PERISCOPE

In the never-ending game of forecasting the 2020 election, as the Democratic presidential candidates have narrowed, fallen out and coalesced between today's two top contenders of former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the fortunes down ballot for those running for Congress are becoming crystallized as well. According to Roll Call, a Washington D.C. legislative and political scribe, the Republican Party has Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and Michigan's 8th District of Rochester, Rochester Hills, northern Oakland County into Livingston and Ingham counties squarely in its sights. Slotkin, a Democrat, flipped the district blue in 2018, has amassed a war chest, and has received the kind of publicity and has the credibility her peers dream of, has no intention of giving up her seat – and as a former CIA officer who did three tours in Iraq before working at the Pentagon, she knows how to fight. At the same time, Roll Call also labeled Slotkin's district and that of fellow Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens (Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Troy, Commerce, western Oakland and Wayne counties) as “likely Democratic” in their projections for November. The 9th District of Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township, Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Macomb County) and the 14th District of Democrat Brenda Lawrence (Detroit, Southfield, Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield) are considered “solid Democratic.”