Who is Elissa Slotkin, the Michigan senator who gave the Democratic response to Trump's congressional speech?

Newly elected Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan delivered her political party’s response to President Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Slotkin, 48, is the youngest Democratic woman elected to the Senate and defeated former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, who was backed by Trump, by 19,000 votes last November. During her rebuttal, Slotkin noted that while she won in Michigan, Trump won, too — he outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris, grabbing the state’s 15 electoral votes during the presidential election.

Before joining the Senate, Slotkin had served in the House of Representatives for six years and, prior to that, had been a CIA analyst and worked in national security roles under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, which she mentioned in her response speech Tuesday night.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has called Slotkin “a rising star in our party” and told reporters ahead of her speech Tuesday that “the American people are going to love what she has to say. She’s just great on both economic and national security.”

While Slotkin campaigned on key Democratic issues like abortion access and gun control, she has proven she could be a potential swing voter on other issues. In one of her first votes as senator, she joined Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act, a bill that required the detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes.

Speaking from Wyandotte, Mich., after Trump finished his joint address to Congress, Slotkin aimed to address what she described as three core American beliefs: The economy, national security and democracy.

Slotkin tried to present that while Trump has talked “a big game” on the economy, especially when it comes to imposing more tariffs, the “fine print” of his propositions won’t benefit everyone.

“His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber and cars and start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and firms,” Slotkin said. “Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals does not work without going after your health care. Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down. And if he's not careful, he could walk us right into a recession.”

Slotkin also criticized the Trump administration’s firing of federal employees under White House senior adviser Elon Musk, only to rehire them days later.

“No CEO in America could do that without being summarily fired,” she said about Trump and Musk.

Regarding national security issues and dealing with the United States border, Slotkin highlighted her background serving in the military and working to protect the U.S.

"Securing the border without actually fixing our broken immigration system is dealing with the symptom and not the disease,” she said. “America is a nation of immigrants. We need a functional system keyed to the needs of our economy that allows vetted people to come and work here legally."

Slotkin also took the opportunity to slam Trump’s Oval Office spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week — saying it “wasn’t just a bad episode of reality TV” but “summed up Trump’s whole approach to the world.”

Slotkin emphasized that the “instability” Americans are feeling in the country isn’t new and that the U.S. needs to once again prove itself resilient enough to maintain its democracy.

“We’ve gone through periods of political instability before, and ultimately, we’ve chosen to keep changing this country for the better,” she said. “I promise that I, and my fellow Democrats, will do everything in our power to be the principled leaders that you deserve.”