Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
EAST LANSING, Michigan— As 50,000 students and their families milled about Michigan State University’s sprawling campus, with fall leaves crunching under their feet over homecoming weekend, Democratic Rep. Elisa Slotkin was pounding the pavement and calling for reinforcements.
Her House seat was already one of the most competitive in the country—rated a pure toss-up by the Cook Political Report—before 2020 redistricting took away Slotkin’s turf in the Detroit suburbs, where white voters with college degrees helped her win a pair of terms in a district that former President Donald Trump won twice.
Enter the Michigan State Spartans, whom Slotkin called “fundamental” not just to her re-election chances, but the fate of the Democrats’ House majority.