Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-7), who is running for the United State’s Senate, approached the stage at Central Michigan University’s auditorium in her bright blue blazer as the crowd of CMU students and Mount Pleasant residents met her with applause on Oct. 17.

Slotkin said that if elected to the Senate this November, she will work on the issues that young people care about such as mental health, drug addiction and climate change. She also encouraged students to register to vote.

“We've just made a decision right over the last few years, just to not talk about national politics,” Slotkin said. “We have a window now to start having that conversation… . And I have to say young people are leading the way in shoving that window open.”

Slotkin is running against a Republican Mike Rogers for a seat in the U.S. Senate from Michigan after Debbie Stabenow retired.

Slotkin has served as Michigan’s 7th District representative since 2019. Her district includes counties Ingham, Livingston, Shiawassee and Clinton.

Before her political career, Slotkin was a national security agent. She said she decided to join the CIA after she witnessed the 9/11 attack in New York on her first days of classes when she went to college in New York.

Slotkin said she wasn’t politically involved when in her civil service job, but was inspired to run for office in 2016. She also addressed specifically the women audience in the auditorium and encouraged them to run for office if they’re thinking about it.

Carli Paukette, a CMU sophomore and member of CMU College Democrats, said Slotkin’s speech felt personable.

“I thought it was amazing,” Paukette said. “I thought it was so powerful. … When she was talking about women running for office, I felt like she was making eye contact directly with (Paukette and her friends).”

Slotkin said that now she has her personal reasons for running for the Senate as well. She said she wants to ensure Michigan’s economic stability, affordable healthcare and affordable housing.

“My sun and my moon constantly in my work is that Michigan has to be a place with a strong and growing middle class,” Slotkin said. “That means jobs with dignity. …The other side of the ledger, we are paying too much for healthcare, prescription drugs, childcare, post secondary education and housing.”

CMU freshmen Samantha Krawczyk and Tori Zuber said the most important issue for them to hear about was gun violence. Zuber said that experiencing a lockdown for them was “terrifying,” and that their parents' generation didn’t have to go through this.

“I think the school shooting stuff is really important,” Krawczyk said. “I grew up thinking that it is normal to do a school shooting drill. I have never thought it wasn't normal. … Slotkin saying that she wants to have the parents run through these drills, is definitely gonna make them understand that it's pretty traumatizing.”

Slotkin said that she wants “to protect the next generation” from the number one killer of young people under 21 in the U.S., which is gun violence.

“What does a normal society do to go after the number one killer of children?” Slotkin said. “We passed federal law and state law and regulation. … Twenty years from now, (people) are going to look back on this period and be like, ‘What was wrong with them? They let our children get murdered in their schools, and they didn't do anything about it.’”

Slotkin said she grew up with guns and used them at her national service job, but there were also two school shootings in her district – in Oxford High School and in Michigan State University.

“This idea that either you're a gun owner or you care about kids in schools and their safety is a complete false choice,” Slotkin said.

She said that Michigan could bring gun owners into the conversation of the threat of gun violence, because “gun owners also care about their children.”

“Let's talk about the real threats to the youngest generation, not fake threats like books,” Slotkin said. “Teaching Black History in our schools is not a threat to our children. Inclusive society is not a threat to our children. I'm a real threats person.”