Elissa Slotkin


Elissa Blair Slotkin is an American politician and former CIA analyst serving as the U.S. Representative for since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as a Central Intelligence Agency analyst and Department of Defense official. Her district, which was once represented by current U. S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, is based in the state capital of Lansing; it stretches into the outer northern suburbs of Detroit.

Early life and education

Slotkin was born on July 10, 1976, in New York City, the daughter of Judith Slotkin. She is Jewish. Slotkin spent her early life on a farm in Holly, Michigan, roughly two-thirds of the way between Flint and Detroit. She attended Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills. Her family farm was part of Hygrade Meat Company, founded by her grandfather, Hugo Slotkin, Hygrade is the original company behind Ball Park Franks, a brand now owned by Tyson Foods.
She received a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.I.A. from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. In 2001, she completed a course in the Arabic language at The American University in Cairo.
Her early employment included: community organizer for Roca, Incorporated and Swahili language translator for Harbor Area Early Childhood, both in Massachusetts; grant writer at Isha L'Isha ; and intern at the U.S. Department of State.

Career

Slotkin's professional experience included working for the Central Intelligence Agency as a political analyst and intelligence briefer. From 2005 to 2006, she was a senior assistant on the staff of the Director of National Intelligence. She was the leader of a CIA assessment team in Iraq from 2006 to 2007 and the National Security Council staff's director for Iraq policy from 2007 to 2009.
From 2009 to 2011, Slotkin was a senior advisor on Iraq policy at the U.S. State Department, and in 2011 she joined the staff of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy as an adviser on Middle East policy. In 2012, Slotkin became chief of staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy, and later that year she was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy. Slotkin was appointed Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in 2013, and in 2014 she was appointed as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. From 2015 to 2017, Slotkin was acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.
After leaving the Defense Department in January 2017, Slotkin moved back to her family's farm in Holly, where she owned and operated Pinpoint Consulting.
Since 2019, she has also been serving on the Transatlantic Task Force of the German Marshall Fund and the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung, co-chaired by Karen Donfried and Wolfgang Ischinger.

U.S. House of Representatives

In July 2017, Slotkin announced her candidacy for the 8th District. She has stated that she was motivated to challenge two-term Republican incumbent Mike Bishop when she saw him smile at a White House celebration after he and the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. She faced Michigan State University criminal justice professor Christopher Smith in the Democratic primary. On August 7, she defeated Smith, receiving 70.7% of the votes.
In November 2018, Slotkin defeated Bishop with 50.6% of the vote. She is the first Democrat to represent this district since 2001. Her victory, and that of Haley Stevens in the neighboring 11th District, means that there are no Republicans representing Oakland County in the House for the first time since the 1930s. She is the first Democrat to represent this district since Stabenow gave it up in 2000 to make a successful run for the Senate.
Slotkin was the main sponsor of the 2020 Iran War Powers Resolution, which passed 224–194.

Committee assignments

Personal life

Her husband, Dave Moore, retired as an Army colonel and Apache helicopter pilot. They met in Baghdad during the Iraq War and reside in Holly. Slotkin has two stepdaughters, one an Army officer, and the other a physician.