is just outside of chicago, and elissa slotkin who represents a michigan district that stretches from suburban detroit to the state's capital,lansing. welcome to "meet the press" to both of you. >> thank you so mu. >> congresswoman-elect slotkin, let me start with you. would you call your victory a referendum on the president? >> no. i think honestl wy we able to amass support from democrats, republican independents because the overall tenor and tone of politics i think is fundamentally unbecoming of the country. so the president, leadersisp climat set from the top so he's certainly a part of it, but it wn overall feeling that washington was broken and integrity had been evaporated from the system. so it wasn't just the president. he was a part of it. >> what about in your distrmut, ho did the president matter in your district? >> well, the president is certainly a factor,but in the illinois 14th district we had not been well represented. we had a congressman who was not carrying forward our health, voted to raise our taxes, refu id to act the face of escalating gun violence in our co

and elissa slotkin is joining us. >> tell us about the motivation.ed adds a cia analyst at the pentagon under president obama, and what got you interested in political office? >> yeah. well, i had never been interested in political office. frankly, i'm 14 years in national security and i worked for both democrats and republicans, and my husband is a career army officer, and so we had been outside of the political sphere, and because of that experience of working for both sides that i just felt the tenor and the tone of politics now is just different, and fundamentally unbecoming of the country they served and the k country i love, but what push med over the edge is health care. i was resonant to get into politics, but specifically in may of 2018, when the house of representatives voted to repeal protections for those with pre-existing conditions, my mom passed away in 2011 from ovarian cancer and she struggled her whole life as breast cancer as a young mom, and she didn't have insurance when she was diagnose and couldn't get care because of that pre-

elissa slotkin was in that ad. five of the eight women in that ad won their seats last night and ousted republican incumbents. in california, republican congressman steve knight just lost his seat to democrat katie hill. she will be staking steve knight's seat in the house. in illinois, republican congressman randy holtgren lost his seat to a nurse, lauren underwood. neither of them were on anybody's radar. lauren underwood came out of nowhere and won that seat through sheer hard work and raw talent. lauren underwood is going to be a national star, i'm telling you. she's actually going to be our guest a little later on in this hour. you're going to want to see that. last night, democrats flipped control of the colorado senate and the maine senate and the minnesota house and the new hampshire house and the new hampshire senate and the new york state senate. in nevada, democrats got everything, the governorship, they took away dean heller's u.s. senate seat, they came within one vote of a democratic super majority in

you have a elissa slotkin, who has said she would oppose her, the list goes on, these are the new democraticand the problem for nancy pelosi's argument, saying "i deserve to be here, in part by virtue of my gender," she is assuming that the 100 women coming to washington are going to want her there by virtue of their gender, and women think as a monolith, vote is a monolith, and want nancy pelosi there is a monolith. it is a really flawed argument, and honestly, verging on sexism, by putting her leadership. >> i wouldn't say the first woman to hold the speakership of the house is engaging in sexism here. but to assume that women think this way at -- >> she is going to have to make an argument to my caucus, to my party's caucus, but why she should be the leader. i think part of that argument, she is going to have to promise to empower younger moderate and progressive democrats, because she is facing a lot of headwinds right now, and she will have to tell the caucus why she deserves another two years. >> martha: she happily went against barbara comstock, mia love, it is not just wanting women