Elissa Slotkin

MUSKEGON, MI — U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, said negotiation with Iran is the only way out of the “powder keg” in the Strait of Hormuz and accused the Supreme Court of chipping away voters’ rights during a visit to a Muskegon manufacturer.

Slotkin gave the remarks Monday, May 4, in front of Sun Chemical, a Muskegon-area manufacturer of pigments for a variety of industries.

The visit was meant to highlight the Paving the Way for America Industry Act, a bipartisan bill that prioritizes American-made materials over foreign imports and helps ensure critical manufacturing, like pigment production, remains in the U.S.

Sun Chemical, like most Michigan companies, is reeling from the skyrocketing cost of fuel and the market volatility caused by President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, Slotkin said.

“Our businesses thrive when there’s predictability and stability, and that’s just not what we have right now,” Slotkin said. “Fuel is just another thing that’s driving up costs and considerations.”

Iran’s closure of the strait, imposed after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, has shaken global markets. For the American consumer, that shake up has been felt most at the gas pump.

Ships and seafarers, many on oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began.

The U.S. on Monday began an effort to “guide” stranded ships through the strait after Trump posted on social media that “neutral and innocent” countries have been affected by the Iran war, and “we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who did three tours in Iraq, said the possibility of military escalation in the strait doesn’t do anything to shorten a war “that’s gone on longer than I think most people want.”

“The navigable area is about the size of the Mackinac Strait, so think about how narrow that is to get all the biggest war ships, transportation ships with fuel and petrol chemicals and fertilizer,” she said. “Today we saw some limited military exchanges in the strait, so it’s kind of a powder keg.”

Slotkin said negotiation is the “only option at this point” for the Trump Administration, but its earlier conduct of the war has made negotiations difficult.

“When you kill the majority of leaders in the country, it’s hard to figure out who to negotiate with and who to deal with, and they’re living with that, and the Iranians are using their strategic geography,” she said. “They own the mountains that look over that sensitive strait, and they’re just shooting everything that goes past it.”

Slotkin also answered questions about the Supreme Court’s recent decision to eliminate a key tenet of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The high court last week struck down Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district, which could allow Republican-led states to redraw or eliminate Black and Latino electoral districts.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority found that the district relied too heavily on race.

Slotkin called the ruling “another chipping away of voters’ rights and the rights of minority communities” and said the “only way forward is to get rid of political gerrymandering.”

She pointed to Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission as an ideal model for redistricting.

“Frankly, I think the whole country can learn from Michigan,” she said. “We got rid of political gerrymandering on our ballot, came up with a citizens’ commission, so no political party gets to draw the lines they want for their district so they can secure a win.”