Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) questions witnesses during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Capitol Hill Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP)

Elissa Slotkin leasing home from campaign donor to run in Michigan’s 7th District: Report

Ryan King September 23, 01:38 PMSeptember 23, 01:40 PM Video Embed

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is reportedly leasing a home from a donor so she can run for reelection in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District.

Slotkin has a seven-month lease on a condo owned by Jerry Hollister, who has donated $1,850 to her campaign since 2018, the Detroit News reported. Her campaign contends that she is planning to purchase a home near the Lansing, Michigan, area after the lease expires in November.

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Hollister, who owns the property alongside his wife Kathy, is the part-time director of government relations at Niowave, described as a “domestic supplier of medical and industrial radioisotopes from uranium and radium.” Hollister is residing in Connecticut and stated in an affidavit that he has leased out the property at “fair market value” to Slotkin since April 15.

He has stressed that he is not a lobbyist and that his company doesn’t have lobbyists. However, opponents of Slotkin have noted that he benefited from a government grant to Niowave that Slotkin supported. The congresswoman signed a letter backing an Energy Department grant that gave $28 million in grants to the company in 2019 and 2021 to ramp up production of a medical isotope, per the report.

Slotkin’s campaign has emphasized that she was not backing Niowave grants in that letter, but rather that she was supporting the initiative to bolster production of the medical isotope Mo-99, which is used for medical imaging.

However, her ties to Hollister have become fodder for her Republican rival state Sen. Tom Barrett, who has highlighted the fact that there are thousands of other apartments in the area available for Slotkin to rent. He also speculated that Niowave was the company that courted Slotkin and others to sign the letter in the first place.

“That Elissa Slotkin wants us to believe that in the entire coincidence of the entire universe, somehow she landed in the residence of a lobbyist, and there’s no untoward or ethical questions about that is ridiculous. Her husband doesn’t even live there,” he said, according to the report.

Slotkin’s husband works as a Pentagon contractor, which largely keeps him confined to Washington, D.C., so he has not registered to vote in Michigan, her campaign reportedly claimed.

The congresswoman first ascended to Congress in 2018, when she managed to flip Michigan’s 8th District blue. After redistricting, she opted to vie for Congress in Michigan’s 7th District, which leans more Republican, according to FiveThirtyEight.

“This new district contains nearly two-thirds of the population that I currently represent, my current congressional headquarters, and my campaign offices from 2018 and 2020,” the Democrat said about her decision to flip districts, ABC 12 reported.

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Some speculated that the switch would spell political doom for her, but she has managed to capture a surprisingly large lead in some polling. The Cook Political Report ranks the race as a toss-up.

The Washington Examiner reached out to a Slotkin representative for comment.

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