Slotkin will offer her rebuttal after Trump’s remarks, which are scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern time. In a statement last week announcing Slotkin as their party’s pick to deliver a response to Trump, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) described her as “nothing short of a rising star” who successfully connected with Michigan voters, even as the Democratic presidential ticket lost in the state. “She will offer a bold vision of hope, unity, and a brighter future for everyone, not just the wealthy few at the top,” Schumer said. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who worked with Slotkin in the chamber, said he expects the Michigan Democrat to “deliver a comprehensive and clear-eyed response” emphasizing 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.” Slotkin, who served three terms in the House, declined on Thursday to preview her speech’s message to reporters, but when asked whether she would talk about her home state’s auto industry – and any effects its workers might feel as a result of the Trump administration’s policies, including tariffs – the senator said she is “from Michigan. I’m not going to suddenly pretend I’m from somewhere else.” “I’m from a state that feels a lot of these economic issues pretty powerfully,” she added. While Democrats don’t have much leverage in Washington these days – they no longer hold the White House and are the minority in both chambers of Congress – the party in recent weeks has faced internal and external demands to respond to the Trump administration’s work to severely shrink the federal government and House Republicans’ push to potentially cut billions in funding from key safety net programs, including Medicaid. Slotkin said in a statement last week that it is important for lawmakers to directly address the American people’s concerns. “The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country,” she said. “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’s guest to Trump’s joint address is Marine veteran Andrew Lennox, who was employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor, Michigan, until he was fired as part of cuts made by Elon Musk’s US DOGE Service . DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency. In a post shared on X, Slotkin said service “is in Andrew’s blood, and after serving our nation as a US Marine infantryman overseas and a recruiter stateside, he wanted to continue serving at the VA.” “Elon Musk knows nothing about the VA, and it’s shameful Andrew got a pink slip as part of these arbitrary firings,” she said. Slotkin, who succeeded longtime Democratic senator Debbie Stabenow in the chamber, came to the Senate with a proven record of winning in competitive races. She unseated Republican Representative Mike Bishop in 2018 with 50.6 percent of the vote. She won reelection in her district twice before defeating Rogers by a margin of 19,000 votes to win the Senate seat. Since 2018 – when she ran for the House as part of a wave of women who sought public office in response to Trump’s first presidency – Slotkin has positioned herself as a moderate, championing abortion rights, a ban on assault weapons, lowering prescription drug costs and pushing for economic opportunities for the middle class. During last year’s campaign, she picked up an endorsement from former congresswoman Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who campaigned against Trump and his allies down the stretch. On the Senate campaign trail, Rogers portrayed Slotkin as too liberal for Michigan, saying she was consistently in line with President Joe Biden’s policies on inflation and border policy. Slotkin, however, argued that her national security background – as a CIA analyst and later in the Defense Department under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama – inoculated her somewhat from those attacks. “My background maybe runs counter to type with what their stereotype of a Democrat is,” Slotkin told The Washington Post in August. “It’s hard to say that the CIA officer is too woke. You know what I mean?” She also urged for generational change in the Democratic Party and sought distance from Biden before he dropped out of the 2024 race, warning donors in the summer that Biden was running behind Trump, according to the New York Times. After the November election, Slotkin was among the leading voices calling for Democrats to rethink their messaging, arguing that the party had lost its way with working-class voters. “It’s not rocket science, but talking about those issues plainly, not from the faculty lounge, but from the assembly line, is, I think, a very important message,” Slotkin said at a briefing at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in November, according to NBC News. Campaign strategist Jason Roe, who formerly served as the executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, noted that Slotkin has been “better able than most Democrats” to navigate the politics of moderate and centrist voters without fully alienating the liberal left. “I don’t think her voting record is necessarily in conflict with progressives, but I think she’s been able to navigate the appearance of being a centrist in purple districts and in a purple state,” he said. Conservative commentator Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, told Fox News on Monday that Democrats’ choice of Slotkin is “interesting.” “It does signal to the Democrats that the moderate voices are the voices they want the country to hear, they want that to be the representation of who it is to be a Democrat, what it is to be a Democrat,” he said. “So it’s an interesting choice in that sense. The Democrat problem remains that their energy remains with the left-wing base that is out of touch with America.” Some congressional Democrats said they hoped Slotkin’s message would resonate among America’s working class and voters concerned with Republicans’ actions in Washington. Representative Brittany Pettersen (D-Colorado) told MSNBC on Saturday that voters “want to know that people are fighting for them and that we’re showing up in the ways that we need to be right now, because people are very scared of what’s to come.” And while Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) did not want to speculate on what Slotkin will speak about Tuesday, he said Democrats should be highlighting how Trump has “failed to deliver what he promised in terms of lower prices, and everything he’s doing is designed to raise costs.” “We need to lean into the damage he’s doing to the country, to our allies,” he said. Abigail Hauslohner contributed to this report.
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