DETROIT — Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic contender for an open US Senate seat in Michigan, takes a farming tax credit at her home, but the property has no farming licenses or agricultural activity.
The home in Holly is located in rural Oakland County and was gifted to Slotkin and her brother by their father Curtis in May 2023. It was transferred free of charge via a quitclaim deed, property records show.
The home is classified as “agricultural-improved,” a designation given to any “improvements, buildings, structures, or fixtures suitable for use in farming which are located on agricultural land.”
As a result of this designation, the home receives a 100% property tax exemption.
But there are no applicable agricultural licenses in effect on the property, according to a public-records request. Aerial shots of the property show a single family home, woods and fields — but no farming.
The arrangement saves Slotkin about $2,700 per year.
The property held the agricultural exemption before ownership changed hands to Slotkin. There are two ways a property can be classified agricultural, according to the Michigan State Tax Commission: If it already is, as in Slotkin’s case, or if 50% or more of a property is used for agricultural purposes.
It is possible for a homeowner to withdraw from the agricultural designation, by requesting a withdrawal in writing from the commission.
On the campaign trail in past years, Slotkin has claimed to grow soybeans on the property.
In April, Slotkin and three House colleagues formed the Congressional Specialty Crops Caucus. Michigan Farm News covered the announcement, writing that Slotkin “ resides on her family’s beef cattle farm in Holly.”
Slotkin family ownership of the land dates back to 1956, at which time there were 400 to 500 heads of cattle. But Slotkin moved to the home as a child in 1980, and past reporting indicates the cows were “gone by the 1980s.”
“Phony politician Elissa Slotkin is lying to Michigan voters and pretending she is a farmer,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Maggie Abboud. “Slotkin also lied about her ‘living arrangement’ at a lobbyist’s house, so this is not a surprise.”
The Slotkin campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Slotkin’s residence and residency have been the subject of controversy before.
During her 2022 congressional run, Slotkin, who was married at the time, moved into the Lansing apartment of lobbyist Jerry Hollister.
Michigan had just gone through redistricting, and Slotkin moved from Holly to her new district during the campaign. After winning the seat, she soon left Lansing and returned to Oakland County.
Though the lobbyist said he was living elsewhere at the time, records showed he and Slotkin were both registered to vote from the Lansing address.
It turns out Slotkin was separated from her husband, David Moore, at the time of her House run. Divorce records from February 2023 show Slotkin and Moore attesting they’d lived apart for six months by then, dating their separation to at least August 2022.
When Slotkin’s 2022 opponent, Republican Tom Barrett, suggested she and the lobbyist were living together during a televised debate in Detroit, Slotkin used her marriage as a defense.
“My husband and I would like to talk to you about that,” she said.
Slotkin met Moore in Iraq in the late 2000s, when both were serving in government roles. She worked in intelligence, and he was a colonel in the US Army. His wife at the time was also a high-ranking Army official.
Moore had been married since 1985. He would file for divorce from his wife June 1, 2010, on their 25th anniversary. Moore was living with Slotkin in Washington, DC, at the time.
Slotkin and Moore married in Sept. 2010, just three months after he filed for divorce. Slotkin has attributed the timing to her ailing mother’s condition, which she has talked about in commercials for years. Judith Slotkin died from ovarian cancer in March 2011 at age 64.
On Feb. 1, 2023, Slotkin filed for divorce from Moore. He didn’t challenge it.
She announced her Senate run Feb. 27 to fill Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat upon her retirement. Two days later, March 1, her divorce from Moore was finalized.
