Today, the Detroit Free Press published a deep dive on Tudor Dixon, one of 12 wrong-for-Michigan candidates locked in what has been a crowded and messy GOP gubernatorial primary. Dixon, described in the piece as having “neither the campaign war chest nor the name recognition” to make a dent in the race thus far, has continued to go full steam ahead with an extreme agenda that has dangerous consequences for Michigan families.
As outlined in the report, Dixon’s extreme agenda includes:
- A Betsy DeVos-style crusade to dismantle public education and violate Michigan’s constitution, despite over two-thirds of Michigan families voting to resoundingly reject “the use of public dollars to pay private school tuition.”
The Detroit Free Press noted that Dixon’s fundraising “is not setting any records,” and it isn’t difficult to see why.
Her campaign continues to show there’s no length they won’t go to in order to distract and mislead Michigan voters. A campaign advisor admitted to spreading outright lies about Governor Gretchen Whitmer with attacks the report dismisses as “a massive stretch, at best.”
Read excerpts below from Detroit Free Press on Tudor Dixon’s dangerous agenda and read the full report here.
Detroit Free Press: GOP Candidate Tudor Dixon Calls Whitmer ‘Michigan’s Original Insurrectionist’ in Video
By Paul Egan
On the one-year anniversary of the day Trump supporters rioted and stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon posted a video to social media labeling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as “Michigan’s original insurrectionist.” […]
Comparing the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, events in Washington, D.C. to the December 2012 right-to-work protests in Lansing is a massive stretch, at best, […]
In any case, Whitmer’s Capitol office was not on the ground floor. Dixon’s claim she opened a window to allow anyone to enter the Capitol is false, said both Robert McCann, who was Whitmer’s Senate communications director at the time, and Maeve Coyle, a Whitmer campaign spokeswoman. An interview clip in which Whitmer says she “threw open the doors to the Capitol” after former Gov. Rick Snyder ordered them closed refers to an emergency court challenge Democrats launched, they said.
“Falsely comparing hardworking Michiganders rallying for good-paying jobs and workers’ rights to violent insurrectionists taking over the U.S. Capitol … just because they don’t like the results of an election tells you everything you need to know about how dangerous and extreme Tudor Dixon is,” Coyle said. […]
Kyle Olson, a senior adviser to Dixon, acknowledged the campaign was wrong about the location of Whitmer’s office, but maintains Whitmer opened an unspecified ground-floor window that day. He cited “credible sources who were in the building that day to protect lawmakers,” but would not name them.
Of the dozen or so candidates seeking the Republican nomination to take on Whitmer in November, Dixon, 44, of Norton Shores in Muskegon County, has neither the campaign war chest nor the name recognition of the acknowledged front-runner, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. […]
Her campaign fundraising of about $350,000 as of October is not setting any records, but Dixon has at least one deep-pocketed supporter. Kimberly Van Kampen, a Florida businesswoman with strong ties to western Michigan, put an additional $200,000 into the super PAC Michigan Strong in support of her candidacy. Van Kampen, a horse breeder who is an owner of several Michigan businesses and has made significant investments in the Ottawa County village of Spring Lake, said she is “more than impressed” with Dixon as the best Republican candidate, but would not say whether further financial support is planned. […]
Democrats see Dixon as just one more GOP candidate with views too far right of the mainstream to win statewide in the purple state of Michigan.
Dixon’s opposition to abortion does not include exceptions for rape or incest. She supports the use of public dollars to pay private school tuition, which is banned under the state constitution and most recently rejected by voters — 69% to 31% — in a 2000 referendum. And she has made the illogical claim that Whitmer supports rapists and cartels because she allowed the federal government to temporarily house, at an Albion facility run by a nonprofit group, unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the southern border.
“Tudor Dixon has an extreme and dangerous agenda,” and “won’t build on the strong bipartisan leadership that has delivered win after win for hardworking Michiganders.” said Rodericka Applewhaite, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Democratic Party.
Dixon has been squishy on what may be the foremost litmus test for GOP primary candidates — the false claim that the 2020 presidential election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump was stolen.
Her strongest statement along those lines came before Dixon was officially a candidate, five days after the Nov. 3 vote, when she tweeted: “Steal an election then hide behind calls for unity and leftists lap it up,” in response to a Twitter post from Trump. […]
Dixon also has expressed support for an ill-defined “forensic audit” of the 2020 vote, despite the fact that numerous audits, retabulations and legal challenges have turned up no evidence of significant fraud, and the same ballots that decided Michigan’s choice for president returned a Republican majority to the state House. […]
Dixon, who opposes vaccine mandates, said she chose to get vaccinated because of her earlier cancer issues, but has not received a booster shot. Her four daughters, who were age 7 to 11 when the pandemic began, have not been vaccinated, and Dixon has “no plans to do so,” she said. […]
Dixon said she moved her daughters from public school to a Christian school amid school closures, despite the fact the school she moved them to had mask mandates she opposes, particularly for teachers. […]
