Tonight in Grand Rapids, the debate stage is much lighter – but not any less extreme – than it was previously. That’s because the Court of Appeals ruled that candidates would not appear on the ballot after submitting tens of thousands of forged and fraudulent signatures.
These bogus signatures were sourced from dead voters and an illegal “round robin” forging scheme in which “a small group of people sign[ing] names and addresses in turn, one per sheet, using a voter list.”
Every candidate on stage continues to ignore the election fraud and corruption within their own party in favor of shouldering baseless lies about our election:
- Known and charged insurrectionist Ryan Kelley had his home raided by the FBI and was arrested on multiple criminal charges. Every other Republican gubernatorial candidate and both MIGOP co-chairs “rushed” to his defense on the day of his arrest – despite knowing it was for participating in the violent insurrection on January 6th that resulted in five deaths and 140 injured law enforcement officers.
- Used Toyota salesman Kevin Rinke threw his millions behind a “flat-out false” TV ad to push completely unfounded conspiracy theories about the electoral process in order to justify his wrong-for-Michigan agenda that would restrict voting for Michiganders. Now he’s claiming the lies he broadcasted about dead voters being used to influence elections were “a joke” following an avalanche of definitive fact checks published by several outlets including the Detroit Free Press, CNN, FactCheck.org, Politifact, and WLNS 6.
- A mainstay at “Trump Unity” rallies across Michigan, Tudor Dixon took to Twitter multiple times in the months directly following the 2020 general election to cry fraud and theft without providing any basis for these accusations. She has used these sentiments to advocate for voter ID even though it is already state law and limit absentee ballots because she believes they caused “widespread fraud” in the 2020 election.
- Garrett Soldano has remained hell-bent on putting Michigan through costly and unnecessary audits in his endless crusade to undermine the democratic process and reverse the past. Last September, he held a large rally in Antrim County to further the baseless belief that the 2020 election was stolen and advance the belief that “a full forensic audit of 2020 remains essential.”
