Nathan News

Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and Tudor Dixon, her Republican challenger, gave debate viewers a stark contrast on Thursday of the choice they will have in the Nov. 8 ballot: an outsider versus a seasoned politician.

Ms Whitmer, who is seeking re-election, has sought to keep a positive tone even as she swept her opponent. She reminded viewers of the violent threats she faced as she tried to lead the state through the Covid pandemic. Ms. Whitmer also highlighted her belief in bipartisanship and her work with Republicans, who control both houses of the Michigan Legislature.

“I will continue to work with anyone who wants to solve problems, not just score political points with rhetoric, but come to the table with alternatives,” she said.

Ms Dixon, a former steel industry executive turned Tory commentator, held firm as she tried to rein in voters’ anger over high food and petrol prices and spells of crippling unemployment, job closures schools and business restrictions caused by the pandemic.

“This governor’s state policies are radical, dangerous and destructive,” she said. “Crime is up, jobs are down, schools are worse, and roads haven’t been fixed.”

For the first time in a Michigan governor’s race, both contenders are women.

The contest takes place in an extraordinarily tense political environment in Michigan. Ahead of the 2020 election, federal prosecutors charged several men with plotting to kidnap Ms Whitmer, in part over her handling of the pandemic. Two men pleaded guilty, two men were acquitted and, in August, two others were convicted by jurors. A related lawsuit is currently pending in state court.

Ms. Whitmer, who has led in the polls, has sought to maintain focus on her efforts to create jobs in Michigan and portray Ms. Dixon as being out of step with voters on abortion. Ms. Dixon, who is backed by former President Donald J. Trump and the politically powerful DeVos family, has leaned hard to attack transgender women and criticize Ms. Whitmer for her policies on corporations in the time of the pandemic.

But Ms. Dixon has struggled to organize a campaign in the state, where Democrats spend significantly more than Republicans on television.

Abortion was important, but viewers learned nothing new.

The first question of the night touched on the issue that dominated the race and could prove to be a litmus test for suburban and independent voters in the state.

As enforcement of a 1931 law banning abortion is temporarily stalled in the state and voters must decide in November whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution , Ms. Whitmer pointed to her background as a strong proponent of abortion rights.

She also criticized her opponent for saying abortion should only be allowed if it is necessary to save a mother’s life, not in cases of rape or incest. “We know that our basic rights are very much under threat right now,” she said.

Ms Dixon described herself as ‘pro-life with exceptions for the life of the mother’ and said abortion rules in the state would be decided by voters or a judge. She delved into a strategy she and other Republicans have deployed throughout the campaign trail, seeking to paint Ms Whitmer as “extremely radical” on the issue.

The fight against the pandemic remains a hot topic.

Ms Whitmer, who was asked if she would have done anything different in her response to the pandemic, painted a grim picture of the situation the state faced during an initial wave of infections that has led to a spike in deaths.

“We knew our hospitals were filling up and people were dying,” said Ms. Whitmer, whose early restrictions were among the most sweeping in the Midwest. “We were desperate for masks and ventilators. There were refrigerated trucks outside some of our hospitals to store people’s bodies.

Ms Dixon accused the governor of bungling the response to Covid in nursing homes and lambasted her for an audit that showed Michigan had paid up to $8.5 billion in claims for assistance- fraudulent unemployment. She argued Ms Whitmer kept pupils ‘locked out of schools and didn’t listen to parents when they begged her to let them play’.

Ms Whitmer told viewers her life was in danger – possibly an allusion to the plot to kidnap her in 2020 – as she tried to navigate the state through the pandemic.

The children are not well.

Schools, both their safety and the quality of education, were major themes of the race.

The year Ms. Whitmer was sworn in, Michigan public school students showed significant improvement after years of struggle. But the pandemic has crippled the academic landscape across the country.

During the election campaign, Ms Dixon repeatedly criticized anti-LGBTQ language as she pledged to exclude transgender girls from girls’ sports and accused schools of teaching “radical sex and gender theory “. But on the debate stage, she often kept her comments more subdued, saying she would spend more money on public schools and focus students on the basics: “Go back to reading, writing and math “.

Ms Whitmer hit back by criticizing Ms Dixon for her ties to the powerful DeVos family, which has long worked to support charter schools and private schools.

School safety has been a priority in Michigan since a fatal shooting at Oxford High School last year. Ms Whitmer noted the gun rules she supports: ‘secure storage’, background checks and ‘red flag’ gun seizure laws. Ms Dixon advocated for people inside schools to be armed and trained to deal with a gunman.

Cars, roads and gasoline came back again and again.

In a state that’s home to both the American auto industry and a staggering number of potholes, the two candidates spent a lot of time talking about cars and the surfaces they drive on.

Ms Whitmer, who raced four years ago pledging to ‘fix the damned roads’, said there had been a lot of progress but not enough time to overcome decades of rotten pavement.

“We’re fixing these fucking roads,” the governor said. “We are moving earth.”

Ms Dixon said the governor had failed to deliver on his promises and the state’s infrastructure was still lacking.

Electric vehicles have also often appeared. Ms Dixon claimed her opponent ‘wants you to pay more for petrol to force you to use electric vehicles’. Ms. Whitmer scoffed at this suggestion.

Dixon attempted to portray the governor as weak on crime.

Ms. Dixon invoked the governor’s embrace of protesters after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and reminded viewers that Ms. Whitmer once said she supported the ‘spirit’ of efforts to defund the police.

“We will never fund the police,” said Ms Dixon, who highlighted her support for law enforcement organisations.

Ms Whitmer, a former prosecutor, countered by saying she had asked for more funding for law enforcement and had worked across parties on the issue. She also noted her own endorsements from law enforcement officials.

“They know we have made the most significant investments to support them, and we will continue to do so, as long as I am governor,” Ms Whitmer said.

The governor also blamed Ms. Dixon for defending the actions of a Grand Rapids police officer who fatally shot Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese immigrant, after a traffic stop in April. That officer, Christopher Schurr, was later charged with murder and fired from the police department. He has denied any wrongdoing and is awaiting trial.