Priorities
Elissa believes that our government works best when we have two healthy parties that debate the big issues facing Americans. She has always tried to work across the aisle on issues like bringing critical supply chains back home, but she always stood her ground when it comes to issues of principle, like protecting our rights and our democracy.
Elissa’s priorities will grow and deepen as she embarks on a listening tour around Michigan, visiting communities across the state to learn about how she can best serve in the U.S. Senate.
Protecting our Rights and Democracy
Click here to hear Elissa talk about reforming the filibuster >>
Click here to hear Elissa talk about protecting the right to choose >>
Elissa believes that protecting America’s democracy is the ultimate kitchen table issue – because every other issue depends on a vibrant and resilient democracy. Elissa has made defending and expanding voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights a priority in her time in public office.
In order to preserve our democracy, we must also reform the very political system we use to elect our leaders. With trust in our elected officials at an all-time low and with the foundation of our democracy at stake, Elissa is proud to have never taken a dime of corporate PAC money – not ever. In Congress, she has led the charge to ban corporate PACs and pushed leaders in both parties to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks. Elissa believes our government needs to work for the people — not the wealthy and the well-connected.
Keeping our Communities and Kids Safe
Elissa’s national security background means she’s focused on the things that are truly a threat to our kids. From physical safety to cybersecurity, she feels there is no higher responsibility than to protect the next generation.
Elissa is the first Member of Congress to have two school shootings in her district – the first in Oxford and the second at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Elissa has seen firsthand the toll gun violence has taken on Michigan and our children. In Congress, Elissa has supported no-brainer gun safety measures to keep our communities safe, including safe storage of firearms, universal background checks, red flag laws, and the assault weapons ban.
After the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School, Elissa introduced a bill requiring safe storage of firearms when children are present in the home, which passed in the House in 2022. Having grown up in a gun-owning family and being trained on a Glock and an M4 during three tours in Iraq alongside the U.S. military, Elissa respects the right to own and to use it responsibly for hunting and sportsmanship – but she will never stop fighting to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.
Making Things in America
Click here to listen to Elissa talk about supporting Labor >>
Click here to listen to Elissa talk about the threat of Chinese “connected” vehicles >>
Elissa believes that we need to make more critical items in America, so that we are in control of our own economic security.
She pushed leaders in both parties to pass the CHIPS Act into law to manufacture microchips in the U.S. and protect Michigan’s auto industry. And she championed bills like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to rebuild our roads, bridges, and water infrastructure while creating tens of thousands of good-paying, union jobs across Michigan. In the Senate, Elissa will work every day to bring critical supply chains and manufacturing back home.
Defending and Expanding Michigan’s Middle Class
Click here to hear Elissa talk about the importance of protecting and expanding our middle class >>
Elissa is a big believer in protecting and expanding Michigan’s middle class. That means addressing the things Michiganders talk about every night at the kitchen table: their pocketbooks and their kids.
Elissa has fought to create jobs with dignity in Michigan, taken on the Chinese government, and worked to bring critical supply chains back to America and good-paying jobs back to Michigan.
And like many Americans, healthcare is a deeply personal issue for Elissa. In fact, it was the reason she decided to first run for office. In 2009, Elissa’s mother was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer at a time when she was uninsured. She struggled to afford healthcare for years because of an early case of breast cancer, and at the time, the insurance companies had gouged her for years based on that pre-existing condition. The same month that Elissa got her mother’s terminal diagnosis and was desperately trying to get her life-saving care was the same month that the family was also filling out the paperwork for her to declare bankruptcy.
Elissa believes all Americans should have access to healthcare they can afford, regardless of pre-existing conditions. No one should ever go broke because they happen to get sick, and no family should have to decide whether they can afford to save the life of a loved one. In Congress, Elissa has taken the fight to Big Pharma and helped pass legislation to make prescription drug prices more transparent that is coming into force in early 2023, and fought to pass laws that capped the cost of insulin for seniors, and allowed Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices.
