Rep. Elissa Slotkin faces off against Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District election

• Rep. Elissa Slotkin is running against Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

• The newly drawn 7th District excludes the city of Jackson, often touted as one of the birthplaces of the Republican Party.

• In 2018, Slotkin became one of 31 Democrats to flip Republican seats in congressional districts that Trump won in 2016.

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin faces off against Republican Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

Michigan's 7th Congressional District candidates

Slotkin became the first Democrat to represent Michigan's 8th Congressional District (pre-redistricting) since 2001 with her victory in 2018 over incumbent Rep. Mike Bishop. That year, she also was one of 31 Democrats to flip a Republican seat in a congressional district that Donald Trump won during the 2016 presidential election.

In 2022, she ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District.

The Democrat from Holly recently traveled to Ukraine with a bipartisan congressional delegation through the House Armed Services Committee. The delegation met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian military and security officials in Kyiv.

Slotkin had a long career in foreign policy before pivoting to politics. The 46-year-old lawmaker, who speaks both Arabic and Swahili, served three tours in Iraq as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, which she was recruited to after graduate school. She also worked for the National Security Council under President George W. Bush's administration, and for the Department of Defense during the Obama administration.

She is endorsed by Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack.

Barrett is a member of the Michigan State Senate representing District 24. There, he is the chairman of the body's transportation and infrastructure committee.

As a member of the US Army for two decades, Barrett served in the Iraq war. He previously served in the Michigan House of Representatives after beating Democratic first-term incumbent Theresa Abed in 2014. He defeated her again in 2016 in a rematch. 

Voting history for Michigan's 7th Congressional District

Michigan's newly drawn 7th Congressional District sits in the central region of the state and spans seven counties. The district also includes the state capital of Lansing.

Trump defeated President Joe Biden by nearly 1 percentage point under the district's previous boundaries in the 2020 presidential election. Following the election and the publication of the results from the 2020 Census, the district was redrawn to shed some communities in northern Oakland County, making it less favorable for Republicans.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Slotkin has raised $9.3 million, spent $8.4 million, and has $2.4 million of cash on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Barrett, has raised $2.5 million, spent $2.4 million, and has $63,172 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend more than $26.4 million through early November to advocate for or against the two candidates, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee together so far accounting for almost half of that spending.

What experts say

The race between Slotkin and Barrett is rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider