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Tag: Michigan

  • Obama to campaign in Michigan and Georgia in final weeks of midterm elections | CNN Politics

    Obama to campaign in Michigan and Georgia in final weeks of midterm elections | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former President Barack Obama will travel to Atlanta and Detroit for campaign events in the final weeks of the midterm elections.

    The Democratic Party of Georgia said in a statement Saturday that Obama will campaign with Democratic candidates on October 28. It was unclear which Democrats the former President would stump with in Georgia, which is home to high-profile races for governor and US Senate.

    Obama will then join Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, among other down-ballot Democrats, at a get-out-the-vote rally on October 29, Whitmer’s team said in a statement. Michigan and Georgia also have competitive US House races and critical down-ballot contests, some of which feature GOP nominees who have spread false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

    The Wisconsin Democratic Party announced on Friday that Obama would campaign with Democratic nominees in Milwaukee, also on October 29.

    In an interview with “Pod Save America” that aired Friday night, Obama pointed to down-ballot races as an important test for the Democratic Party.

    “One of the things I want to emphasize in this midterm is the importance of looking not just at the top of the ballot, but all the way down the bottom, because there are governor’s races, secretary of state’s races, state legislative races that are going to really matter,” he said. “It may turn out that in a close presidential election at some point, certification of an election in a key swing state may be at issue. And, it’s going to a be really important that we have people there who play it straight.”

    Obama won both Wisconsin and Michigan in 2008 and 2012. He did not win Georgia in either presidential campaign, but now-President Joe Biden won the state in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to do so since Bill Clinton in 1992.

    “Given the high stakes of this year’s midterm elections, President Obama wants to do his part to help Democrats win next month,” an Obama spokesperson told CNN. “This is why he headlined four finance events in recent months for the key campaign committees and will campaign in targeted states as part of Democrats’ final GOTV stretch. He looks forward to stumping for candidates up and down the ballot, especially in races and states that will have consequences for the administration of 2024 elections.”

    The former President headlined a fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee on August 31, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on September 8, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on September 28, and the Democratic National Committee on September 29.

    This story has been updated with additional details.

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  • Man pleads guilty to arson at Planned Parenthood clinic

    Man pleads guilty to arson at Planned Parenthood clinic

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    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man who made a video describing abortion as genocide has pleaded guilty to arson for a fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in southwestern Michigan, a prosecutor said.

    Joshua Brereton, 25, of Paw Paw faces a Feb. 6, 2023, sentencing after entering the plea, U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said Wednesday. He faces five to 20 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

    Brereton also faces a fine of up to $250,000 and will be ordered to pay restitution, Totten said. The plea agreement estimates the amount of restitution Brereton will be ordered to pay to be more than $20,000.

    “This fire was a senseless act of political violence,” Totten said. “In our democracy, resorting to violence is never an acceptable means to address policy disputes. Moreover, Brereton’s actions could have injured innocent citizens and first responders.”

    Brereton admitted that last July 31, he went to the Paw Paw Walmart where he bought a fireplace starter log and fuel, then breached a security fence at the clinic in Kalamazoo. He also set fires near the front entrance and a corner of the building and lit the starter log and threw it onto the roof of the building.

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  • Five takeaways from the Michigan gubernatorial debate | CNN Politics

    Five takeaways from the Michigan gubernatorial debate | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her Republican challenger, conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, squared off in their first debate Thursday night in Grand Rapids.

    Whitmer has placed her support for abortion rights at the forefront of her bid for a second term in a state where Republicans control the legislature. She has also touted her economic efforts and increased funding for schools.

    Dixon, who is backed by former education secretary Betsy DeVos’ family and won the GOP nomination after an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, has criticized Whitmer’s pandemic policies. She has also leaned into cultural battles, proposing a policy that would ban transgender girls from competing in sports with the gender they identify with, as well as one modeled after the controversial measure Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law earlier this year, which critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

    Here are five takeaways from their debate:

    The governor’s race has largely revolved around the stark differences between Whitmer and Dixon on abortion rights, and Whitmer opened the debate by pointing to her lawsuit to halt the enforcement of a 1931 law banning abortions in virtually all instances in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

    “The only reason that law is not in effect right now is because of my lawsuit stopping it,” Whitmer said.

