LANSING — To date, gubernatorial candidate Garrett Soldano has put over $160,000 behind a TV ad that severely downplays his extremism and serves as a weak attempt to undermine Governor Whitmer’s strong leadership on the issues that impact Michiganders most.

This buy brings the total amount of money spent on negative attack ads against Governor Whitmer to over $1.5 million since the 2022 cycle began.

Governor Whitmer has led Michigan to a strong economic recovery while supporting small businesses and continues to secure major investments in key industries. While Soldano has been preoccupied with challenging the legitimacy of our elections and hawking fake Covid cures and misinformation, Whitmer has remained laser-focused on building on her record of bipartisan accomplishments to deliver for Michigan small businesses and families. 

Here’s the facts:

While Garrett Soldano Was Hawking a Miracle Cure for COVID-19, Governor Whitmer Created Thousands of Auto Jobs and Worked to Secure Vital Support For Small Businesses Across Michigan.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, Soldano operated as the national marketing director of Juice Plus+, a product he claimed would “literally” turn consumers’ bodies “into an environment of greatness and you’ll dominate any virus.” His snake oil salesman-type false advertisements of the product were so aggressive it forced the company to “issue a statement backing away from the claim” two months later.

Meanwhile, Governor Whitmer’s first term has been defined by her tireless work to keep Michigan’s economy strong. Since taking office, she’s built on Michigan’s “rich automotive legacy” by creating 15,000 jobs in the sector and opening Detroit’s first new auto plant in 30 years. 

When the early days of the pandemic forced working Michiganders to shutter their operations, she fought to keep them first and safe, negotiating a bipartisan deal that secured over $140 million for restart efforts and personal protective equipment – going to over 14,000 small businesses. Additionally, her Small Business Survival Grant program saved over 52,000 jobs statewide.

It’s Not Just Jobs and the Economy, Governor Whitmer Has Also Made Historic Educational Investments, Secured Historic Auto Insurance Reform, and Is Working To Deliver Billions In Savings For Michigan Drivers.

In his ad, Garrett Soldano claims that he will “rebuild all that has been lost,” but it’s Governor Whitmer that is actually doing it. 

This year Governor Whitmer secured a bipartisan $17.1 billion dollar public education budget that completely closed a decades-long state funding gap between school districts and is the “largest investment in PreK-12 schools in state history” — all without raising taxes.

And even Republican leaders in the state legislature couldn’t contain their praise for Whitmer successfully lowering Michigan’s “highest-in-the-nation auto insurance rates” – a “historic” deal that both House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey argued “couldn’t have gotten done without her.”

Following her signage of this massive auto insurance reform law, Whitmer strongly advocated for refund checks divvying up the over $5 billion surplus it helped create to go out to every insured Michigan driver.

Governor Whitmer’s Strong Economic Leadership and Deliberate Investments in Working Families Have Netted Positive Results By Every Metric Imaginable.

Governor Whitmer’s leadership was mission critical to the strong economic recovery Michiganders have seen all year. For the second quarter of the year, the state’s economy grew at such a rapid clip that it was the “third highest in the nation and the best in the Midwest.” And in July, Michigan ranked #2 for recovering from COVID-19 economic losses. 

Thanks to Whitmer’s strategic investments into small businesses when they needed it most, Michigan is also competitive nationally and was ranked as a top ten state for new business creation. 

Garrett Soldano is a Election Conspiracy Theorist Who Supports a Sham “Forensic” Audit.

The only thing Garrett Soldano has managed during his run for governor is successfully convincing Michgianders he’s an election conspiracy theorist that is hell-bent on putting the state through a costly and unnecessary Arizona-style audit.
In September, Soldano held a rally in Antrim County to echo the baseless grassroots belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and “a full forensic audit of 2020 remains essential” in spite of the fact that “there have been more than 250 audits of Michigan’s election and all of them have confirmed the 2020 Election was secure.”

The post FACT CHECK: Garrett Soldano Glosses Over His Extremism While Governor Whitmer Leads Economic Recovery appeared first on Michigan Democratic Party.