Dixon drags ‘single working women’ at Southeast Michigan campaign event

GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon told a crowd Friday afternoon that single working women in Michigan are living a “lonely life” — and that’s exactly what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants, Dixon said. 

Dixon made the comment during a campaign event in St. Clair Shores with running mate Shane Hernandez and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who co-chairs the Republican Governors Association. Dixon is preparing to face off against Whitmer on Nov. 8.

“Families look all different ways. They’re the ones telling me that on a regular basis, but apparently, they’re refusing to see one dynamic here. A lot of people want to have families. This state, we don’t have support from the governor for families unless they look exactly the way she wants,” Dixon said.

“And you know what that looks like these days?” she continued. “Looks like single moms — no, not single moms. Single women working. That’s like, her dream for women. Single women working. Last time I checked, that was a pretty lonely life.”

Dixon has spent a lot of time on the campaign trail talking about anti-LGBTQ+ issues in education, like her proposals to ban educators discussing sex and gender in schools and books in school libraries she calls “pornographic.”

She has been trying to appeal to right-wing parents who believe their schools are indoctrinating their students with liberal ideas. 

After another event Friday night with the right-wing group Moms for Liberty in Troy, Dixon said her statement about single moms was about Whitmer vetoing anti-abortion line items in the state’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget, including $3 million for pregnancy resource centers. 

“I was referring to her removing funding for pregnant women who need safe housing. Why would you do that for our parents who need a safety net? Why would she say that she’s going to remove funding for those women? I think that’s pretty twisted,” Dixon said. 

Pregnancy resource centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, often use deceptive tactics with women — who are often young and/or have low incomes — seeking abortion care and convince them not to have abortions.

Whitmer and Dixon have significantly different views on abortion rights, as was clear in their first debate Thursday night.

The governor supports abortion rights and said at the debate she plans to vote for Proposal 3,  an amendment that would enshrine reproductive rights in Michigan’s Constitution. She has filed a suit trying to block Michigan’s 1931 law criminalizing abortion from going into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Dixon has said she supports the 1931 law and opposes abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest or the mother’s health. She also has been asked in interviews if she believes that a 14-year-old incest victim should be able to have an abortion and the Republican has said no, telling FOX-2 in August that there can be “healing through that baby.”

Although Dixon and Whitmer are both married with children, Dixon has painted Whitmer as being anti-mom. One of her first public statements after winning the primary in August was that “it’s time to elect a real woman in Michigan.”

Dixon also said in her victory speech that this “is going to be an epic battle between a conservative businesswoman and mother, and a far-left birthing parent and career politician.”

Dixon was joined at the Moms for Liberty forum by GOP State Board of Education member Nikki Snyder, Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake), Sen. Lana Theis (R-Brighton) and Rep. Pamela Hornberger (R-Chesterfield Twp.). GOP state House candidate Norm Shinkle also was present.

On Nov. 8, Runestad faces Democrat Una Hepburn for the 23rd Senate District; Hornberger is running against state Rep. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) for the 12th Senate District; Theis faces Democrat Jordan Genso for the 22nd Senate District; and Shinkle is running against state Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Twp.) for the 73rd House District.