Fully reliant on their influence, DeVos sellout Tudor Dixon has been cozying up to several special interests and outside groups and begging them to “elevate [her] message in supernatural ways.” The Republican Governors Association is the latest organization to take a crack at propping up her wrong-for-Michigan agenda.
With this latest seven-figure investment from the RGA, outside groups and opponents have spent more than $20 million to push bogus attacks against Governor Whitmer this cycle.
Governor Whitmer Has Delivered Historic Investments in Michigan’s Roads and Bridges
Since taking office, Governor Whitmer has remained committed to her campaign pledge to fix the damn roads and has rebuilt over 13,000 lane miles of roads and over 900 bridges – a major undertaking that has supported nearly 82,000 jobs.
Earlier this year, Governor Whitmer worked across the aisle to strike “a major budget deal” with legislative Republicans that secured nearly $5 billion “to upgrade aging infrastructure.” This bipartisan infrastructure supplemental includes dedicated funding for local roads.
Due to these critical investments, “Michigan roads are in their best shape in years,” with the number of roads determined to be in “good condition” at its highest rates since the state began gathering quality data in 2004.
Tudor Dixon Backs a Disastrous Budget Plan Which Would Decimate Road Funding
A major pillar of Tudor Dixon’s wrong-for-Michigan agenda is a “piss-poor public policy proposal” that would “primarily benefit the wealthy” and force billions in cuts statewide to several services critical to working families, such as public education, law enforcement, and infrastructure.
Described as “catastrophic for funding,” Dixon’s budget plan is estimated to eliminate nearly $12 billion from the budget overall including $600 million in transportation funding. Without these vital investments, additional federal funds couldn’t be secured with matching state dollars, completely undercutting the state’s ability to keep making crucial repairs to roads and bridges.
Dixon has said she “absolutely” supported “phas[ing] out” funding streams for critical services as quickly as possible. Amounting to a “dramatic shift in state government operations,” she still “has not provided specifics” of how she plans to rip billions out of Michigan’s budget while building on Governor Whitmer’s gains in improving our roads and bridges.
Governor Whitmer is Keeping Michigan on the Cutting Edge of Auto Manufacturing
Governor Whitmer has secured 30,000 new auto jobs. She landed a $7 billion investment from GM the largest in the company’s history, creating and retaining 5,000 jobs, while generating thousands more jobs and producing $28.8 billion in new personal income for Michigan families. Building on her 2019 success of Stellantis bringing $4.5 billion and 6,500 jobs to Detroit, Whitmer secured another investment of nearly $2 billion from LG Energy Solution to expand electric vehicle battery production in Holland, supporting over a thousand good-paying jobs, and she recently brought in a $2 billion investment from Ford that will support 3,200 good-paying, union jobs in Michigan.
Thanks to her strong leadership to bring these jobs to stateside and keep them here, Governor Whitmer was singled out by Bloomberg for “presid[ing] over an economy that improved the most in its history since the pandemic began two years ago.” This strong economic recovery is further reflected in the state’s unemployment rate, which dipped below levels seen in 2018.
Tudor Dixon Opposes Bipartisan Job Creation Efforts That Brought $4 Billion in Investments and Nearly 4,000 Jobs to Michigan in a Single Week
Tudor Dixon’s disregard for the auto industry has been evident to working families since she launched her bid for governor. She is staunchly opposed to the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve, a fund which has proven “critical to strengthening the state’s economic foundation.”
Thanks to Governor Whitmer working with the Republican-controlled legislature to create SOAR, Michigan was able to secure not one but two billion-dollar investments from Our Next Energy Inc. and Gotion Inc.
Further solidifying Michigan’s as an auto industry leader not only in the past but as it evolves into the future of electric vehicles, this duo of “undeniable wins” totals “nearly $4 billion” and creates “close to 4,500 jobs” across Wayne County and Big Rapids with average hourly wages ranging from $30 to $35.
Before the Gotion deal was even finalized, Dixon demonstrated to Michiganders that nothing can spur her to put her kneejerk hyperpartisanship aside as she railed against the battery manufacturer and the jobs it would bring to Big Rapids in full force.
Similarly, Dixon was dismissive of GM’s $7 billion dollar investment in “making Michigan the ‘hub’ of electric vehicle development and manufacturing.” Dixon supporter and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey even praised the deal as a “historic” job-creator, as GM is expected to bring 4,000 new good-paying positions to Michigan.
Dixon’s Prior Experience Includes Running a “Dirty,” “Nasty” Steel Foundry That Maintained an Unsafe Work Environment and Couldn’t Make Payroll
Tudor Dixon has frequently pointed to her experience as an executive leading sales and human resources at Muskegon steel foundry Michigan Steel for years before the company laid off its entire 300-employee workforce and was completely liquidated by 2013. In her own accounts on the campaign trail, Dixon established herself as a company executive with a hand in “every aspect” of Michigan Steel’s day-to-day operations.
Despite Dixon’s claims that she ensured safety was a priority, reporting from Bridge Michigan details how the foundry regularly cut corners under her leadership, creating a “friggin’ dangerous” workplace environment that resulted in serious injuries for employees as they handled heavy equipment and molten metals.
During Dixon’s tenure, Michigan Steel developed a pattern of workplace injuries so extensive the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied tens of thousands in fines against the foundry for repeated “regulatory violations.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, Dixon’s failed leadership resulted in Michigan Steel earning a reputation as a “half-assed” business that routinely couldn’t make payroll.
Under Dixon’s shoddy leadership, “dozens” of employees – from hourly production workers, all the way up to the CEO – were forced to file wage complaints against Michigan Steel after a string of bounced checks and missed paydays. The foundry was sacked with an untold dollar amount of fines for “repeatedly” violating basic wage laws.
While Tudor Dixon Spewed Conspiracy Theories About Public Safety Measures, Governor Whitmer’s COVID-19 Response Saved Thousands
During her years as a host on far right-wing and Steve Bannon-headlining media outlet Real America’s Voice, Tudor Dixon platformed extreme views “for parade of fringe characters” and their conspiracy theories that often included “conspiratorial and violent rhetoric” and disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without evidence, Dixon argued the virus could “completely go away without a vaccine,” was unable to be transmitted between children, and validated claims that the COVID-19 vaccines contained microchips and would be “The Mark of the Beast.”
Meanwhile, Data from AARP, the New York Times, and the University of Michigan’s Center for Health and Research Transformation as well as multiple studies showed that Governor Whitmer’s decisive actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic “likely prevented over 100,000 COVID-19 infections and 2,800 deaths.” Additionally, long-term care facility experts and senior advocates agree that she prioritized keeping seniors safe.
Dixon Sold Out to Do Betsy DeVos’ Bidding and Rewrite Michigan’s Constitution So She Can Shortchange Our Kids
Tudor Dixon has been one of the most vocal gubernatorial candidates pledging to decimate public education funding by any means necessary. It’s no wonder the DeVos family recently committed to bankrolling her campaign.
Last year, she voiced her support for “the latest effort by legislative Republicans to create a school voucher system in Michigan” and vowed to sign the DeVos-backed attempt to privatize education – a disastrous move that would immediately siphon $500 million annually from public schools and double the drain in just a few year’s time.
Dixon also announced that repealing Michigan’s constitutional ban on using public money for private education was a top priority for her campaign. Dixon said she “absolutely” backed a tax plan that would slash $3.5 billion from public schools.
