Nathan News

CLARKSTON, Mich. — As she races to lead a tightly divided swing state, Tudor Dixon is pursuing a dangerous strategy in the race for governor of Michigan: embracing Donald J. Trump and sometimes emulating his boundless political style.

She recently campaigned with the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former White House adviser – and, in Trump fashion, made headlines for her being mocked by her Democratic opponent, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, over a 2020 kidnapping plot hatched against her by right-wing militiamen.

In other appearances, Ms Dixon called for a ban on transgender girls playing in women’s and women’s sports. And on a recent afternoon at a sports club in an affluent suburb northwest of Detroit, where a life-size figure of Mr. Trump stood outside the doors, she promoted her so- saying America First trade policy.

“‘America First’ – Michigan First – will bring Michigan together,” she said.

The governor’s race between Ms Dixon and Ms Whitmer carries high stakes for abortion rights, schools and the future of the election. This is historic – the first time that two women have competed for the position in the state.

The contest also serves as a test of whether Ms. Dixon and other Republican candidates can win their general election by harnessing the grassroots energy of Trump supporters that propelled them to the top of crowded and chaotic primaries. The approach — which involves a close association with Mr. Trump’s election denial and other political baggage — worries some Republicans in Michigan who believe Ms. Dixon is failing to win over the kinds of suburban and independent voters who are crucial. in tight races.

But that may be the only option she has. Early voting began on Thursday, and time is running out, Ms Dixon is strapped for money, well behind in the polls, still struggling to build support for her Republican base and being beaten by Democrats on the airwaves of television.

“Uphill, on icy roads,” said Dennis Darnoi, a longtime Republican strategist in Michigan, describing his path to victory. “It’s a challenge, with a month left, for her to catch up with the kind of ground she’s going to need.”

Ms Dixon, who is due to appear alongside Mr Trump at a rally in Macomb County on Saturday, appeared unfazed, saying her recent fundraising numbers have been high and her message will eventually resonate with voters more than Ms. Whitmer’s.

Asked about challenges ahead for the Democrats’ campaign and big spending, Sara Broadwater, Ms Dixon’s communications director, fired at pollsters, saying they hadn’t predicted Mr Trump’s victory in 2016.

“As Tudor said the other day in response to a similar question, ‘Isn’t it sad that Democrats have to spend so much money?'” Ms Broadwater said. “Gretchen Whitmer remains highly vulnerable as pro-Dixon forces begin to fight back and her campaign gains momentum.”

Not all Republicans who closely aligned themselves with Mr. Trump struggled to make it from primary to general. In Arizona, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake took a similar approach and narrowed her race to a tie – but unlike Ms Dixon, she’s not facing an incumbent governor like Ms Whitmer.

Other candidates backed by Mr Trump, like Blake Masters in the Arizona Senate race and Doug Mastriano in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial contest, have fallen behind their Democratic opponents as they struggle to raise funds . Another Republican Senate candidate, JD Vance, faces a tighter-than-expected race in Ohio.

Mr. Trump has maintained a keen interest in Michigan. He won a victory in the state in 2016 by less than 11,000 votes before losing to Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020 by more than 154,000 votes.

Days before the Republican primary in early August, Mr. Trump endorsed Ms. Dixon, a conservative media personality backed by Michigan’s powerful DeVos family.

Ms Dixon, 45, a breast cancer survivor, worked as an executive in the steel industry until 2017 when she helped set up Lumen Student News, a company that produces conservative television news and education courses. story for college and high school students.

In a December 2021 radio interview, she said she aimed to restore student confidence in the country and combat what she described as “indoctrination” in schools. After helping to found Lumen, Ms. Dixon went on to host a news show, “America’s Voice Live”, on weekday afternoons.

On the stump, Ms Dixon says she became a vocal critic of Ms Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions as she witnessed their negative impact on Michigan’s economy. Safety measures “took a deeply personal turn”, Ms Dixon’s website says, after her grandmother died at a Norton Shores nursing home that banned visitors during the pandemic.

