streamline regulations that hold back builders from constructing homes, federal and state programs, but also incentives for communities to change zoning laws that prevent corruption,” Slotkin said.

Speaking on health care costs, she argued special interest campaign donations and lobbying were key factors preventing politicians from lowering prices.

“We have to go after special interests that keep our health care prices high,” Slotkin said. She added that the perception that special interests were influencing politicians’ decisions contributed to some voters believing “the system is flawed” as a whole. “I think that you have to have a radical package of ethics and money reform in order to even start to right that ship.”

Asked what she took from New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s presumptive win in the New York Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, where the progressive candidate obtained more first-choice votes than former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Slotkin said voters’ prioritization of cost of living was clear.

While Mamdani ran a campaign with a similar relentless economic focus as Slotkin’s “war plan,” he unabashedly embraced progressive stances, including city-owned grocery stores.

“People, just like in November, are still really focused on costs and the economy, and their own kitchen table math, and they’re looking for a new generation of leadership,” Slotkin said. “It reinforces that you may disagree on some key issues, but understanding that people are concerned about their family budget, that is a unifying thing for a coalition.”