2022 Michigan governor's race: Gretchen Whitmer projected winner over Tudor Dixon
CBS News projects Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will win reelection for her second term, defeating Republican Tudor Dixon.
Whitmer, a Democrat, is a former prosecutor, state House representative and state senator who became Michigan Senate minority leader. As governor, she led the state through the pandemic, receiving both praise and criticism for shutdowns she implemented to try to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Dixon, 45, is a conservative political commentator and businesswoman who has campaigned heavily on the economy, criticizing Whitmer's stewardship of the Michigan economy and the shutdowns she instituted during the pandemic. Former President Trump endorsed her a few months after she announced her candidacy last year and held a rally in Michigan in early October.
The race
The economy has been a top campaign issue: Whitmer has touted clean energy job growth and talked about bringing jobs to Michigan, while Dixon has sought to pin high prices on Whitmer and has attacked her over shutdowns she instituted during the pandemic. Both have promised tax relief to offset rising prices.
Dixon campaigned against Whitmer's COVID-19 restrictions, and says she would pardon business owners cited during Whitmer's tenure and would block mask mandates in schools. She has also vowed to launch probes into Michigan's response to the virus. She's also made public safety and fighting crime a cornerstone of her campaign.
In late 2020, the FBI thwarted a kidnapping plot against Whitmer that prosecutors say was instigated by several men who were unhappy with her COVID policies. A number of them have been convicted in connection to the plot.
One of the dominant issues in the Michigan governor's race is abortion. Whitmer, 51, has been fighting to preserve abortion access in Michigan since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. When Roe fell, the state had a law on the books from 1931 that would make performing an abortion a felony in most cases. The state law was superceded by Roe for the half-century it was in effect, but the fall of Roe paved the way to allow the 1931 abortion law to go into effect.
In September, a state court judge invalidated the ban, finding it violated the state constitution. On Election Day, along with the governor's race and other offices, voters will weigh in on Proposal 3, a constitutional amendment to allow abortion.
Dixon, 45, is a conservative political commentator and businesswoman supports a ban on abortion, with an exception only for the life of the mother, but not for rape or incest. Former President Trump endorsed her a few months after she announced her candidacy last year and held a rally in Michigan in early October.
Dixon has claimed that Trump had won Michigan in the 2020 election and has said that the election was stolen from him. But when asked about it directly in an interview with Fox News over the summer, she dodged the question, saying it is certainly a concern to people in Michigan, and they need to make sure elections are secure.
The co-founder of a company that produced conservative lessons for grade students, Dixon has also campaigned on education, advocating for parents' rights and school choice. She has accused teachers of "indoctrinating" children, and and she raised critical race theory on the trail, even though it is not typically taught in Michigan schools. She has also introduced a plan to block transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.