    Whitmer also backed a referendum that is appearing on Michigan’s ballots this year that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

    Dixon responded by accusing Whitmer of opposing any limits on abortion rights. But she also downplayed her position, saying she will respect the outcome of that referendum.

    “I am pro-life with exceptions for the life of the mother. But I understand that this is going to be decided by the people of the state of Michigan or by a judge,” Dixon said. “The governor doesn’t have the choice to go around a judge or a constitutional amendment.”

    Whitmer highlighted Dixon’s comment in a podcast interview in which she said a 14-year-old child who is raped by a family member should not be allowed to have an abortion.

    “To protect our rights, we cannot trust Ms. Dixon,” Whitmer said.

    Dixon has repeatedly parroted Trump’s lies about Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election coming as a result of widespread fraud.

    Whitmer sharply criticized Dixon over those comments early in Thursday night’s debate, as the Democratic governor sought to cast doubt on her Republican challenger’s claim that she would accept the results of the abortion referendum on this year’s ballot.

    “This is a candidate who still denies the outcome of the 2020 election,” Whitmer said.

    “For her to stand here and say she will respect the will of the people, when she has not even embraced the outcome of a last election or pledged to embrace the outcome of a future election, tells me we cannot trust what you say,” Whitmer said.

    Dixon did not respond to Whitmer on the issue, or comment on whether she accepts the outcome of the 2020 election, during the debate.

    Dixon was critical of Whitmer’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that school and business closures were too far-reaching and long-lasting.

    “Not only did she make bad choices when she closed it down and refused to open our schools, but she hasn’t figured out how to recover,” Dixon said.

    She said Whitmer kept children “locked out of schools, and wouldn’t listen to parents when they begged her to let them play.”

    Whitmer, meanwhile, defended her actions amid the crisis, saying that “we made tough decisions because lives were on the line,” even as she conceded she would have done some things differently in hindsight.

    Whitmer said 35,000 people in Michigan died during the pandemic. “They may not matter to some. But they matter to me, every single one of them,” Whitmer said.

    “If I could go back in time with the knowledge we have now, sure, I would have made some different decisions. But we were working in the middle of a crisis and lives were on the line,” she said.

    Whitmer’s memorable 2018 campaign slogan – “fix the damn roads” – was among the reasons she won the governor’s office.

    On Thursday night, Dixon took aim at one way Whitmer attempted to pay for those road improvements: increasing Michigan’s 27 cents per gallon gas tax by 45 cents per gallon.

    Dixon said Whitmer “didn’t fulfill her promise,” citing a report by the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council warning that roads are continuing to deteriorate.

    Whitmer touted a bonding program and measures approved by the legislature that she said amount to $4.8 billion in transportation funding. She also credited Biden and the Democratic-led Congress for its infrastructure bill, which she said “sent us billions.”

    “There are orange cones and barrels all over the state because we are fixing the damn roads,” Whitmer said.

    She added: “We are fixing the damn roads. We are moving dirt. We are using the right mix and materials, and they are built to last. But you don’t overcome decades of disinvestment overnight.”

    Dixon, acknowledging that a shift to electric vehicles will over time reduce gas tax revenue, said Michigan will need to pursue “public-private partnerships” to fund road construction. She did not detail what those would include, but such partnerships typically involve tolls.

    “We will have to find a way to fund the roads. It’s going to take public-private partnerships in the future. But it’s going to be a ways out, because the entire country is not going to go to EV vehicles overnight,” she said.

    Among the clearest differences in Thursday night’s debate was over gun rights, with Whitmer advocating a series of restrictions while Dixon said she opposed policies that she said would “take guns away from law-abiding citizens.”

    Whitmer said she supports background checks and “red flag” laws. She also criticized Dixon for opposing gun-free zones in places like schools and for supporting permitless carry.

    Dixon’s positions would lead to “more guns, less oversight, less training,” Whitmer said.

    Dixon responded that Michigan should respond to gun crimes by being “tough on crime in this state.”

    “This idea that you’re going to take guns away from law-abiding citizens and somehow that’s going to keep them out of the hands of criminals? That’s never going to work,” Dixon said. “When we find someone who commits a gun crime, they need to be put away.”

