It’s no coincidence that Governor Whitmer was singled out by Bloomberg this week for “presid[ing] over an economy that improved the most in its history since the pandemic began two years ago.” Building on the fact that Michigan’s economy continues to outperform the nation and remain first in “equally weighted measures of employment, personal income, home prices, mortgage delinquency” and others, yesterday Whitmer announced a new $409 million grant to provide businesses across the state with the support they need to “retain or create jobs and boost our state’s economy.”
Meanwhile, this level of dedication to keeping Michigan businesses and working families first is nowhere to be seen among the 13 Republicans running for governor.
Kevin Rinke went against members of his own party like Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey to voice his disapproval of GM’s $7 billion dollar decision to invest in Michigan, claiming that it was somehow reflective of the state not having a “properly constructed business climate.”
Tudor Dixon was equally dismissive of the GM deal in her prebuttal to Governor Whitmer’s State of the State address, urging focus on “creating an environment that makes job creators actually want to invest in Michigan.”
Garrett Soldano referred to the bipartisan economic incentives that attracted GM to Michigan as “crony capitalism at its worst.”
And during the Ambassador Bridge Blockade, even more Republican gubernatorial candidates stood against Michigan’s workers and economy as the auto industry suffered “$299.9 million in direct losses.” Those losses included assembly plants at GM and Ford being forced to cancel shifts due to a lack of parts traveling across the bridge, which resulted in workers weathering up to $51 million in lost wages.
MDP spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued the following statement:
“Governor Whitmer keeps putting in the work to keep Michigan the number one place to do business, a priority that continues to yield massive dividends for working families in the form of good-paying jobs and revenue to fund initiatives to keep the economy strong. The Republicans running for governor not only lack the track record to credibly hold a candle to Whitmer’s strong leadership on the economy, they have also gone out of their way to show working families that their extreme agendas have no interest in keeping them first.”
