Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon wiped the debate floor with her Democratic opponent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday night.
Perhaps the highlight was Dixon’s 90-second closing statement.
“The governor would like you to forget how hard the last four years have been with Gretchen Whitmer. She’s shown us who she is,” the Republican said.
That set the question in viewers’ minds, “What have the last four years looked like?” no doubt leading to the central question for many, “Am I better off now than I was four years ago?”
Dixon then ran down a litany of reasons Whitmer has failed the people of Michigan.
“She stood on this very stage and said she wouldn’t raise taxes, and she tried and tried and tried again to raise your taxes over and over,” Dixon said. Fact-check: true.
Whitmer did try to raise or vetoed lowering taxes multiple times. And Michigan is still down 82,000 jobs from pre-pandemic levels.
We need to support our businesses.
We want parents to have the final say in their child’s education.
We will let the police do their job.
We want common sense in Lansing.I look forward to earning your vote on November 8th. #VoteDixon pic.twitter.com/PY0xX4h3M2
— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) October 14, 2022
“[Whitmer] also said that she cares about women, but she would gladly put little boys in your daughter’s locker room,” Dixon continued. “She also said she cares about parents, but she hasn’t stood for parents who have said, ‘Why do we have adults whispering sex and gender into the ears of our little kids?’”
The pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign endorsed Whitmer in June.
Last month, Dixon called for the resignation of state Superintendent Michael Rice over an LGBT training video the state’s Department of Education used, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“The Michigan Department of Education is actively training staff to help young kids transition (in terms of gender identity) and instructing them not to tell their parents, even if they are suicidal,” Dixon said at the time.
Whitmer’s chief operating officer, Tricia Foster, wrote a letter to Rice saying she found the video “concerning.”
“We urge you to review your trainings to ensure they comply with all applicable regulations, maintain department guidelines, and are reflective of best practices,” Foster said. “Parents are their children’s first and most important teachers.”
Dixon argued that a letter from a staff member was not good enough. She wanted to hear directly from Whitmer regarding the controversy.
During Thursday’s debate, Dixon called Whitmer’s policies “radical, dangerous and destructive.”
“Crime is up, jobs are down, schools are worse, and the roads didn’t get fixed. That’s what happens when you hire a radical career politician — you go in the wrong direction,” she concluded.
The first two questions of the debate had to do with abortion.
Whitmer said she supports Proposal 3, a radical ballot initiative that goes beyond Roe v. Wade, struck down in June, in creating a constitutional right to abortion.
Dixon charged that Prop 3 would legalize abortion up to the moment of birth.
Will Dixon defeat Whitmer?
As was the case during the Arizona and Ohio U.S. Senate debates earlier this month, the moderator asked twice what limits the Democratic candidate would place on abortion and didn’t get a straight answer.
“My lawsuit would have preserved the status quo with the limitations that are on the books right now,” Whitmer finally responded.
The governor sued to keep a 1931 law from being reinstated that outlaws abortion in the state. The case is currently making its way through the court system.
However, Prop 3 goes beyond Roe.
“She’s clearly stated she has no limitations,” Dixon said. “She doesn’t even want parental consent. That’s what the proposal that she’s out there talking about every single day says.”
Brad Smith with Right to Life of Michigan told The Western Journal earlier this month, “Proposal 3 is about as extreme as you can get.”
“What this will do is it will wipe out every law on the books that has to do with life because it’s a constitutional amendment,” he explained.
Provisions that would be eliminated include parental consent, a ban on partial-birth abortion, and medical and staffing requirements at abortion facilities, Smith said.
Bridge Michigan fact-checked these charges made by Smith and others and found that the language of Prop 3 would place many state abortion law provisions in doubt.
Further, the amendment would allow late-term abortions in order to protect the “life, physical or mental health of the patient.” Both Smith and Bridge Michigan noted that “mental health” is an exception that could be interpreted very broadly.
Another issue that Dixon hit Whitmer on was her pandemic response.
Whitmer conceded that if she could go back two and a half years in time knowing what she knows now, she would have made some different decisions. “But we were working in the middle of a crisis and lives were on the line,” she said.
Dixon replied, “Well, the governor wants you to believe that she did listen to the experts, but we have the letter from the nursing home association that said whatever you do, don’t send COVID-positive patients into nursing homes.”
Gretchen Whitmer was warned not to put COVID patients into nursing homes. She tragically did.
She paid off the former MDHHS Director with a secrecy agreement.
Gretchen has proven she’s bad for Michigan. pic.twitter.com/0WGpm5ZeZ6
— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) October 14, 2022
“She even tried to hide the final report of the numbers of how many deaths we had,” Dixon added. “And what about our students that she kept locked out of schools?”
The Center Square reported that a state audit released in January found that Whitmer’s administration undercounted COVID-19 deaths by 42 percent, or approximately 2,300 people.
Dixon’s debate performance was a tour de force.
The most recent poll shows the race tied, though the Real Clear Politics average gives Whitmer a single-digit lead.
Dixon definitely helped her chances on Thursday night. This is a race to watch.
