Post-Election Remarks - Nov. 6, 2024

Good afternoon, thanks for being here. It’s been a long night and day. I want start with a quick update on the Senate race. We obviously had a very, very late night here. There are still ballots being processed, but as things stand right now, we are very confident that when the votes are counted, we will be the senator-elect for the state of Michigan. We currently have a 19,000 vote lead, approximately, with very few ballots left to be counted, and we hope to have official results by the end of the day.

I have been so fortunate to stand here in front of you and to lead the team I’ve been leading, but I’ve also been fortunate in my past to do things like be a CIA officer, work overseas, work at the White House for two presidents, work at the Pentagon, and then be elected as the representative of the seventh district of Michigan. I’m so grateful that Michiganders have placed their trust in me and to follow in the enormous footsteps of Senator Debbie Stabenow to represent the state that I love.

I want to thank again my family, my congressional team, my campaign team, and all the tireless volunteers that have worked so hard to get us to this point in the race. As I said last night, it takes a village to run a campaign like this and I’m deeply grateful to the faith leaders, the elected officials, the unions, the advocacy groups who helped me make this victory possible. I also want to congratulate the candidates up and down the ballot. It takes a lot to run for office, so I want to extend my gratitude to officials, to clerks, and to everyone who worked to make our democracy function here in the state of Michigan.

I pride myself in being a learning human being. I like to learn. And over the last 20 months, I’ve been lucky enough to travel across the state and hear directly from Michiganders about the real struggles that they’re facing in their communities, and I want to continue to hear from you. I pledged throughout this campaign that I wouldn’t just turn up in election season, and that commitment remains. I will continue to show up, to listen, to show up again. When you call upon me, I will answer that call, and I will act. So let me say as clearly as I can, whether you voted for me or not, you will always have an open door at my office. I will always hear you out, I will always be upfront with you about where I stand because the truth is there are no monopolies on good ideas. My job as an elected official is to fight for Michiganders, Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike. That’s the approach I’ve taken in Congress, and it’s the approach I will continue to take hopefully in the Senate.

I got into this race for four very specific reasons, but my core decision to run was the belief that the state must continue to be a place where anyone from anywhere can get into the middle class. No matter your background, no matter your zip code, that is fundamental. I think this is the existential issue of our time, and I think yesterday’s results reinforced that. Michigan invented the middle class, this very radical concept that you can work in an auto plant and afford the car that you are building. At the end of the day, the math is just not math-ing on the middle class. And I believe a strong middle class is fundamental to the stability and success of the United States. Given the extraordinary diversity that we have in our country, we must live up to the promise that anyone from anywhere can get into that middle class and beyond, or we’re in trouble.

So, as your senator, my primary job will be to work every day to expand the middle class by creating jobs with dignity, attacking the costs that are eating the biggest bites out of people’s budgets, and creating a tax policy that lets Michiganders keep more of what they earn. A major part of making the middle-class work in Michigan is specifically bringing supply chains back home from overseas. We must make more essential items here in the United States – it’s essential for our economic security and for our national security. And while manufacturing is not the only thing we do in Michigan, it is our specialty, and it will be my job to make sure that no nation has a veto on our economic security.

I also ran to protect our kids from the things that are truly harming them. Gun violence, which has so personally touched Michigan and so personally touched me. Opioid and drug addiction, and what I call the diseases of despair: mental health issues. But just as fundamentally, I ran for the Senate to protect our rights in our democracy, including what I now believe to be one of the fundamental flashpoint issues of our time: a woman’s right to choose where and how she starts a family.

Michigan has a really long history of being well-represented in the U.S. Senate by leaders who were known for their decency, for their integrity, for their wit. I am very cognizant of the fact that, if everyone works, on January 3rd, I will be stepping into the shoes of one really amazing leader, my dear friend and mentor, Senator Debbie Stabenow. Senator Stabenow is pure Michigan, and she has quite literally dedicated her life to public service and serving at the local, state, and federal level. I’m enormously grateful for her friendship, her service, her example. And as the first woman ever elected federally from the state of Michigan, I can’t tell you the debt of gratitude I have. I stand on her shoulders. There are few leaders who have done more to pass the torch responsibly, and there’s no question that for me this marks a moment of generational change.

If I have my facts right, I will be the youngest Democratic woman in the U.S. Senate. I will also be part of a new generation of elected leaders that cut their teeth in politics in the post-2016 era. And I want to follow that thread for a moment. I used to have no interest in running for office. I spent my life in national security working for whoever was my commander-in-chief, but the tone and tenor of politics changed so significantly after 2016, that a generation of us, across the country, decided to run. And we bring with us a different approach. I believe to my core that leadership is about knowing about what issues you must compromise on and knowing what issues you must never compromise on. This new generation is not afraid to work across the aisle. It’s our mandate. Because we will always look for practical solutions, no matter which party they come from. Our first priority is to deliver for our constituents and the people we represent, and as someone who comes from a national security background, I will always be biased towards action, not just naval gazing or admiring the problem. But let me clear, when it comes to the fundamental issues of democracy, our rights, our systems of checks and balances, I will not give an inch, To that end, I pledge to follow in the footsteps of Michigan’s great legislators: Debbie Stabenow, Carl Levin, Phil Hart. Leaders who fought relentlessly for their values, worked with integrity to find common ground, and who always put Michigan first.

Last night, the presidential election certainly did not go the way I would’ve hoped. I’m grateful to Vice President Harris for her leadership in this race. Donald Trump and I were both elected by the people of Michigan. Tens of thousands of Michiganders voted for Donald Trump and Elissa Slotkin on the same ballot. And it is my responsibility to get things done for Michiganders no matter who’s in office, just as I did in President Trump’s first term. I’m a problem-solver and I will work with anyone who is actually here to work. As your senator, that will always be my first priority.

I want to end with a note about how we move forward as Michiganders and as Americans. We all know that it’s been a tough election season, and a number of years before that. I believe in my bones that America is at its best when we have two healthy parties that push and pull and debate on issues of policy and substance and make our laws better. That’s what our founding fathers intended and it’s what makes our country great. But we all know that’s not what we’ve had for the better part of a decade. We all know that we’re better as a state and as a country than our politics currently represent. But I’m heartened by the fact that we’ve been through difficult periods in our country’s history before. This is not the first time that politics has created tension in the United States of America. We’ve always gotten through those periods with two things: engaged citizens and principled leaders. Engaged citizens who step up, who do a little bit more than they’re used to doing, who care a couple more ounces than they did two weeks ago because they’re worried about their kids and their country. And principled leaders ready to receive the ball and do something about it. I want to thank my fellow Michiganders for being engaged citizens, for caring about what happens in your state and your country, and I will do everything in my power to be the principled leader that you deserve. Thank you very much, and I appreciate everyone coming out today, thanks.