Elissa Slotkin is testing whether winning in Trump country is a winning message for Democrats | CNN Politics

Sen. Elissa Slotkin knows how to win in Trump country. She’s trying to show her fellow Democrats the way. “We don’t help ourselves by pretending we don’t have a problem, OK?” Slotkin told Democrats at a party dinner here Tuesday night. “Staying on defense only doesn’t win anything. You must go on offense to win.” The Michigan senator brought a dose of tough medicine for Democrats as she visited Iowa, the latest stop on a tour of states that President Donald Trump won, which she believes can be the center of the party’s revival in the midterm elections and beyond. “If we can figure out how to win in the middle of the country, we can work that out on the coast,” Slotkin said. “But what works on the coast does not necessarily work in the middle of the country.” As she joins a long list of Democrats eyeing a potential presidential candidacy in 2028, Slotkin is positioning herself squarely in the middle – geographically and politically – as she tests her message in recent months to audiences in Missouri, Idaho, western Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio. Her appearances are intended to bolster the party in its quest to win control of Congress this fall,