One month from today, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next President of the United States.

Like many of you, I’m sure, I've been thinking a lot lately about an approach to the new administration — balancing my mandate to work with the administration where I can get stuff done for Michigan with the areas where I know I can never compromise.

We know from the last Trump presidency that we can't possibly be effective if we try to push back on everything he says, every day. It’s like a bunch of little kids on a soccer field, running after the ball — it's just not a very effective defense.

Here’s the framework I’ve come up with for choosing how and when to engage: when the administration takes an action, first we have to assess whether it is a tactical or strategic threat. That means asking: is it a short-term threat, or a true long-term threat?

If it’s a true long-term threat, with the possibility to affect our nation beyond just the next news cycle, then we have to assess: is this something that’s reversible, or is it irreversible? Meaning, could a future administration come in and undo the damage?

And if something is both long-term and irreversible, that’s when we engage.

For instance, if President Trump were to activate the uniformed military to contravene the Constitution, serve in law enforcement roles in our cities, and make the public fear their own military, that damage — to an institution that should be non-partisan — is irreversible. We always want a nonpartisan military that doesn't act against the Constitution.

And when we’ve decided to engage on an issue, it's not enough to complain about it, tweet about it, or discuss it with passion around the water cooler. We need creative, sustained action, to show we're willing to fight.

I feel strongly that I have a mandate from Michigan voters who elected President Trump and me on the same ballot. That mandate is *always* to focus on what people back home are talking about. That’s often the kitchen table issues that keep people up at night: their pocketbooks and their kids. Those are the issues that will remain my sun, my moon and my North Star.

That also means we can't be against progress — even when we don't like the people who suggest it. Sometimes we just need to be open to "taking the win." So I will work across the aisle to find common ground where I can, even when I don't agree with everything the other side is doing — exactly as I did in President Trump’s first term.

The new administration is going to talk and tweet a lot over the next few years. But we need to focus on what they’re actually doing, not just what they’re saying.

That is going to be my approach. And I intend to use emails like this to communicate about that with you over the years ahead. So thank you for reading, and thank you for being part of my team.

Elissa Slotkin

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