Democrats tap Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin to give rebuttal to Trump's State of the Union address

Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News on Feb 27, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Freshman U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address next week — propelling the state's junior senator into the national spotlight after she's spent just two months in the Senate.

Top Democratic leaders in Congress including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York announced Thursday that the Michigan Democrat had been chosen for the high-profile speech in rebuttal to Trump's prime-time address Tuesday ― the first of his second term. Schumer called Slotkin "nothing short of a rising star in our party."

“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 in a statement. “Elissa Slotkin will lay out the fight to tackle the deep challenges we face today, chart a path forward and shape the future of our nation.”

Democratic congressional leaders also said U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., will deliver the Spanish-language response to the State of the Union. Espaillat, whose district includes Harlem, Washington Heights and the northwest Bronx, is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House.

The selection of Slotkin, 48, is a nod to to the upcoming generation of lawmakers in a Democratic Party whose leadership in Congress for years had been led by those in their 70s and 80s. Slotkin is the youngest Democratic woman serving in the upper chamber and the first known former CIA officer to become a senator.

A Michigan Democrat also delivered the response to Trump's last State of the Union address in 2020: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Historically, the rebuttals are delivered from the speaker's home state. The tradition of a televised opposition response to a president's annual address dates to 1966, when then-Republican House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois responded to President Lyndon Johnson's speech.

“I'm looking forward to speaking directly to the American people next week. The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country," Slotkin said in a Thursday statement.

"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, a former three-term congresswoman representing the greater Lansing area, narrowly won election to the Senate last fall by overperforming Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in key areas of the state that also voted for Trump, now the Republican president.

Slotkin had the narrowest margin of victory among Democratic Senate candidates nationally, about 19,000 votes. She has attributed her Senate win to focusing her campaign on the economy and pocketbook issues as top priorities.

Slotkin is known among her colleagues for a pragmatic, no-nonsense style and emphasis on matters of national security after having worked in national security roles in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. She serves on the Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security and Agriculture panels.

In her first weeks on the job, Slotkin has emphasized a desire to "get things done" by working across the aisle, aiming to meet one on one with all her new colleagues, including Republicans. She's identified areas where she sees the potential of overlapping with Trump priorities, like autos and countering China.

She has also spoken out against the nonstrategic slashing of jobs of thousands of federal workers and a blanket freeze of funding that was appropriated by Congress, raising questions about the executive trampling on Congress' co-equal powers under the Constitution. She said a group of billionaires is "leading around this administration by the nose," a reference to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser.

Slotkin has opposed Cabinet nominees like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Budget Director Russell Vought and intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard. She pressed Hegseth in committee about whether he would follow an illegal order from the president.

"I understand that President Trump was elected with a mandate to bring in disruptors to the government. ... My colleagues on my side of the aisle who say, 'Well, this is disrupting everything.' I said: That's the point. That's what that President Trump ran on," Slotkin said in her first floor speech earlier this month.

"So that I don't question. What I can't understand is the willingness to say that I'm willing to violate or bend the rules of the Constitution in order for 'my own party to win now.'"

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