With the election now less than a week away, a new poll shows that Republican challenger Tutor Dixon is in a virtual tie with incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. The survey comes in the wake of last week's head-to-head debate between the two, with the issues of abortion and economy taking up much of the time.
Ron Armstrong is president of Stand Up Michigan, which was established in 2020 during the height of the lockdowns imposed – and "targeted," he says – by Whitmer.
"You had to be, as she said, either considered 'essential' by the governor or you were shut down, locked down," he describes. "And if you didn't comply, she sent first the health department to take away your licenses and [then] the state police to arrest businessowners who didn't comply and threw them in jail. So, that's where we were."
Armstrong is convinced his fellow Michiganders are not happy with Whitmer's loyalty to Joe Biden.
"We know that Whitmer has been hand-in-hand [with the president]; as she says, I'm ridin' with Biden," he tells AFN. "Everything that he's trying to do to destroy and dismantle our Republic as we know it is something that Gretchen Whitmer stands for."
And Armstrong says the Democratic governor is also losing strength with the minority base. "The Hispanics and the blacks just as well as anyone else are not into forced masking, forced vaccinations – and parental rights and authority matter an awful lot to all people, regardless of color," he adds.
Armstrong's group is promoting a "Freedom" rally Friday evening in Clinton Township, Michigan, featuring Dixon and three other Republican candidates running for state office: Shane Hernandez (lieutenant governor), Matt DePerno (attorney general), and Kristina Karamo (secretary of state).
