This Democrat’s accountability plan has Trump fuming

Sen.

Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) at a news conference in the US Capitol on June 18, 2026. | Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images The 2026 midterms are less than two weeks away, which means we’ll soon have a better idea of what the next two years of American politics could look like.

If Democrats win at least one chamber of Congress — and they’re comfortable favorites to control the House — they’ll enter 2027 with oversight power for the first time in Donald Trump’s second term.

If they win the Senate, too, they’ll have even more power.

Whatever the outcome, Michigan Sen.

Elissa Slotkin wants her party to hit the ground running.

In an interview with Vox’s Astead Herndon at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics , she explained that the key divide in the Democratic Party is no longer “moderate versus progressive.” “Particularly in the era of Trump, I think it is fight versus flight,” she said.

“Regardless of your persuasion, do you believe that we need to think differently about how we exercise power and oversight in the era of Trump and if we don’t, we’re at risk of losing our country as we know it?” Slotkin, who says she’s on “Team Fight,” discusses what that Day 1 Democratic agenda should look like, how she plans to hold the Trump administration accountable, whether she’s considering a presidential bid, and more.

Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity.

There’s much more in the full show, so listen to America, Actually wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel .

How does Congress reassert its role so that people believe in the kind of checks and balances that Trump has washed away? When I think about, hopefully, Democrats doing well in a few short weeks here, the election is the end of one phase, but a much more important phase then comes into focus, and that’s what you do with the power that you’ve won.

If we manage to win the House and especially the House and the Senate, there’s three things that we need to do.

One, we need to pick two or three big pieces of legislation that speak directly to people’s pocketbooks and go hard on those — I would say housing and healthcare.

Number two, we do have to have accountability for the unbelievable corruption that we are living under right now.