The claim:
Senate candidate Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) claimed in a recent ad, and in a debate Tuesday with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, that she did not support EV mandates.
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“No one should tell us what to buy, and no one’s going to mandate anything,” Slotkin said in the ad, a claim she reiterated on the debate stage Tuesday.
Slotkin continued: “if there’s going to be a new generation of vehicles I want that new generation built right here in Michigan, not China.”
The record:
How do Slotkin’s remarks stack up against her track record?
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Slotkin did in fact vote in the House last year for the EPA measures that would tie manufacturers and consumers to EVs, and last month voted against a House Joint Resolution that would defang the regulations, effectively nullifying EV mandates. HJR-136 passed the House, and the measure was sent on to the Senate. Slotkin’s ‘Nay’ vote favored the mandate.
Slotkin’s reliable support for the EPA measures, which amount to an EV mandate, and her false claims made on the debate stage and in advertising, have made her vulnerable to Rogers’ successful attacks on her record on EVs, and their merit for Michigan and Americans more broadly.
EV mandates are liable to jeopardize UAW manufacturing jobs building internal-combustion engine vehicles, making the mandates a key focus of Michigan’s tight Senate race. But Slotkin’s denial conceals her past history of compromising relationships on the EV front.
Troubling History With EV Manufacturers
Slotkin’s support for EV mandates, which she has denied, obscure other relationships. Her statement, which in advertising and during Tuesday’s debate she couched in remarks about building EVs and manufacturing batteries in Michigan, was not only false but could also open up further weaknesses in her bid for Michigan’s Senate seat.
While onshoring manufacturing enjoys popular support in the 2024 election, Slotkin’s ties with embattled Chinese EV battery manufacturer Gotion, which is linked with the Chinese Communist Party, offer critical context for Slotkin’s debate stage and advertising claims.
Slotkin, along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, was among top Michigan Democrats who received political donations from a law firm representing Gotion. The Chinese EV battery plant was awarded $175 million in state taxpayer dollars months later.
While further ties between Gotion and Slotkin are unclear, Slotkin signed a non-disclosure agreement with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation while Whitmer’s MEDC was working on a deal with Gotion to manufacture EV batteries in Michigan.
Slotkin’s NDA effectively conceals from citizens the details of her possible involvement in the $715 million deal with the Chinese EV battery manufacturer.
Strange framing
Slotkin’s ad also strangely claimed she lives nowhere near an electric vehicle charging station.
“I live on a dirt road, nowhere near a charging station. So I don’t own an electric car,” she stated.
Before returning to her family’s farm near Holly, Michigan, Slotkin previously lived in a Lansing townhouse owned by a Connecticut lobbyist, Jerry Hollister. While there are EV charging stations near her farm in Holly, and in nearby Fenton and Groveland Township, a major selling point of EVs has been the ability to charge the vehicles at home, so it is unclear why Slotkin would highlight her proximity to charging stations. The federal government offers tax credits for installing the charging units.
But the ad bizarrely suggests the EVs she voted to mandate are impractical, even as her claim that EV batteries should be made in Michigan, and the MEDC NDA, conceal potentially deeper ties with Gotion.
Verdict: Slotkin’s claims about EV mandates, while false, also conceal potential compromises with a CCP-linked Chinese EV battery manufacturer that could risk Michigan jobs and gamble on U.S. security.