Ms Dixon, who has the delivery of someone comfortable in front of an audience, has drawn criticism for spreading unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election and for some of her positions on LGBTQ issues, including calling for “tough criminal penalties for adults who involve children in drag shows.

On her website, she calls for a ban to prevent school employees from talking to children in kindergarten through third grade “about sex and gender theory secretly behind their parents’ backs”. And she said abortion should only be allowed if it is necessary to save a mother’s life, not in cases of rape or incest.

Ms. Dixon’s stance on abortion in particular – in a state where voters tend to favor abortion rights and in November will weigh a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the US Constitution State – is a big reason why some Republicans worry about his chances. They also worry that the underperformance at the top of the poll could cause the GOP to lose control of the state legislature.

Michigan’s Republican Party has been in turmoil for months.

The party’s primary was defined by fierce infighting between its establishment and Trump factions. His two favorites for governor were disqualified for handing in petitions with thousands of forged signatures. Another candidate was charged with four misdemeanors related to the Capitol riot.

Ms Dixon managed to rally her grumpy party behind her in the final weeks of the race. But even after winning the primary, she remained a relatively unknown political underdog. It didn’t help that at the GOP state convention later in August, Republicans formally endorsed two preachers of 2020 election lies for the highest offices in the state: Matthew DePerno for Attorney General and Kristina Karamo for Secretary of State.

The deadly battles, along with the lack of financial networks and campaign experience among leading Republican candidates, made what Richard Czuba, an independent pollster in Lansing, Michigan, called “the worst ticket I’ve seen of any party for the past 40 years.”

“It’s great to show up as an underdog, especially when you’re running against a starter,” Czuba said. “But there are two sides to this underdog coin. On the one hand, you can present yourself as an outsider against the establishment. On the other hand, you don’t know how to do this – and it shows.

At the start of the general election, Democrats rushed to define Ms Dixon before she had a chance to define herself. As Ms. Whitmer had kept $14 million in her war chest at the end of August, after accounting for debts and expenses, Ms. Dixon’s ending balance was $523,000, according to the latest available campaign finance reports from the State. Democratic groups have invested more than $41 million in television ads since the August primary, according to the firm AdImpact, which analyzes campaign ad spend. Republican groups, on the other hand, invested about $5.5 million.

This week, state party leaders and national Republicans pushed back against any notion that the race was out of reach and that Ms Dixon had been left to fend for herself. Last week, the Michigan Republican Party launched its biggest publicity campaign against Ms Whitmer, seeking to portray her as ‘soft on crime’. Chris Gustafson, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, said he may also come in soon with more announcements.

“In Michigan, historically, we’ve seen candidates in big races go down in the polls to come back to win,” Gustafson said. “We think Tudor is a strong candidate with a good message. She’s within striking distance.

During Ms. Dixon’s event at the Oakland County Athletic Club, a panel including former Trump administration officials sat against the tall glass walls of a serene and sunny indoor pool, as they lambasted Mr Biden’s economic policies and painted a harrowing picture of crime – crowded US cities and unchecked immigration on the southwest border.

In a brief speech, Ms Dixon criticized what she called a “radical theory of sex and gender” permeating schools and denounced Ms Whitmer for providing tax incentives to bring a Chinese company to Michigan, rather than an American company.

But above all, she showed a rare dose of moderation, criticizing Mr. Whitmer’s pandemic restrictions and economic policies, the rise in crime in cities across the state and schools that Ms. Dixon said had not sufficiently taught pupils to read and write. It was the kind of remarks some established and moderate Republicans could hope for — and they also seemed to appease people in the room.

Susan Savich, 64, and her 24-year-old son Jonathan asked to take pictures with Ms Dixon on their way out. They were opposed to schools teaching children anything other than basic skills and traditional beliefs, they said, and Mr Savich liked that Ms Dixon was ‘education first’.

They were also relieved to learn that Mr. Trump was coming to the state. “Ms. Dixon comes up against a lot of things,” Mr. Savich said.