MAGA hardliners rail against Michigan’s Trump-backed Republican gubernatorial nominee

03 August 2022

On Tuesday night, August 2, former right-wing media pundit Tudor Dixon — endorsed by former President Donald Trump at the last minute — officially became Michigan’s Republican gubernatorial nominee. Now, Dixon is getting ready to take on incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the general election. But as MAGA and as far-right as Dixon is, some Trump supporters are disappointed that Trump endorsed her instead of endorsing a primary candidate who was even more MAGA.

Trump’s endorsement of Dixon, a 45-year-old Gen-Xer, came late in the primary; he didn’t announce his endorsement until Friday night, July 29 — only four nights before Election Night. The former president described Dixon as a “Conservative Warrior" who will "stand up to the Radical Left as they try to indoctrinate our children and is ready to take on one of the worst Governors in the nation." But Newsweek’s Ewan Palmer reports that some MAGA hardliners weren’t happy with the endorsement, as they consider Dixon too much of an establish Republican.

One of the reasons why some MAGA Republicans dislike Dixon is the fact that she was also endorsed by Betsy DeVos, former secretary of education in the Trump Administration and the sister of former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince. DeVos resigned from Trump’s administration on January 6, 2021, the day after the Capitol insurrection — which they view as a betrayal of Trump and the MAGA movement.

Twitter user @Lisa111974, for example, posted, “I don’t like who President Trump endorsed for Governor of Michigan. Tudor Dixon is a Rino and is paid off by Devos! I will be voting for Ryan Kelley for Governor of Michigan!!” Another Twitter user, @@SuppressedName, wrote, “Donald Trump, did technically say the other night, that he is a politician now! I'm curious if he meant, he's a part of the Washington swamp? Taking the Devos money for Tudor Dixon says to me he is!" And Twitter user @NauticalMiles slammed Dixon as “a Never Trumper Candidate.”

But Dixon most definitely isn’t a Never Trump conservative, and no one would confuse her views with those of scathing Trump critics on the right such as attorney George Conway, former GOP strategist Rick Wilson or Bill Kristol, Amanda Carpenter and Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark. Dixon showed how MAGA she was when, after the 2020 presidential election, she falsely claimed that the election had been plagued by “rampant” voter fraud — which it wasn’t. As Conway has pointed out, Biden enjoyed a decisive victory in an election that was quite secure and did so despite a deadly pandemic.

One issue that is certain to come up in the general election, now that Whitmer and Dixon are officially the nominees of their parties, is abortion. Whitmer is aggressively campaigning on abortion rights, while Dixon is adamantly opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. The only exception to an abortion ban that Dixon favors is if the mother’s life is in danger.

When Dixon was asked by journalist Charlie LeDuff if a 14-year-old girl should be able to have an abortion if the pregnancy was caused by incest, she responded, “A life is a life for me.”

Whitmer has plenty of political ammunition to use against Dixon in the general election. Dixon has railed against the use of hijab by Muslim women, describing them as “oppressive garments” — and in 2020, she defended a comedian’s use of blackface.

So far, polls have shown Whitmer performing well against Tudor in head-to-head matchups. Recent polls have shown Whitmer leading Tudor by 10 percent (the Glengariff Group) or 37 percent (Target Insyght),

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