With the political backing of Michigan’s powerful DeVos family, conservative media personality Tudor Dixon won the Republican primary for governor in Michigan on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
She will run against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a first-term Democrat who became Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s running mate in the summer of 2020 .
In the final weeks, the primaries turned into a race to win the support of former President Donald J. Trump, who did end up backing Ms. Dixon.But she didn’t wait until his official support aired Mr Trump praises her TV ad An internal poll released at a campaign rally showed that half of primary voters thought Trump had backed her.
Ms. Dixon won in a five-person field that lost its two most well-funded candidates in May after they were disqualified by the state canvassing committee for submitting forged petition signatures.
Ms. Dixon, 45, a former commentator on the conservative media channel The Voice of Real America, is a former actress and executive at her family’s steel company. She has said she was incensed to run for office by outrage over Ms Whitmer’s policies, especially in the early months of Covid-19, which were the strictest pandemic shutdown orders in the country.
As a mother of four school-aged children, Ms Dixon is in favour of funding each student’s education so that students can follow any school of their choice, including private schools. The policy is in line with the long-standing priorities of the DeVos family, including Mr. Trump’s former education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
Asked at a debate in May if she believed Mr Trump won Michigan in 2020, Ms Dixon raised her hand when, in fact, he lost the race by 154,000 votes to President Biden. But on Sunday, after gaining the support of Mr Trump, Ms Dixon backed away From that position, she said she was concerned about “the way the election was handled.” A lengthy Republican scrutiny in the state Senate in 2021 has debunked claims by Trump supporters of widespread fraud.
Ms. Dixon and other Republicans are relatively unknown in Michigan, where two-fifths of Republicans don’t know or have no opinion of any candidate in the two weeks before the election, polls show.
Her biggest rival, self-funded former car dealership owner Kevin Link, Attacking Ms. Dixon as a tool The DeVos family at the time of Ms. DeVos Said in June that she had tried to invoke the 25th Amendment Removed Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Ms. DeVos supported Ms. Dixon’s campaign, which her family helped fund, and Ms. DeVos’ handwritten “Dear Mr. President” letter to Mr. Trump Last week appeared to prompt him to support Ms Dixon.
Garrett Soldano, a chiropractor who gained political attention in 2020 by organizing rallies against Ms Whitmer’s pandemic mitigation efforts, Urge Mr Trump not to support Ms Dixon. He said in a video message to Trump that after Jan. 6, the DeVos “basically deserted you, sir.”
And real estate agent Ryan Kelley, Arrested in June He was charged with four misdemeanors for his actions at the Capitol on January 6. Mr Kelly pleaded not guilty and said he had joined the mob outside but did not enter the building. He predicted at the time that the publicity surrounding his arrest would help his campaign, even though he didn’t raise enough money to run a TV ad.
Of the four main candidates, three – Ms Dixon, Mr Kelley and Mr Soldano – Saying the wrong thing at the May debate Mr Trump has taken Michigan in 2020. Mr Link said there was fraud, but he wasn’t sure it was enough to hand the state over to Mr Trump.
Trip Gabriel contributed reporting.
