Tudor Dixon missed out on a final face-to-face goodbye with her grandmother amid the coronavirus pandemic and the strict nursing home visitation rules Michigan imposed.
Ms. Dixon now wants to take down the woman she blames: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat whose handling of the pandemic made her a top target for Republicans in next year’s elections.
“They didn’t even open the blinds,” Ms. Dixon told The Washington Times, recalling the final visit when she stood outside the building where her grandmother was kept. “They just opened them so the slats were open, and I had to pick up my four daughters so they could try to see her through the window.”
“Can you imagine a time in your life in the history of the United States that the governor says if your loved one is in the facility dying you are not allowed in?”
The 44-year-old co-host of the conservative TV news show America’s Voice Live says other Michigan residents faced their own trials under Ms. Whitmer, whose shutdown orders were among the most stern, even as the governor regularly made headlines for seeming to break the rules.
One of those headlines came with the revelation that Ms. Whitmer, who’d warned residents against out-of-state travel, flew on a private jet to Florida to visit her ailing father at a nursing home.
Ms. Whitmer has said no travel restrictions were in place when she went to Florida and said she went before a COVID-19 surge. Good luck selling that explanation to the state’s beleaguered residents, say Republicans.
She also was forced to apologize in May when she was photographed seated in a restaurant with at least 12 other people without masks, a violation of the state’s ban on gatherings of more than six people.
“I am human. I made a mistake, and I apologize,” Ms. Whitmer said.
“Gretchen Whitmer’s tenure as governor is one of hypocrisy and broken promises, subjecting Michiganders to draconian lockdowns while she lives by her own set of rules,” said Chris Gustafson, spokesperson for the Republican Governors Association. “From broken roads to the worst COVID recovery in the nation, Whitmer’s failed record will ensure she is a one-term governor.”
The souring on Ms. Whitmer is part of a broader trend of blowback on Democratic governors such as Andrew Cuomo in New York and Gavin Newsom in California, who throughout the pandemic were riding high in the polls and received praise from television talking heads.
Ms. Whitmer announced her state will officially reopen Tuesday, after roughly 15 months of limits on businesses, churches and personal gatherings.
In recent months her standing with residents has slipped from a 58% approval in February to 50% in May.
Those are still solid numbers for an incumbent governor, and Democrats sounded a confident note over her prospects — and took aim at her potential GOP opponents.
“Every single step of the way the same Republicans who are criticizing her have played politics with the pandemic, and tried to obstruct her every single step of the way,” said Sam Newton, spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association. “Their criticism is more of the same partisan political games they have been playing the entire time.”
Ms. Whitmer also saw residents rally around her in October after the FBI said it uncovered a plot from a right-wing militia group, the Wolverine Watchmen, to kidnap the governor, apparently out of frustration with the COVID-19 restrictions.
Ms. Whitmer’s office and the Michigan Democratic Party did not respond to emails seeking comment for this article, but Mr. Newton said Ms. Whitmer has governed by science.
The danger is that her behavior at times seemed to belie that science, dating back to last year, when her husband tried to rush a company to place his boat in the water in northern Michigan before the Memorial Day weekend, even as Ms. Whitmer urged residents not to rush to the region.
Ms. Whitmer’s trip to Florida in March and questions about how she planned to pay for it generated another round of headlines. And more recently the 49-year-old was forced to apologize after a photo emerged showing her at a restaurant with a dozen other people gathered around tables, breaking her health department’s social-distancing rules.
Steve Mitchell, a Michigan-based GOP strategist, said Ms. Whitmer‘s “do as I say, not as I do” pattern of behavior has tarnished her image.
“The hypocrisy issue is what is hurting the governor and what Republicans are pouncing on,” Mr. Mitchell said.
There also are lingering questions surrounding whether the number of coronavirus-related nursing home deaths was undercounted.
“I think she is more vulnerable today than she was six months ago,” said David Dulio, a political science professor at Oakland University. “It has almost been this death by a thousand cuts.”
Ms. Whitmer is still favored to win reelection. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election tracker, rates the race “Lean” Democrat.
The race is unique in that it will be the first time since 1974 that an incumbent governor is running for reelection with their party in the White House.
“Gretchen’s mettle is being tested,” said pollster Ed Sarpolus, founder of Target-Insyght of Lansing. “This is the first time she has to work to win reelection.”
Mr. Sarpolus’ latest survey showed her with a 48% to 42% lead over former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and 49% to 39% over John James, the GOP’s most recent nominee for U.S. Senate.
Neither Mr. Craig nor Mr. James has announced bids, but their possible candidacies have pulled attention away from Ms. Dixon and the five other lesser-known Republicans already in the race.
Perhaps most telling is that voters preferred Mr. Craig over Ms. Whitmer by a 63% to 30% margin when respondents were asked who they trusted more on jobs and the economy.
Less than 50% of respondents said she deserved to be reelected.
“The bottom line is Gretchen is vulnerable,” Mr. Sarpolous said. “Is she going to be beatable? Well, that depends if Republicans get a good candidate.”
Ms. Dixon hopes to fill that void.
“I’m running because obviously I have seen what has happened in the last year with the lockdowns,” she said. “I saw the people and businesses and restaurants that suffered, and Gov. Whitmer really had no answers.”
