Out-of-touch millionaire Kevin Rinke, who has already “dropped $4.2 million” on broadcast advertising this cycle to prop up his self-funded campaign, is now training his sights on conspiracy theorist and MIGOP 2nd choiceTudor Dixon. Yesterday, in response to a cease and desist letter from Dixon’s lawyers taking particular issue with the attack ad’s claim that Dixon “took millions from anti-Trump billionaires,” the used Toyota salesman announced he would be expanding it’s reach to a statewide run hitting “mobile, digital, and traditional media.”
Unlike his “flat-out false” ad that parroted thoroughly debunked claims about the electoral process, Rinke’s latest attempt to shake up the race with just 14 days to go has two truths and a lie.
TRUTH: Tudor Dixon’s Campaign is Being Bankrolled by the DeVos Family
Rinke’s ad notes that Dixon is being “bankrolled by anti-Trump billionaires,” which has been true since the influential insider DeVos family formally made her the latest one of their sellouts. Notably “not afraid to throw money behind its candidates,” shortly after their endorsement of Dixon went public, a “mysterious SuperPAC” was up on the air touting Dixon’s pledge to decimate public education by any means necessary.
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.
TRUTH: Tudor Dixon Can’t be Trusted to Put Michiganders First
It’s not just public education. Regardless of the issue, Dixon has put her crusade to drag Michigan backwards over solutions that would keep Michiganders first.
A staunch supporter of the 1931 ban, calling it “a good law,” Tudor Dixon has previously stated that she would be against all exceptions to abortion, including rape, incest, and when the health of the mother was at risk. Right to Life of Michigan and dark money group Susan B. Anthony List have both rewarded her anti-choice extremism with an endorsement.
And in the case of the state’s thriving auto industry, 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.
The state’s infrastructure would be far worse off with her in the governor’s office as well. Dixon dismissed the historic and bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that helped provide funding for Governor Whitmer’s recent historic, bipartisan infrastructure supplemental as “fake” and released a “plan” that covers only action Governor Whitmer has already taken.
LIE: Tudor Dixon is not a RINO
Dixon’s support from MIGOP insiders like the DeVoses doesn’t negate the radical conspiracy theories and numerous wild and unproven claims she’s made and embraced all cycle. In reality, she has regularly pushed baseless lies to justify the “aggressively conservative” far-right agenda she’s taken on several issues.
She got caught claiming that Planned Parenthood has employed a “business model” to “introduce sex” to “7th graders” so they can profit off of “plenty of abortions in high school.”
And before launching a bid, Dixon – who called public schools “government indoctrination centers” – was notorious for diving headfirst into the conspiracy theory deep end, baselessly claiming that Governor Whitmer “has decided to represent cartels” and “supports the abuse of children at our Southern border.”
Dixon took to Twitter multiple times in the months directly following the 2020 general election to cry “sloppy and obvious” fraud and theft without providing any basis for these accusations. These claims were echoed over several debates this year, where she claimed that Trump “legitimately won the 2020 election in Michigan.”
Dixon has also downplayed and lied about the insurrection since before announcing her run for governor. Before the dust could even settle on the U.S. Capitol, she suggested that “a combination of maybe ANTIFA” was to blame.
She has embraced election conspiracy theories and agreed that there was enough fraud in the 2020 election to change the result, something that has been thoroughly debunked by the Republican-led Senate Oversight Committee in a 55-page report definitively stating that there was “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud.”
