GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WXYZ) — The first of two gubernatorial debates focused heavily on voter trust.
Incumbent Governor Gretchen Whitmer painted her opponent, Republican nominee Tudor Dixon, as a conspiracy theorist out of touch with real issues in Michigan.
Dixon called out Governor Whitmer for being a bully to small businesses claiming she has come up short on her promises.
But the biggest topic of the night was abortion rights and prop 3.
“When Roe fell, Mrs. Dixon celebrated that. She said it didn’t even go far enough," Governor Whitmer said during Thursday night's debate.
Whitmer is a strong supporter of prop 3 which would enshrine abortion rights into Michigan's constitution. She warned voters Thursday of the state’s 1931 law effectively criminalizing the procedure.
“The only reason that law is not in effect right now is because of my lawsuit, stopping it,” she said.
“I am pro-life with exceptions for the life of the mother," Dixon said during Thursday's debate. "But I understand this is going to be decided by the people of the state of Michigan or by a judge.”
Another hot topic during the first gubernatorial debate was school safety.
It’s been nearly 1 year since 4 students were killed inside Oxford High School.
“I support secure storage. I support background checks. I support red flag laws. My opponent on the other hand does not. She’s proposed more guns, less oversight, and eliminating gun-free zones,” Whitmer said.
“She wouldn’t allow protection even inside of the school where we know that’s the best case scenario if we have someone that can shoot down a shooter, shoot down a threat. But she doesn’t want anything like that. She wants to make sure your kids are in a sitting duck zone,” Dixon said.
Michigan’s economy also took center stage in Grand Rapids Thursday with Dixon criticizing Whitmer’s response to the pandemic.
“This governor has proven time and time again that she doesn’t know how to lead a state and she certainly doesn’t know how to bring a state back from a crisis,” Dixon said. “You can see that we’ve lost more small businesses and we’re a state that’s built on small businesses.”
The governor says more lives would have been lost to COVID under Dixon's leadership.
With just 90 seconds to respond, voters were able to get just a taste of where these candidates stand on important issues including public school funding, vouchers, and Michigan's plan to weather inflation.
This was also the first time these candidates met face-to-face ahead of what’s expected to be a very contentious midterm election.
“I feel like we were able to point out a lot of things that the governor hasn’t been honest about,” Dixon said.
“I think the rhetoric that you hear on the campaign trail is exactly what we saw here tonight, so I don’t think there were any surprises,” Whitmer said after the debate.
And while a lot was covered Thursday, something that wasn’t was the climate and how each candidate would fight climate change and the economic realities that come with it.
The next Gubernatorial Debate is October 25 in metro Detroit.
