GEOFF BENNETT: As Democrats grapple with President Trump's first 100 days in office, they're also contending with a minority in both the House and Senate.

And looking ahead at the long road to the 2026 midterm elections, some Democrats are hoping to shape the party's message and platform well before then.

Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin has been laying out her strategy.

And she joins me now.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

It's great to have you here.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, as part of this road map to, as you say, contain and defeat Donald Trump, you say the Democratic Party should shed its public perception as weak and woke.

Why is that the right approach and how do you suggest Democrats get there?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Yes, actually, that perception came from some focus groups we did in Michigan with a bunch of people in February, just trying to understand what happened in 2024, why we didn't win at the top of the ticket, because you can't figure out where you're going until you understand what's happened.

And I think we -- those are the two words that were used over and over again.

And I think, for me, focusing on pocketbook issues, people's wallets, people's kids, and then, on the second side of it, just bringing a little alpha energy back into the party, right?

And I'm from the Midwest and for us, leaders like our coaches are just -- they have got some alpha energy to them.

And I think we have lost some of that in the party and I want to see that come back.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's the most urgent course-correction you think Democrats need to make right now?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: I mean, first of all, I think we need to be talking about what we want to bring to people affirmatively, proactively.

We can't just be the party of no, no, no, status quo, no change.

We got to talk about how we want responsible change, smart change, not reckless change, and what that looks like, particularly on supporting a strong middle class.

Like, we have got to have a strong middle class in this country or we are in trouble.

So I think keeping a sort of rigorous focus on that would be helpful, but then just understanding that we got to get to those voters who don't want to be gotten to, right, who are not coming to a protest, not coming to an event, but they swing elections in places like Michigan.

For them, they're worried about, again, their pocketbooks, their kids.

That means Social Security.

That means the economy writ large and how Trump is walking us into a recession.

So we got to get the middle into the fight by focusing on the issues they're most concerned about, in addition to the good work we do on democracy and corruption, which is vital, given what Donald Trump is doing, but not always the way we get to those middle voters.

GEOFF BENNETT: You have also critiqued the party's tone and messaging, and you say that Democrats should stop referring to the Trump administration as an oligarchy.

Senator Bernie Sanders had something to say about that.

Take a listen.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are.

I think they understand very well.

When the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, when big money interests are able to control both political parties, they are living in an oligarchy.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's your response to that?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: So my response is, I agree with everything he said, other than, my dad didn't know what oligarchy meant.

Like, he asked me what it was about.

It's not that I disagree on the concepts or on the principles, and he's right.

And that energy that he's bringing is great.

It's just that we got to, again, communicate to those folks who may not know what an oligarchy is like my dad.

GEOFF BENNETT: To your point about the energy that he, and I would add to that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, they're drawing huge crowds when they have those rallies, injecting lots of energy into the party.

And that's led to some questions about the ideological future of the Democratic Party.

You, though, say that the debate among Democrats isn't really about moderates and progressives.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: You're right.

I do not think that the debate anymore is about moderate versus progressive and whatever all of that means.

I think it's about, do you believe that we need to fight back against the Trump administration or that we should wait it out?

And there's a really big difference among elected Democrats right now on whether to just, like, wait and let all these things that Trump is doing just play out and boomerang on him and we will get through it, or do you think that Trump 2.0 is really different than Trump 1.0 and raises some existential questions about the fate of our democracy, and, therefore, we need to fight and fight in different ways?

I'm in that second category, fight, but that debate is not about moderates or progressives.

It doesn't break down on those lines at all anymore.

GEOFF BENNETT: A question about the tariff plan, because, in a manufacturing-heavy state like Michigan, the hollowing out of factory jobs, as you well know, it's a real issue.

And if you don't believe that Trump's tariff plan is the right solution, how do you address the economic dislocation that has hollowed out the work force in many ways and is really hitting the middle class?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Yes, and really hitting my part of the country, right?

The Midwest is really feeling this change in our economy, where it's become harder and harder to get in and stay in the middle class.

That's just a fact, right?

That's not conjecture.

And, in Michigan, we invented the middle class.

We literally invented the concept where you can work at an auto plant and afford the car that you were building.

And I got to tell you, for all President Trump has tried to make of he's a man of the people and a working person, the tax plan he's about to lay out in black and white is very clearly to the advantage of the wealthiest, to our biggest corporations and not to working people.

Again, just fact.

Look at the black and white.

GEOFF BENNETT: You are in the process of delivering a series of speeches with marching orders for Democrats.

The next one, as I understand it, focuses on killing sacred cows.

Care to give us a preview?

What are those sacred cows?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Slaughtering sacred cows.

To me, I think we have to be willing to hear what the public is saying.

It's not just people who voted for Donald Trump that want change, right?

I don't know a lot of people who are thrilled with our health care system or our education system or how government responds to their needs.

I just want responsible change and not reckless change.

I want something smart, not breaking stuff just to break stuff.

But we have to hear that and therefore be willing to take down some like older ideas that, again, don't work for the American people.

So, for instance, regulation, right?

A lot of regulation that we have put on a small business owner or a farmer was well-intended.

It was.

But what ends up happening is, there's 25 different regulations on a farmer, including watching how he climbs a ladder, in order to get him the certification that he needs.

I think we slow down the process.

And we need to be willing to say, you know what, maybe 25 good, well-meaning regulations ends up in a bureaucratic morass that we need to take a look at.

That's what I mean by kind of going after slaughtering sacred cows, is, like, we have to be willing to take an open mind to change.

GEOFF BENNETT: Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, thanks for being with us.

We appreciate it.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN: Thank you.