ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – The race for Michigan governor heated up Tuesday in Rochester Hills as Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon squared off in their second and final debate.
We are two weeks away from Election Day, and the two candidates showcased Tuesday their significant differences in policy.
The first ten minutes of Tuesday’s debate were all about abortion.
“Proposal 3 allows abortion up until the moment of birth for any reason, including sex selection,” said Dixon. “There will be no legislating around Proposal 3 because it will be language in the constitution.”
“None of what (Dixon) just said is true, and here’s why you can’t trust anything she is saying when it comes to reproductive rights,” said Whitmer. “She’s the one that said a 14-year-old child raped by her uncle is a perfect example of someone who should not have reproductive rights and the ability to choose. She went further to say that it is healing for a person who is raped to be carrying that child to term.”
The next 10 minutes moved away from abortions and focused on the economy.
“A governor cannot fix global inflation, but what I can do is put more money in your pockets, and that’s what we’ve done,” Whitmer said.
“This governor has not done anything to help with inflation, but I would put money back in your pockets,” Dixon said. “I would make sure we’d have that child tax credit. I would make sure that we reduce the income tax.”
Read: Devin Scillian: Biggest takeaways from final Whitmer, Dixon debate
After abortion rights and the state of the economy came the relegating the COVID process regarding kids.
“Mrs. Dixon says that I kept students out longer than any other state, and that’s just not true,” Whitmer said. “I worked closely with my Republican and Democratic governors, and kids were out for three months.”
“I’m pretty sure I just heard an audible gasp around town when Gretchen Whitmer said that kids were out of school for three months,” Dixon said. “Perhaps she wasn’t paying attention to what was actually happening. We even had schools that were closing this year. This is shocking to me.”
The real differences in how to prevent school shootings were also a topic.
“I would like to have armed security at our schools,” Dixon said. “I would like to make sure that we have a one entry point. I would like to also like to implement some of the plan that talks about how to identify a child that struggles with mental health that might be considering self-harm or harming someone else.”
“There was a school shooting in Missouri yesterday in a district that had exactly what she just described,” Whitmer said. “One place of entry, armed guards in the school district, and people are dead. We’ve been trying that for 30 years. It’s not working. It is time to try proven policies, background checks, secure storage, and red flag laws. I’m not talking about hunting; I’m talking about keeping our kids and communities safe.”
The only moment during the debate that was not contentious was when both candidates were asked to say something nice about each other. They both complemented how the other spoke about their daughters and how it is not easy to raise a family while also running for office.
Read: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Tudor Dixon square off in first debate