Conservative commentator Tudor Dixon won the Republican nomination for governor of Michigan on Tuesday, capping off a dramatic primary that saw several GOP candidates disqualified from the ballot and setting up a high-profile showdown with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.
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Dixon, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump last week, secured her party’s nod after state courts ordered a series of GOP rivals, including Detroit police chief James Craig, to be thrown off the ballot for submitting invalid signatures on their candidate petitions. Another primary opponent, Ryan Kelley, was arrested by federal agents in June on charges related to his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. She dispatched a handful of lower-profile challengers in Tuesday’s primary, including former car dealership owner Kevin Rinke, chiropractor and anti-lockdown activist Garrett Soldano, and pastor Ralph Rebandt.
Before launching her gubernatorial campaign, Dixon was an actress and a conservative pundit with the pro-Trump media outlet Real America’s Voice. While Dixon has taken a series of hard-line positions on issues popular with Republican voters, including by repeatedly refusing to say whether she believes the 2020 presidential election was “stolen,” she has been seen as the GOP candidate most likely to defeat Whitmer in the general election.
National Democrats accordingly spent millions of dollars on ads calling Dixon’s conservative bona fides into question, attempting to boost hard-right GOP rivals whom they saw as weaker general election opponents. In the days leading up to the primary, a group affiliated with the Democratic Governors Association poured $2 million into airing a television spot accusing Dixon of backing efforts to “slash” police budgets in a not-so-subtle allusion to “defund the police” proposals vehemently opposed by Republicans.
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Along with Trump’s endorsement, Dixon received support from key players in Michigan politics in the lead-up to the Aug. 2 primary, including the powerful DeVos family, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and Right to Life of Michigan, along with Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) and Lisa McClain (R-MI). She is set to face Whitmer in the general election in what is expected to be one of the most competitive races of the midterm elections.
