“What are you going to say to the folks in Mecosta County, you say, ‘Well, sorry, if I was governor, we’d watch these jobs go to Ohio, because I don’t like the company’?” – Guy Gordon
DeVos sellout Tudor Dixon has been railing against job creation in Michigan. Gotion, an electric vehicle battery manufacturer, just finalized a $2.3 billion-dollar investment in Michigan slated to “create 2,350 new jobs with an average hourly wage of nearly $30 an hour” – a massive boon to Big Rapids’ workforce and economy.
During an interview on Gordon’s show, Dixon justified her opposition to the deal by calling Gotion an “adversary of the American people” several times, despite the host’s repeated point that they are investing in Michigan and “the jobs and the dollars that will be paid will be 100%” local to the Big Rapids community.
MDP spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued the following statement:
“Regardless of party, it’s pretty outrageous to rail against job creation, but never count against DeVos sellout Tudor Dixon’s ability to align herself against Michigan’s economy, auto industry, and workforce in one fell swoop. Michiganders deserve better than Dixon’s kneejerk dismissal of massive investment opportunities like Gotion’s, which would divert billions of dollars and thousands of good-paying jobs to other states – all to appease the special interests and outside groups propping up her campaign.”
See excerpts below of the baffling exchange in which Guy Gordon repeatedly pushed back on Dixon’s categorization of companies willing to invest in Michigan as “adversaries” and listen to the full interview here.
GUY GORDON (Host, The Guy Gordon Show): Yesterday, the Republican legislature was really busy…recharg[ing] the SOAR Fund, which is an economic incentive fund to the tune of $800 million. […] Why do you think that these taxpayer funded incentives and investments are wrongheaded?
TUDOR DIXON: My concern is where this is going. We know much of this will go to the Gotion plant that is being built in Michigan. But it’s being built by a Chinese Corporation. […] Here we have a Chinese company that’s coming over here. And they will get millions, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from the people of Michigan that will go to them while they’re only promising maybe 2,350 jobs over the next decade. […] But also, why would we choose a Chinese Corporation over Michigan or even an American company?
GORDON: Well actually, I mean, my understanding is they’re 1/3, American-owned 1/3 German, 1/3 Chinese and the jobs and the dollars that will be paid will be 100% American to those workers. What are you going to say to the folks in Mecosta County, you say, “Well, sorry, if I was governor, we’d watch these jobs go to Ohio, because I don’t like the company”?
DIXON: We would have other careers coming in here, we would be able to bring in more American companies into Michigan because we’d have better policies. […] We won’t have to get companies that are even 1/3 owned by an adversary of the American people. We will have companies that are American-owned companies coming to the state of Michigan. […] We don’t want to bring adversaries into the country. […] China overtook the United States in exporting in 2010, and has become the world’s largest exporter. They have the largest Navy in the world, their ports are getting closer to the United States.
GORDON: But they’re not exporting these batteries, Mrs. Dixon. I mean, they’re not manufacturing these in China. They’re willing to manufacture them here.
DIXON: The concern is the control over our country. Why would we want to have a foreign adversary in our country having that kind of control? These should be American companies. And I think it is an absolute concern to say we could be sending American dollars to China.
GORDON: Uh…okay. I would submit that this is an investment that will probably give you a pretty good return. And again, I was just up in Mecosta County and they are incredibly excited about the opportunity that this can give.
DIXON: But what do you say to all the others? What do you say to all the other Michigan companies who have said we’ve asked for help, we’ve asked to expand and we’ve been denied by the state government, but now they’re bringing–
GORDON: Then I’d say that then we should be focusing on fixing a flawed process that’s ignoring them. Instead of throwing this opportunity out, make sure others have more opportunities. In other words, let’s address it by addition, not subtraction.
DIXON: But that’s what we’re calling on. This is a flawed system we’re putting money in. And I do think that you need to call out when something is happening. I mean, you’re talking about helping an adversary of the United States. I think that is a significant error on the part of our state government to be putting money into a Chinese corporation.
GORDON: I think a Chinese corporation is different than the Chinese Communist Party. And I think that others would maybe challenge that distinction.
