When Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) was elected to Congress in 2018, she was a little-known political neophyte who unseated a career politician and flipped her district after two decades of Republican control. Two years later, Slotkin has made a name for herself in Washington, but is facing a tight reelection race in Michigan’s 8th district, where she is considered one of the most vulnerable members of the House in November. Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod spoke to Slotkin and her Republican opponent, Paul Junge, about the contentious race. 

Backgrounds: Slotkin made a career in intelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency and at the Pentagon before leaving government work in 2017. Junge, meanwhile, pursued a series of different occupations. After law school, he spent time working in his family business providing maintenance services to military housing, was an assistant district attorney, held a job as a local TV anchor, worked as an investigative counsel for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and, most recently, served for seven months in the External Affairs Directorate at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

On the record: Junge posited that Slotkin’s voting record during her first term will ultimately be her downfall. “As a first-time candidate, candidate Slotkin was able to present herself in a certain way and when she didn’t have a voting record to push back on it, that appearance of independent-mindedness was appealing,” Junge told JI, pointing out that Slotkin had said in 2018 she opposed impeaching Trump, but later voted in favor, sparking backlash. Slotkin emphasized that the large majority of House votes are bipartisan, and that she has voted against her party 55 times during her term. “I hope that my record speaks for itself.”

Touchy ads: Slotkin, who is Jewish, denounced Junge for campaign advertisements linking her to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, telling JI that the ads “really raised some eyebrows for me.” The images depict Slotkin alongside Bloomberg and label her as “bought” by the billionaire. In response, Junge’s campaign hit back at Slotkin. “Hate groups and antisemitism have no place in our society but unfortunately Elissa Slotkin continues to support antisemite [Rep.] Ilhan Omar and refuses to call for her removal from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee,” a campaign spokesperson said. “The congresswoman is clearly trying to deflect from her anti-Israel record, the fact that she received $2.4 million from Bloomberg in 2018, and is poised to receive more this election.”

Pursuing peace: Slotkin said the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan “just doesn’t seem like it’s going to go very far because it hasn’t included the Palestinians at the table,” adding that “making unilateral moves is not something that promotes peace.” Junge expressed support for a two-state solution, as well as the Palestinian state borders mapped out in the Trump administration’s peace proposal. “I think the chances for peace are best when the Israelis have confidence that the U.S. government is going to support them so that they don’t feel as greatly threatened as they might otherwise,” he said.

New Middle East: Slotkin praised the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as a positive step, but expressed concern about the U.S. potentially selling F-35 fighter jets to the UAE. “When I was at the Pentagon… it was my job to negotiate any deal related to Israel’s qualitative military edge,” she said. “To be honest, the F-35 was always something that most people understood to be a threat to Israel’s qualitative military edge.”

Read the full feature here.