Rep. Elissa Slotkin speaks with former Rep. Liz Cheney on stage in Grand Rapids, Oct. 28, 2024 | Slotkin campaign photo
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) hosted a campaign rally stressing bipartisanship Monday night in Grand Rapids along with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
“It is a privilege to be here in Grand Rapids, the hometown of former President Gerald Ford,” Slotkin said. “He was a leader who understood courage in public service and putting your country over your party.”
“She [Cheney] has a very long history with Jerry Ford with her going back to being 10 years old,” Slotkin said of Cheney, who’s the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. “So I thought it was appropriate for her to be here in Grand Rapids.”
Although Grand Rapids and Kent County have turned blue in recent years, there’s a long tradition of conservatism in the area. Several attendees at the event waved “Republicans for Slotkin” signs and the hall had “Country Over Party” placards. Cheney also has campaigned this month for Vice President Kamala Harris in Michigan.
Slotkin is running against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) for an open U.S. Senate seat.
Rogers attended an event on the other side of the state Monday night hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition in Bloomfield Hills along with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“It is in our interest to make sure Israel thrives and survives because the people who want to kill them want to kill you,” Graham said, as reported by the Detroit News, adding that the way to secure Middle East peace is for the U.S. “to be strong for Israel because the Arabs respect that.”
Rogers also stressed his support for Israel.
“This is also the time to draw some very bright lines around our support for Israel against what we know are 350 million people who want to push them into the sea,” Rogers said.
He said that antisemitic attacks in the U.S. were increasing because of pro-Palestinian propaganda aimed at young Americans.
“They are pumping information through the internet to these kids, Rogers said. “It steers them down a rabbit hole and by the time you’re done, you think every Jew in America is the worst person ever.”
State Rep. Carol Glanville (D-Walker) and William Byl, a retired surveyor, engineer, former Republican Kent County drain commissioner and former state lawmaker were at the Slotkin event.
“I have always enjoyed the political process because it gave you the chance to work with people who were different from you,” Byl said, but expressed concern about politics today.
“I am so dismayed by the politics I have seen over the last 10 years. That’s not possible anymore,” he added. “… To persevere and survive in times like this we need people of good character and courage and that’s why I am so happy to share the podium with two very brave women.”
Byl exited the stage with a leap.
Slotking noted that she and Cheney had worked closely together on issues in Congress.
“Liz and I had the honor to serve together on the [U.S. House] Armed Services Committee for four years,” Slotkin said. “We were able to see each other in action right from across the aisle.”
Slotkin added that bipartisanship “isn’t just about the issues you work on,” but said it’s “about how you approach the job and who you believe you represent.”
Slotkin said that during her 2022 campaign, she was “honored” that Cheney came out and “did her very first rally ever for a Democrat.”
That was after Cheney had been one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Cheney took a lead role on the congressional committee investigating the riot and lost her seat in the 2022 GOP primary.
Slotkin recalled that when rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, many women members of Congress had ended up in the Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Reading Room, which she called “only one truly bipartisan place very close to the floor of the U.S House.”
She explained the history of the room’s creation back “when there [were] so few women that they needed their own room to hang out in, as the men didn’t know how to deal with them.”
Lawmakers were holed up in the room late into the night on Jan. 6 since Congress still had to count electoral votes that showed President Joe Biden was the winner.
Slotkin said that Cheney had been “vocal and strong” and pushed back “in real time against President Trump on that day.”
“Because of the violence that had happened in the Capitol, pretty much no one had eaten that day from 8:30 in the morning to now it was 11:30 at night,” Slotkin recalled.
Slotkin repaid Cheney for her leadership the only way she knew how at the time.
“I was so thankful that someone across the aisle had spoken up, I gave her my most prized possession, [a] sleeve of popcorn,” she said.
Cheney stressed the importance of the peaceful transfer of power, which included when former President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 after the Watergate scandal and Ford became president. But that ended with Trump in 2021.
“I think sometimes we’ve taken the transfer of power for granted,” Cheney said.
Slotkin said the modern GOP is alienating people like her lifelong Republican father.
“My father would look at the Republican Party and say, ‘They left me. I am still the same, but they left me. … Where did they go?’”
Slotkin said “there is no monopoly on good ideas” and promised that Republicans will “always have an open door to my office.”
“We’re gonna decide whether or not we’re gonna be a country of decency and bipartisanship of service or whether we’re gonna let ourselves be pulled apart by extremism and dysfunction,” she added.
Slotkin took questions from the media after the event and was asked what her biggest concern was about a second Trump presidency.
“As a former CIA officer and someone who worked alongside the military, the one area that has really bothered me is how he plans to potentially use uniform military inside the United States,” Slotkin said. “… He’s been open that he would use active duty military in uniform to police our border and set up potential detention camps.”
She noted that Trump has reportedly discussed invoking the Insurrection Act “to clear peaceful protests. For me, that goes to the heart of who we are as Americans. We do not use our military against our own citizens.”
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