Of their first debate, each candidates mentioned they might honor the outcomes of the poll initiative whereas accusing one another of mendacity about that promise.
Whitmer sought to tie abortion rights to Michigan’s future financial prosperity, arguing that, if voters codified them into the state structure, state companies could be in prime place to poach employees from neighboring states like Indiana and Ohio with strict abortion limits.
“Go to Purdue and discuss to each girl engineer, in addition to Ohio State, and convey them to Michigan, the place you possibly can have full rights to make your personal selections about your well being and your physique and an awesome job,” Whitmer mentioned final month.
Dixon centered her marketing campaign on a “accountable discount” within the state’s 4.25 % particular person earnings tax and to chop state rules by 40 % over 4 years, although it was unclear what guidelines she’d goal for elimination.
The Republican additionally embraced conservative rhetoric echoing in a number of different races throughout the nation about LGBTQ rights in colleges, claiming that Michigan college students have been being taught “intercourse and gender concept, and never … to learn, write and do math.”
Dixon criticized Whitmer’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly restrictions on companies and college closures that the Republican mentioned damage the state’s economic system.
“This governor’s state insurance policies are radical, harmful and damaging,” Dixon mentioned through the pair’s first gubernatorial debate final month. “Crime is up, jobs are down, colleges are worse and” — referencing a viral 2018 marketing campaign promise by Whitmer — “the roads didn’t get mounted.”
Whitmer insisted the state was making progress on enhancing infrastructure.
“We’re fixing the rattling roads,” she mentioned through the Oct. 13 debate. “We’re transferring filth.”
And Whitmer defended her pandemic-era insurance policies, recalling the extent of dying and uncertainty within the early days of the illness’s grip on the state and the nation.
A foiled 2020 kidnapping plot — which Dixon mocked on the campaign trail in September — was spurred partially from anger over pandemic-related lockdowns.