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  • AG, Michigan Humane partner up to prosecute animal abuse cases

    AG, Michigan Humane partner up to prosecute animal abuse cases

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    DETROIT, Mich. (WNEM) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Michigan Humane are teaming up to investigate and prosecute cases of animal abuse.

    Nessel’s office said large-scale, multi-jurisdictional, well-organized fighting rings and similar operations require exceptional resources for investigation and prosecution. Her department will provide support and resources to Michigan Humane and its agents in pursuit of perpetrators.

    “I know most Michiganders think of their pets as family members and subjecting those family members to abuse is incomprehensible,” Nessel said. “Animal abuse is cruel and sadistic. It is also a crime that is often associated with other serious criminal activity, including domestic violence, illegal possession of firearms, illegal gambling, drug possession and large-scale animal abuse and fighting rings. I am proud to partner with Michigan Humane to prosecute these offenders.”

    “Animal cruelty isn’t an animal issue. It is a human issue. The partnership between Michigan Humane and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office will strengthen our ability to address animal cruelty towards creating healthier and safer communities for everyone,” Michigan Humane President and CEO Matt Pepper said.

    Nessel and Michigan Humane previously partnered to raise awareness for puppy scams.

    Copyright 2022 WNEM. All rights reserved.

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  • Michigan’s Romney Was Brainwashed—By The Income Tax

    Michigan’s Romney Was Brainwashed—By The Income Tax

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    Over the summer I played golf at a course near Nashville. The club paired me with a thirtysomething gentleman. The two of us exchanged questions about what we do. His answer: “I’m an autoworker.”

    Of course he was. There are legions of them in Tennessee. I got to hear about expertise in using fancy equipment to pack off the next generation of Nissans. Or was it Volkswagens or even GM’s? It does not matter. All these companies are paying real money to their Tennessee employees. In turn these people manipulate cutting-edge capital equipment to build product that yields profits and customer satisfaction.

    Swing a cat in Tennessee, hit an autoworker.

    Swing a cat in Michigan in the 1950s, hit an autoworker. The places are a five hundred miles apart.

    In 1967, Michigan instituted its income tax. The rate is now 4.25 percent. Municipalities can tack on a wage tax. Detroit’s is 2.4 percent. People in the major places therefore pay about 7 percent. Prior to 1967, there were no such taxes in the state. Just like Tennessee today—no income tax.

    What happened to Michigan’s share of the national economy since 1967 is staggering. In Taxes Have Consequences: An Income Tax History of the United States, the new book I wrote with Arthur Laffer and Jeanne Sinquefield, the reader will blink at the chart depicting it. Since that year, Michigan has lost nearly 40 percent of its share of national population and nearly 50 percent of its share of national income.

    In 1967, Michigan had about 6.3 percent of the nation’s inhabitants. Now it has 3.9 percent. It had about 6.7 percent of the nation’s income. Now it has 3.5 percent. The place has sunk like a stone.

    In 1967, Michigan Gov. George Romney acceded to an income tax, so that, as the official reasoning went, corporate taxes might be reduced. That happened for a while until those corporate taxes went right back up again.

    It is a myth that manufacturing in the United States declined in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. The permanent slouching of manufacturing came with the Barack Obama presidency. (See this graph.) Manufacturing did great over the first forty years of the Michigan income tax. It did great in nice part by leaving Michigan and going to other places, like zero-income-tax Tennessee.

    From the perspective of corporate accounting, the income tax was serious business. If Detroit workers prior to 1967 were making a certain amount, the company then had to pay them 7 percent more to stay whole. Actually more than 7 percent, because the federal tax structure is progressive. Moreover, employee benefits customarily have been a function of nominal wages. The company would have payroll obligations some 10 percent higher because of a new state income tax like Michigan’s of 1967. Ten percent could easily be the whole or more of a profit margin.

    The finance people will note to the accountants that capital obtainable at a 10 percent margin will not be at a 2 percent margin. Therefore, for the company to get the money it needs, it has to leave Michigan for better climes.

    What if a company sticks it out, commits to making things work in the new-income-tax state? Michael Jensen’s classic research on the 1980s showed what happens. Jensen ranked the Fortune 500 over that decade by return on reinvested profits. GM and Ford were dead last, numbers 500 and 499 (Big Mo Philip Morris was first). The two big Detroit automakers said we are going to reinvest in this place, now with the income tax, and they got creamed. There was nothing to make—the cost structure sailed the would-be profit bucks off to government.

