Michigan Senate – Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) vs. former Rep. Mike Rogers (R)

Michigan hasn’t elected a Republican Senator in the 21st century - an unusually long GOP losing streak for a state that is so competitive in races for President, Governor, etc.

But the most recent Wolverine State Senate race - in 2020 - was quite close; The Democrat won by just 1.6%. Four years later, the incumbent Democrat who holds the other Senate seat is retiring, setting up for an all-out war between Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) and former Rep. Mike Rogers (R).

Rogers has been out of electoral politics for ten years and has had to remind voters about his extraordinary record of service - Army Lieutenant, FBI Special Agent, and seven terms in the US House of Representatives that included four years of service as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

Slotkin is Jewish but has refused to confront her notoriously antisemitic colleague Rashida Tlaib and has failed to speak with moral clarity about the surge of antisemitism from radicals on campus and in our cities.

Slotkin has also been firmly aligned with J Street since her first election, when she was the top beneficiary of the pro-Iran deal organization’s financial support. Accordingly, she encouraged Biden’s ill-fated effort to revive Obama’s Iran deal, and she voted against the bill to cancel the Biden/Harris administration’s embargo on weapons to Israel.

The GOP has a chance to build a robust Senate majority - one that will last - by flipping seats when it’s easiest to do so: when there’s no incumbent. That makes Michigan’s Senate race a critical priority for Republicans nation-wide as we head down the homestretch.

House Battlefields

A reminder of how hard it is to defeat incumbents: Even as the GOP was winning the majority in the House of Representatives in 2022, just four Democratic incumbents went down to defeat.

Two years later, those four Republican giant killers - Mike Lawler, Tom Kean, Jen Kiggans and Zach Nunn - are top Democrat targets. All four have been stalwart allies and partners for the Jewish community and all four face well-funded challengers aligned with J Street.

Two of this cycle’s best opportunities to take out Democrat incumbents are in two north-eastern districts carried by Trump in 2020, where hopes are riding on two young recruits of extraordinary promise.

• 34-year-old Rob Bresnahan, challenging Rep. Matt Cartwright (D) in Pennsylvania’s 8th district (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area), is a successful businessman and well-known community philanthropist.

It would be welcome news for pro-Israel activists if Bresnahan defeats Cartwright, who voted for the Obama Iran deal and participated in a tour of the Middle East organized by a pro-BDS group that refused to condemn Hamas and the attacks of October 7, 2023.

• 30-year-old Austin Theriault, challenging Rep. Jared Golden (D) in Maine’s vast and heavily forested 2nd district, is a member of the State House of Representatives and a retired champion NASCAR driver.

Golden is another Democrat whose initial election J Street heavily supported. His recent votes include opposing holding Rep. Ilhan Omar accountable for her antisemitic attacks and preserving funding for UNRWA.

At the leadership level, Republicans are all in on these seats - matching the Democrats super PAC spending on their incumbents with even bigger investments in Bresnahan and Theriault. If grassroots GOP members across the country do their part, victory in these races is within reach.