- Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin has launched an ad blitz against EV mandates.
- In the commercial, the Democrat says “What you drive is your call, no one else’s.”
- This stands in stark contrast to the Democratic party, which openly embraces EVs and has given billions away to support them.
Electric vehicles have been a cornerstone of the Democratic platform and the party’s playbook mentions them multiple times. One such passage claims, “With tax credits, Democrats helped quadruple sales of electric vehicles, with the goal that 50 percent of all new passenger cars sold in the U.S. by 2030 be electric.”
Given this, it’s interesting to see Michigan senate candidate Elissa Slotkin campaign against EV mandates. In a recent ad blitz, the Democrat says she lives on a dirt road nowhere near a charging station so she doesn’t own an EV.
More: 300,000 EVs Claimed $2 Billion In Tax Breaks, And You Helped Fund It
Representative Slotkin goes on to say, “No one should tell us what to buy and no one’s going to mandate anything.” She ends the 30 second commercial by stating, “What you drive is your call, no one else’s.”
While its unusual to see a candidate publicly buck their party, EVs have become a divisive issue as some people contend they’re being forced on consumers who don’t want them. It’s hard to argue with that as electric vehicle sales have been climbing, but at a much slower rate than many automakers anticipated.
This has resulted in a number of companies delaying plans to go electric-only as well as pushing new EVs to the back burner. In fact, not far from Slotkin’s home is GM’s Orion Assembly, which has seen its reopening delayed multiple times due – in part – to lackluster EV sales.
Slotkin has also been hit for her support of EVs as a commercial supporting her Republican rival, Mike Rogers, claimed she voted to “allow states to ban gas vehicles.” Digging into the matter, we can see Slotkin voted Nay on the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act. It sought to revoke California’s ability to set standards that “directly or indirectly limit the sale or use of new motor vehicles with internal combustion engines.”
It remains to be seen how much Michigan voters care about EVs, but Real Clear Polling says Slotkin has an average three point lead.