    Trying to work with the state income tax means ignoring market advice, burning capital, and staving off inevitable moves. In time, the moves happened. Income departed Michigan even more than population (see Illinois today), such that the place is half itself compared to what it was with respect to the nation when Romney acted in 1967.

    The social transformations made up another huge side of the story. African-Americans got out. The Great Migration refers to the big black population movements from the South to the North beginning with the European Great War of 1914. Henry Ford rang the bell and a healthy share came to Michigan.

    Then there was The Other Great Migration, as in the standard book on the prehistory of the matter by Bernadette Pruitt. Blacks got out of Michigan beginning in the 1970s and packed off for places often in the Old South from whence they had come, especially Texas. There they lived large in the zero-income-tax state. If August Wilson had lived up to our own time, his latter decades stories would not have taken place in the locales of the Great Migration but the Other one.

    Michigan Gov. Romney was timber for the 1968 presidential ticket. He was done in by a remark that authorities or someone had been “brainwashing” him about the prospects of American success in Vietnam. The brainwashing had been active the year before, when he had high hopes for his state on signing the income tax into law.

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    Brian Domitrovic, Contributor

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  • Passengers endure 19-hour train trip from Detroit to Chicago

    Passengers endure 19-hour train trip from Detroit to Chicago

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    PONTIAC, Mich. — What was supposed to be a 5 1/2-hour rail trip from Detroit to Chicago turned into a 19-hour ordeal for passengers on an Amtrak train that lost power, leaving them without light, heat or running toilets.

    Wolverine Train 351 left Pontiac about 6 a.m. EDT Friday. Some passengers were so frustrated that they got off the train well before it finally reached Chicago on Saturday, just after midnight CDT, MLive.com reported.

    Amtrak has apologized to passengers and offered transportation vouchers, MLive.com reported.

    The problems began west of Ann Arbor. The train stopped there due to the power problem, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said.

    Electricity on Wolverine 351 went out once the engine lost power, according to passenger Katie Kobiljak, 23. That also meant the toilets didn’t flush.

    “You could use the bathroom, but it was like using a port-a-potty and that’s not great,” she said.

    Wolverine 351 was then connected to another passenger train that was to pull it to Chicago. Kobiljak said there was a lot of stopping and starting as officials tried to connect the trains.

    The train stopped again near Jackson, Michigan, for a medical emergency and was there for two hours without power, Kobiljak said.

    Abrams said the passenger who called for medical treatment remained on the train as it continued to Chicago.

    But Kobiljak had enough and exited at Jackson.

    “So, I was on the train for nine hours and only made it like halfway through the state,” she said.

    A brake issue caused another stoppage, this time in northwestern Indiana, not far from Chicago.

    Then there was another delay due to battery problems, Abrams said.

    That’s when Michael Bambery, 48, decided to leave. He had boarded at 7:15 a.m. Friday in Ann Arbor. He arrived at his hotel about 16 hours later after paying $200 for a rideshare to finish the trip.

    “No heat, no electricity and at this point it’s dark, so no lights,” he said. “They were cracking glowsticks to give us light. The toilets are overflowing because you cannot flush these toilets without electricity, so it smells awful. It’s really cold and there’s just a skeleton crew on board.”

    Some passengers were able to open doors to the train and a couple dozen got off, Bambery said.

    “We’re feeling like we can’t stay on this train anymore,” he said. “We’re getting no information from Amtrak. Again, we’re cold, hungry, people need to use the bathroom. It smells awful. And a percentage of people are having acute anxiety symptoms and screaming.”

    Abrams told MLive.com that “due to the lateness of the combo train, some passengers elected to safely detrain in East Chicago (Indiana) and find alternate transportation.”

    “Despite our best efforts, there are times when circumstances arise that are out of our control,” Amtrak wrote in its apology to passengers.

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  • Wisconsin, Michigan Senate and governor races heat up ahead of midterms

    Wisconsin, Michigan Senate and governor races heat up ahead of midterms

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    Wisconsin, Michigan Senate and governor races heat up ahead of midterms – CBS News


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    With less than 30 days to go until midterm elections, races across the country are neck and neck. CBS News deputy director of elections and data analytics Kabir Khanna joins Anne-Marie Green with more on races in Wisconsin and Michigan.

