ROCHESTER (WWJ) – During Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate – Michigan’s second and final debate before the Nov. 8 election – Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon took turns sharing kind words about each other.
Co-moderator Chuck Stokes of WXYZ in Detroit decided to take the debate in a “slightly different direction” when he asked the candidates, in the interest of civility, what’s something positive they could say about their opponent and their political party.
Dixon, responding first, said she loves how Whitmer “always talks about her daughters.”
“And as a mom of girls, I think that’s so important to come out and encourage your daughters and love your daughters,” Dixon said. “She has also made sure she’s fought for women and I love that about her. I think that we can continue that tradition and make sure we take care of women and make sure women are protected in this state; it’s so important.”
Whitmer said had she responded first, she would’ve said something very similar.
“I know how hard it is to run for office and to raise kids,” she said. “So my hat’s off to anyone who’s willing to do it. I think moms’ voices are important. We obviously have very different perspectives – all moms are not the same. But I appreciate how difficult it is and applaud any woman who is willing to put herself out there and at the same time balance all of the different pressures that we working moms have.”
When Dixon was asked if she’d like a rebuttal, both candidates shared a chuckle.
But those kind words didn’t come before the candidates spent about 45 minutes exchanging political blows on a number of topics as the election looms, just two weeks away. And more barbs were exchanged in the final minutes of the debate.
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Among the most hotly debated topics Tuesday night were school safety and guns in schools. A little less than a year after the deadly school shooting at Oxford High School last Nov. 30, the candidates laid out their views on how to keep students safe.
Whitmer said she supports policies such as secure storage, red flag laws and background checks. The governor also claimed Dixon “supports more guns in schools, making them not-gun-free zones.”
The governor, as she did at the first debate in Grand Rapids earlier this month, brought up a social media post that Dixon shared in early November, weeks before the Oxford shooting. It was a picture of Dixon with a gun and a caption that said “gun control means using both hands.”
“She might think this is a joke, but I think there’s nothing funny about it,” Whitmer said.
“How manipulative to comment on a post that I made 29 days before the shooting even occurred,” Dixon said. “But that’s what we expect when we talk to Gretchen Whitmer, right?”
Dixon went on to say school shootings are devastating, and offered a number of ways to solve the issue, including having armed security in schools and making sure schools have one entry point.
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She also said she’d “like to implement some of that plan that talks about how to identify a child that struggles with mental health that might be considering self harm or harming someone else.”
In her rebuttal, Whitmer noted there was a school shooting in Missouri on Monday, “in a district that had exactly what she just described: one place of entry, armed guards in the school district, and people are dead.”
“We’ve been trying that for 30 years, and it’s not working,” Whitmer said. “It is time to try proven policies: background checks, secure storage, red flag laws. I’m not talking about hunting, I’m just trying to keep our kids and communities safe.”
Whitmer and Dixon also exchanged words over education in schools, banned books, abortion policies, the economy and the pandemic.
The final debate is over and now it’s up to the voters. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Those who are in line by 8 p.m. have the right to vote.
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