The Republican nominee for Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District Tom Barrett, running against Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), slammed his opponent on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday this weekend for her “extremely problematic” and likely unethical rental of a home owned by a lobbyist — who also donated to her campaign.
“It is unbelievable,” Barrett said about the bombshell new report from Fox News claiming the Democrat rents her new home from a lobbyist — who also donated to her campaign — to appear she lives in the new congressional district in which she is trying to get elected.
“You almost could not make it up if you were trying,” he told Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle. “The fact that my opponent has decided to move into the home of a Washington, DC lobbyist, who has millions of dollars of government contracts that are directly interfacing with committees that Congresswoman Slotkin serves on is… it’s extremely problematic…it’s troubling…[and] ethical concerns.”
The congresswoman currently represents Michigan’s Eighth Congressional District but decided to run in the Seventh Congressional District after the once-in-a-decade redistricting process that changed the map of the Great Lake State.
Listen:
This week, Fox News reported that Michigan voter registration data showed that Slotkin updated her voting address in May to an address in Lansing owned by Jerry Hollister, a frequent donor to the congresswoman’s campaign who is also an executive at Niowave Inc., a Lansing-based pharmaceutical manufacturer receiving tens of millions of dollars in federal funding.
Breitbart News wrote about Hollister’s relevant work history:
The report noted that Hollister is the chief operating officer and director of government relations at Niowave. His LinkedIn profile states his responsibilities are “to continue developing Congres[s]ional relationships, local community relationships, and media relationships important to continued growth.”
…
His LinkedIn profile also shows that he is the principal consultant at BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting LLC., another Michigan-based technology consulting company. He noted under the company’s name that he assists the company with applying for grants.
Hollister, along with his wife and son, are all registered to vote at the address of Sloktin’s new home since the family purchased the property in 2020, according to Fox, noting that the Sloktins’ new home happens to be the same as the business address of J. Hollister LLC, which is another company through which he does activities related to government contracting and procurement, as well as operations management.
Barrett said he “didn’t move anywhere to run in this district.”
“I’ve lived here since four days after I returned home from Iraq,” Barrett explained. “My wife and I got married. We’re raising a family here, we have four little kids that we’re raising, we are in this community, and Elissa Slotkin is desperate to preserve Nancy Pelosi’s speakership and majority in the United States Congress, that’s decimating our economy, and just crushing families with the rising cost of living, runaway crime and all the other challenges that our country is facing, decides to hopscotch around.”
The Republican explained that the congresswoman took a “shortcut” by moving into the home owned by a lobbyist and campaign donor — claiming the lease only lasts until November — instead of committing to the district and either “purchasing or renting an apartment, a new home.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to go to rent a place from a lobbyist in Washington, DC, somewhere in here in Mid Michigan, hundreds of miles away from the United States Capitol,” he added. “Somehow, by amazing coincidence, the landlord that she has at this, at this apartment… is somehow totally aboveboard, and nothing that we need to be concerned about at all. The ethical questions that it raises are substantial.”
“Elissa Slotkin has definitely been a proponent of rewarding favorable corporations with direct government spending to prop them up,” Barrett noted. “This is another example of that conflict of interest between big government and big corporations when the American people and the taxpayers and residents of my district lose out.”
An internal poll in June recently showed Barrett in the lead when facing Slotkin.
Barrett led the incumbent 46.1 percent to 44.6 percent, with 10.3 percent undecided. However, the poll noted that Slotkin is sitting at under 50 percent on the ballot — which is the worst level since winning the seat in 2018 — even though she has nearly 100 percent name recognition.
Barrett, an Army veteran — whom Slotkin has attacked for not campaigning while he was training with the Army — was elected to the Michigan House in 2014 and was later elected to the state Senate in 2018. The two will face off on November 8.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.