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  • Man charged with murder in Detroit-area hotel shooting

    Man charged with murder in Detroit-area hotel shooting

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    DEARBORN, Mich. — A man accused of killing a suburban Detroit hotel employee and barricading himself in a room for hours was charged Sunday with murder and other crimes.

    Reichsrd Williams-Lewis, 34, was denied bond during an appearance in court.

    He is accused of fatally shooting a 55-year-old employee on the third floor of a Hampton Inn in Dearborn, Michigan. Williams-Lewis also shot at another employee Thursday, striking an office door on the first floor, and pointed a rifle at a guest and another worker, according to the prosecutor’s office.

    In court, police said the incident began when Williams-Lewis, 37, was confronted by staff for being loud and disturbing other guests.

    Williams-Lewis, who was told to leave the hotel, fatally shot an employee who rode an elevator to the third floor to check his co-workers, said Cpl. Nicholas Damphousse.

    “The evidence is this case is alarming,” prosecutor Kym Worthy said. “We have long learned that no place is sacred when it comes to gun violence. Not churches, not movie theaters, not grocery stores or hotels.”

    It wasn’t immediately known if Williams-Lewis has a lawyer who could comment on the allegations.

    The hotel and surrounding businesses were evacuated for hours Thursday while police, with help from a lawyer, persuaded Williams-Lewis to peacefully give up.

    Gabi Silver said Williams-Lewis asked for her, although she doesn’t know him.

    “I just kept saying the same thing over and over, talking to him about his family, telling him he wouldn’t get hurt if he surrendered,” Silver told The Detroit News.

    ———

    This story has been corrected to show the first name of Williams-Lewis is Reichsrd.

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  • 10/9: Hobbs, D’Agata, MacFarlane

    10/9: Hobbs, D’Agata, MacFarlane

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    10/9: Hobbs, D’Agata, MacFarlane – CBS News


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    This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Major Garrett dives into the Arizona governor’s race, one of the most closely-watched races in the nation. Plus, new CBS News polls in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.

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    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


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  • Ron Johnson and Mandela Barnes in tight Senate race in Wisconsin — CBS News Battleground Tracker poll

    Ron Johnson and Mandela Barnes in tight Senate race in Wisconsin — CBS News Battleground Tracker poll

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    It seems like Wisconsin elections are always pretty close these days, and here are two more following that trend. The Senate race has incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson running just one point ahead of Democrat Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in a toss-up contest, and the governor’s race is currently even between incumbent Democrat Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Tim Michels.

    Johnson gets enthusiastic support from the GOP base and is boosted by Wisconsin voters’ concerns about crime and economic issues, though his views on the 2020 election may be alienating some independents. 

    Meanwhile, Barnes has consolidated the Democratic base and is getting robust support from those who place great importance on the issue of abortion, the top factor his voters give for backing him. On balance, voters also like Barnes personally more than Johnson.

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    Republicans appear to have a turnout advantage. They are four points more likely than Democrats to say they’re definitely voting this year, and Johnson supporters are ten points more likely than Barnes backers to say they’re very enthusiastic about voting.

    In some ways, these midterms are a referendum on President Joe Biden. On that note, more are casting their Senate votes to oppose him than support him, and Johnson is easily winning those voters in Wisconsin. 

    The power of incumbency may also be helping Johnson. Most of his backers call his Senate record a major factor in their vote, plus, Republicans like him personally. That’s different than the dynamic in other battleground states where Republicans are not incumbents. In Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona, Republicans are voting more out of opposition to Democrats than affinity for their own nominee.

    But as much as the Republican base likes Johnson, he faces an equal measure of dislike from the other side. Most of those backing Barnes say the main reason is to oppose Johnson, not because they like Barnes. This is particularly true for independents currently backing Barnes.

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    The impact of Johnson’s stances

    What role do Ron Johnson’s views on 2020 play? For Republicans, not a major one. But they may be alienating to some independents.

