This week, voters across Michigan had their first opportunity to see Tudor Dixon’s wrong-for-Michigan agenda crumble beneath Governor Whitmer’s proven record of leadership and forward-thinking vision to keep working families first. In several key moments, Governor Whitmer exposed the DeVos sellout for offering hyperpartisan complaints and criticisms at the expense of actual solutions. WATCH top examples of this clear contrast below.

Governor Whitmer Caught Tudor Dixon Lying About Her Anti-Abortion Extremism, and a Governor’s Ability to Maintain Reproductive Access

TUDOR DIXON: I’ve never said that I wanted to criminalize people. I’ve never said I wanted this to be a felony, she just is completely making that up. My position on abortion is clear. I am pro-life, with exceptions of life of the mother, but I understand that this is going to be decided by the people of the State of Michigan, or by a judge. As the Governor has already stated, a judge has already ruled in this case. Please understand that the governor doesn’t have the choice to go around a judge or a constitutional amendment. She will lie to you tonight and tell you that the governor can do something about a constitutional amendment, but you need to understand that it’s very clearly written. […]

RICK ALBIN (Moderator): Governor, I’d like for you to define your position on abortion.

GOVERNOR WHITMER: Mrs. Dixon is either woefully under-informed about the office she’s running for, or she’s lying to you. It’s that simple. A governor will absolutely impact these rights. In fact, the only [reason] abortion is still accessible in Michigan is because of my action. This is a candidate who said a 14-year-old child raped by a family member is a “perfect example” of why we shouldnt have abortion. I’ve been fighting to maintain the law as it is. That’s what I support, Rick. Here’s the fact of the matter: to protect our rights, we cannot trust Mrs. Dixon. 

Compared to the Solutions Governor Whitmer Has Delivered to Address Gun Violence, Tudor Dixon Didn’t Even Attempt to Spell Out a Plan to Keep Our Communities Safe

WHITMER: As a former prosecutor, I take public safety very seriously. As a mom, I’m furious that in our country guns are the number one killer of our children. As a governor, I know we can and must act. I support secure storage. I support background checks. I support red flag laws. This is how we keep our communities safer. This is how we keep our kids safer when they’re in schools. My opponent supports constitutional carry which means more guns, less oversight, less training. She wants to eliminate gun free zones, like at our schools. The work we have done has helped improve safety. There is more good work to do, without question. But here’s what we’ve done. With Operation Safe Neighborhoods, we’ve got paroled sweeps, we’ve gotten illegal guns off the streets. We’re working with local police departments and we will continue to do so and take any actions we can to make our communities safer.

ALBIN: Mrs. Dixon? 30 seconds.

DIXON: I don’t think it can be any clearer. The Governor has made her statement. She wants to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. She does not trust our law-abiding citizens with their guns. We know this, we’ve already seen some of her agencies trying to do this on her own, and she doesn’t even know that we’re in a situation where our jails are filled with violent criminals that are beyond what our jails can handle. They’re not putting them in our prisons. She doesn’t even know what’s happening in the criminal justice system in her own state?

ALBIN: […] Governor, 30 seconds.

WHITMER: I mean, I’d be happy to give my 30 seconds to Mrs. Dixon if she wants to actually tell us what kind of policies she might support to get guns off the street, to keep our communities safer. I still haven’t heard that, I don’t think that you’ve heard that, and I think everyone deserves to know. What is the plan to get guns out of our communities?

While Governor Whitmer Laid Out the Massive Investments She’s Drawn to Michigan During Her Term, Tudor Dixon Couldn’t Identify How She Would Create Good-Paying Jobs

WHITMER: Let’s talk about a few stats. Michigan’s economic recovery is the fastest than any we’ve seen in our history. We have one of the strongest economic recoveries in the country. We know that we are seeing small business growth that’s outpaced any year that we’ve seen in the last 23 years. We’ve made record investments when it comes to securing the future of the auto industry here. General Motors, $7 billion building batteries. Ford, Stellantis, it’s not just about autos, it’s about the future of manufacturing. Future of life sciences. Perrigo moved their headquarters from Florida here to Grand Rapids. Pfizer expanded in Kalamazoo. We’re also onshoring ship production to bring supply chains home from China to Michigan. KLA, SK Siltron, Calumet Electronics, Hemlock semiconductor, we are building the future of the economy. And we’re also training our workforce so that they can get into those good paying jobs you can raise a family on. 170,000 Michiganders are signed up for our opportunities tuition-free to get educations and skills. […]

DIXON: If the governor could just be honest, the report came out today showing that Michigan is in a terribly slow recovery. In fact, we’ve lost more small businesses than any other state except for New York. We’re tied for losing the most small businesses. We’ve also lost 82,000 jobs while Gretchen Whitmer was in office and she hasn’t saved the automotive industry. She’s only trying to save face now because she knows Ford left and went to Kentucky and Tennessee. And when she was asked her response was “I think we didn’t know.” […]

WHITMER: That’s ridiculous. Listen, we are a top 10 state for new business. We’re the number one state in the nation for clean energy job growth. We have put our fiscal house in order. My opponent is proposing a $12 billion cut to our budget. She likes to say she has business in the steel industry. But in a time when that industry had record profits, her company didn’t pay the gas bill, didn’t pay the trash bill, didn’t pay their employees, and got sued dozens of times by other businesses they didn’t pay either.

The post WATCH: Key Clips From the First Debate Between Governor Whitmer and Bought-And-Paid-For Candidate Tudor Dixon appeared first on Michigan Democratic Party.