LANSING — Tom Barrett voted a few weeks ago to kill another auto manufacturing project intended to bring billions of dollars and thousands of good-paying jobs to Michigan. The investment, the result of a partnership between Ford Motor Co. and the state’s Critical Industry Program, would include more than $2 billion in new funds and 3,200 jobs. 
Last week wasn’t the first time that Barrett’s attacked Michigan’s automotive and manufacturing industries. In February, he voted five times to stop General Motors from building a new electric vehicle battery factory in Delta Township. The plant will create nearly 5,200 new Michigan jobs, including 2,000 jobs in his own district. 

In total, Barrett has sought to prevent Michigan from directly receiving upwards of $4.5 billion in outside investment and 8,200 auto jobs. His efforts make even less sense in light of these projects’ immense popularity. The Critical Industry Program—the initiative that made the Ford and GM investments possible—won overwhelming bipartisan support upon its introduction to the state legislature, and most senators, including most Republicans, voted for its adoption.

“Tom Barrett just proved again that he’s willing to ignore what’s best for Michiganders when it goes against his fanatical ideology,” said Christy Jensen, Executive Director of the Michigan Democratic Party. “Anyone who tries to block jobs and economic growth out of some misguided sense of principle is too selfish to serve as the common-sense, practical leader that the people of Michigan’s 7th congressional district want.”

In response to his recent vote against jobs, the MDP is announcing a digital and billboard campaign to call attention to Barrett’s baffling vendetta against Michigan auto manufacturing and to remind mid-Michigan voters that Tom Barrett would rather promote his bizarre personal beliefs than put money in workers’ pockets. 

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