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Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin faced the heat at a Michigan town hall when she was asked by a constituent how she is standing up to the Trump administration and Elon Musk in the way progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are.
Slotkin responded by saying that her job is to be “more than just an AOC” and “more than just an activist.”
Her response comes as the Democratic Party’s popularity has hit a record new low and some supporters are angry over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to back last week’s Republican spending bill. Musk, working at the behest of President Donald Trump to slash the federal budget, has faced little pushback from Congress as he fires employees and trims programs.
At the town hall Wednesday evening in Flint, Michigan, Slotkin and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet addressed sweeping cuts by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and fears over what it could mean for Medicaid.
Constituent Kristin Fellows, 62, asked the Democrats how they are pushing back against Musk and President Donald Trump.
“We know that you are against these current awful happenings going on in the world, but it is simply not enough for you to repeatedly tell us that you are,” Fellows said, according to the Associated Press, and the question was met with a round of applause from the audience.
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“My job is to be more than just an activist. It is to answer the call when there’s an immigration raid and we need to figure out where our people are,” Slotkin said. “All of those things require me to be more than just an AOC.”
The senator noted that she also serves Trump voters of Michigan – a battleground state that went to Trump in 2024 – and that she is working to respond to the needs of all residents who are impacted by the administration’s executive orders.
“I can’t do what she does because we live in a purple state, and I’m a pragmatist,” she said, according to CNN. Her response was also met with applause.
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Slotkin, who gave the Democratic response to Trump’s address to Congress earlier this month, said that “yelling” at the Trump administration will only get them so far.
“I get it that it makes people feel good to see people yelling,” Slotkin told the audience. “But not one of those words is stopping the actual things that Donald Trump is doing, and I am about action, not words, and I will stand by that as long as I live.”
Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, is about to join Sanders on tour to rail against the Trump administration. The Vermont Independent and the New York Rep. will campaign at college campuses in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado.
The progressive congresswoman was a leading critic against Schumer last week. “There is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to Schumer’s spending bill decision. “And this is not just about progressive Democrats. This is across the board — the entire party.”
Ocasio-Cortez “best reflects the core values” of the Democratic Party, a CNN poll of voters recently found.
