On May 12, 2026, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin told a Washington audience at the Politico Security Summit that she still considers herself a Zionist. Asked directly if the label still applied to her, the first-term Democratic senator answered: "I believe in a Jewish State of Israel, yes. And that to me isn't a radical thing to say and I always have." Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Defense Department official, represents the state with the largest Arab and Muslim American population in the country. She is also widely floated as a 2028 Democratic presidential contender.
The exchange happened during a one-on-one stage interview. The moderator pressed Slotkin on whether the term still fit her politically. Slotkin's response went further than a yes. "I can say that in the same breath that I criticize the military policy of Bibi Netanyahu," she said. She acknowledged the political climate had shifted, adding that it "used to be easier" to say she considered herself a Zionist publicly.
Michigan is home to over 300,000 Arab Americans and the highest concentration of Muslim American voters in any swing state. Slotkin won the seat in 2024 by less than 20,000 votes after Dearborn and Hamtramck broke for third-party candidates in protest of the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza. Slotkin's continued public alignment with Zionism is a deliberate choice. It is also one she will be asked to defend if she enters the 2028 Democratic primary, where Michigan delegates and donors are central to the path.
Slotkin is one of a small number of sitting Democratic senators willing to use the word "Zionist" to describe themselves on the record. Within the Democratic coalition, even pro-Israel senators have largely shifted to language like "supporter of Israel's right to exist." Slotkin's choice to retain the older term, in front of a Politico audience, in the middle of an active war, is the news.
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