Elissa Slotkin receives violent threat amid Michigan’s tense political climate
Rep. Elissa Slotkin outside the U.S. Capitol Image by Getty Images
By Arno Rosenfeld October 27, 2020
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, reported receiving a voicemail with violent threats at her campaign headquarters over the weekend.
“This week, a caller left a voicemail at my campaign headquarters using threatening, sexually explicit, and violent language, including a threat to ‘shoot my way to victory,’” Slotkin said in a statement.
Law enforcement determined “the individual was unlikely to pose an actual threat,” the statement said.
Slotkin spokesman Gordon Trowbridge told The Forward that the message contained no antisemitic content and that authorities did not believe Slotkin’s religion was a motive for the caller, who they identified as a Michigan minor.
Michigan’s tense political climate was recently in the news after the FBI arrested 13 suspects accused of participating in a conspiracy to kidnap Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Slotkin is locked in a competitive reelection battle with Republican Paul Junge. Slotkin, who is Jewish and a former CIA analyst, was elected in 2018. She defeated the Republican incumbent in a district that President Donald Trump won by 7 points but Sabato’s Crystal Ball currently rates the seat as “Likely Democratic.”
Slotkin said that the voicemail was not the first threatening message her campaign has received.
“I am making this threat public because the climate has gotten significantly worse in the last few weeks,” Slotkin said. “I also want to make clear that law enforcement will be involved in each and every threat we receive. We cannot let it be normal that political differences are metered out with threats of violence.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
