By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


With just a few days remaining before Election Day, the man who is seeking to unseat 8th District Democrat Elissa Slotkin is accusing her of calling for protests if the vote tally is close, something her campaign says is misleading and a partisan attack.

In a press release issued Friday, the campaign for Brighton Republican Paul Junge included a video of a “Fireside Chat” earlier in the week featuring Slotkin in which they allege she “called for protests if the election is too close to call” and “predicted that voters in the 8th District would resort to “violence” if President Trump were to lose the election.”

In the video, Slotkin speaks to supporters via a Zoom call about the lessons Democrats learned from the Bush versus Gore recount fight in Florida, saying “you need to sort of demonstrate that there is a fight here and that we’re not going to sit here on our hands waiting for legal process,” adding that she would “not be surprised if we saw sporadic violence” in places like the 8th District.

Junge’s Campaign Manager Rob Wagener said based on those statements, Slotkin “exposed herself as a liberal activist and a junior member of the Squad” referring to the informal name given to four Democratic Congresswomen elected along with Slotkin in 2018 including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Junge said the comments show Slotkin’s “true radical liberal colors” and that just as “Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters deplorable,”Slotkin is calling them prone to violence, adding that he will “provide respectful, civil representation unlike” what he referred to as Sloktin’s “reprehensible accusation” that 8th District residents will commit violence if President Trump is not re-elected.

In response, Gordon Trowbridge, the Senior Adviser for Communications with Elissa Slotkin for Congress, said “Once again, Mr. Junge is trying to mislead the public about Congresswoman Slotkin’s statements and record. In the video, she was relaying the reflections of those involved in a dispute more than 20 years ago, not advocating for future actions. And the Congresswoman has repeatedly expressed her confidence in the local clerks of our district to administer a free and fair election. Those who seek elected office should spend their time speaking out against the ongoing attempts to undermine our democracy, rather than engaging in partisan attacks against a congresswoman who has defended that democracy her entire professional life.”

Slotkin became the first Democrat to represent the 8th District since 2000 when she narrowly defeated Republican Mike Bishop in 2018.