Today, another shady fringe PAC that touts Tudor Dixon’s wrong-for-Michigan agenda released a new television ad. Outside groups and Republican gubernatorial candidates have already spent more than $9 million to paper over their records and push false and misleading attacks against Governor Whitmer this cycle. Here are the facts:
Dixon Sold Out to Do Betsy DeVos’ Bidding and Rewrite Michigan’s Constitution So She Can Shortchange Our Kids While Governor Whitmer Continues to Protect Public Education
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 attempt to privatize education and steal $500 million annually from public schools into law as governor.
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.
Meanwhile, Governor Whitmer is protecting public education in Michigan and exhibiting the strong leadership that it takes to keep our students first. This year, she secured a bipartisan $17.1 billion dollar public education budget, “largest investment in PreK-12 schools in state history,” that completely closed a decades-long state funding gap between school districts, tripled the number of literacy coaches in schools, and added hundreds of school psychologists, social workers, and counselors — all without raising taxes.
Dixon Wants More Guns In Schools
Dixon has vaguely called for a “harden[ing]” of our schools and recently endorsed a one-door building structure – the latest fake solution to distract from substantive conversations on gun violence prevention. She also suggested getting rid of gun-free zones – referring to them as “sitting duck zones,” and argued that more guns in schools could have prevented Michigan’s Oxford High shooting.
Dixon Cheered on the Ambassador Bridge Blockade, Panned GM’s 4,000 Job-Creating, $7 Billion Dollar Investment in Michigan
Tudor Dixon’s disdain for the auto industry has been evident to working families since she launched her bid for governor.
As “major international gateway” Ambassador Bridge was shut down due to an illegal blockade that impacted $356 million of goods daily, Dixon threw her support behind this major economic chokehold on Michigan and encouraged it to continue.
The auto industry suffered “$299.9 million in direct losses,” and assembly plants at GM and Ford were 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.
Additionally, 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.
Meanwhile, Governor Whitmer Continues to Lead Michigan to a Strong Economic Recovery with Historic Investment, Tax Cuts, and Support for Businesses
Governor Whitmer is delivering an estimated $200 million in annual tax savings for hundreds of thousands of Michigan businesses. In another move to keep building gains for Michigan’s robust economic recovery, she signed a $75 million tax cut for local businesses.
Through her Growing MI Business program, Whitmer invested $409 million to help local businesses “retain or create jobs and boost the state’s economy.”
Governor Whitmer has created more than 20,000 auto jobs. She landed a $7 billion investment in Michigan auto manufacturing, the largest in GM history, creating and retaining 5,000 jobs, while generating thousands more jobs in the community and producing $28.8 billion in new personal income for Michigan families. Building on her 2019 success of Fiat Chrysler bringing $4.5 billion and 6,500 jobs to Detroit, Whitmer secured another investment of nearly $2 billion 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.
To connect small businesses with local talent, Whitmer set up free virtual job fairs that have connected over 2,600 employers and 9,900 job seekers. The Governor additionally created nearly 1,500 apprenticeships in new sectors with an emphasis on recruiting Michiganders from historically underrepresented groups, while addressing labor shortages. Due to her leadership, Michigan experienced the fastest small business growth in 23 years as they added nearly 170,000 jobs and reported increased revenues by 24% in 2021. In line with this robust growth, roughly 150,000 new small business applications were received that year, up nearly two-thirds from 2019.
Dixon Downplayed the Violent U.S. Capitol Insurrection That Injured 140 Police Officers and Killed Five
On January 6th, 2021, insurrectionists spurred on by misinformation and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election descended on our nation’s capital, successfully breaching the U.S. Capitol building in a violent display that killed five and injured 140 officers in Washington DC. One of those rioters, Dixon’s fellow gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley, was arrested today following an FBI raid of his home. Dixon has yet to condemn Kelley’s contributions to the violence that took place that day.
Dixon has downplayed and lied about the insurrection since before announcing her run for governor. Before the dust could even settle in DC, Dixon was baselessly claiming that “a combination of maybe ANTIFA” was to blame. During an appearance on a show hosted by Steve Bannon, Dixon complained that “liberal suburbanites” were labeling those in favor of the insurrection as terrorists.