    Republicans overwhelmingly support Johnson, whether they believe he accepted or wanted to overturn the 2020 election results — and many say they’re not sure which it was. That said, there’s a bit more crossover to Barnes among the third of Republicans who believe Johnson wanted the election overturned.

    johnson-views-2020.png

    But Johnson’s views on 2020 may be hurting him with voters outside his own party. 

    Among independents who say he wanted the election overturned, eight in 10 support Barnes. Other independents — who say Johnson accepted the results or aren’t sure of his stance — overwhelmingly back Johnson.

    Importantly, there may be a limit to the power of this — because many voters do not know what Johnson’s stance was, either way. Those paying less attention to the midterms are less likely to know. And that, in turn, it may be because voters rank the 2020 election relatively low in importance compared to issues like the economy or abortion.

    And Johnson gets nine in 10 votes from voters who thought COVID policies in Wisconsin were too strict. That’s true whether or not they think Johnson has made mostly critical statements about vaccines.

    johnson-views-covid.png

    What do Ron Johnson’s supporters like about him? 

    Johnson may have garnered a lot of attention for remarks he has made about the 2020 election and the coronavirus and vaccines, but those are not major reasons most of his voters give for backing him, nor is his support for Donald Trump. These factors matter some, but they trail far behind the weight his supporters place on Johnson’s economic policies and his Senate record. 

    reasons-johnson.png

    Who backs Barnes?

    Barnes has a likability advantage over Johnson among the broader electorate. But it’s a smaller gap than Democratic candidates enjoy in other Senate battlegrounds. In Arizona, for example, Democrat Mark Kelly has a 20-point advantage over Republican Blake Masters on the way they handle themselves, and Kelly leads that race by three points.

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    Barnes voters cite his stance on abortion as the top factor for supporting him — it’s far ahead of any other issue tested. He leads substantially among voters who say abortion is very important to their vote. That tracks with Democratic support in other crucial Senate battlegrounds.

    reasons-barnes.png

    The abortion issue is helping keep the race close, but Johnson is boosted by a wide lead with voters who prioritize the economy, inflation, and crime, which are all issues that voters rank higher in importance than abortion. Among all issues measured, Johnson’s widest margins come from voters who say immigration and crime are very important — even more so than those prioritizing economic issues.

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    Half of Wisconsin voters believe Barnes supports defunding the police — and few want elected officials to support less funding for police. These voters are especially likely to say Barnes would support policies that would make them less safe from crime, and by four to one, they prefer Johnson to Barnes.

    When asked directly which candidate would back policies that would keep them and their family safe from crime, more voters select Johnson than Barnes.

    barnes-defund-police.png

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    Barnes leads Johnson with women and younger voters. He trails narrowly among White voters, getting a similar share of them that Biden got in 2020. Johnson leads with men and older voters. More older voters cite crime as a very important issue, and most think Johnson’s policies will keep them safe.

    Wisconsin voters see different groups benefiting depending on who wins this Senate race. If Barnes is elected, a majority think he would support policies that would help Black people — the only group he elicits a majority for — and more voters think women will be helped than hurt If Johnson wins, majorities think the wealthy, men, White people, and people of faith will benefit.

    Neither candidate is seen by a majority as supporting policies that would help the middle class, but more say so of Barnes’ policies than Johnson’s.

    policies-middle-class.png

    The race for governor

    The governor’s race is tied between Democrat Evers and Republican Michels.

    gov-vote-wisconsin.png

    Democrat Gov. Tony Evers garners mixed and highly partisan ratings for his job as governor. Most voters overall approve of his handling of the coronavirus, but just one in five voters see this as a very important issue in their midterm vote.

    evers-rating-party.png

    Instead, the economy and inflation top the list, followed by crime, and here, we again see the Republican candidate leading among voters who say these issues are very important to their vote. On balance, voters are more likely to say Evers will make them less safe rather than more safe from crime; they say the opposite of Republican challenger Michels.

    crime-gov-candidates.png

    Of all four candidates running for statewide office that the poll tested, Evers is the most liked — the only one for whom a majority of voters say they like how he handles himself personally. He has a 10-point advantage over Michels on this measure, but that doesn’t translate into much of an advantage in the race. He’s running about even with Barnes, who has a narrower likability advantage against Johnson.

    personal-handle.png

    Most voters want abortion to be legal in Wisconsin, and most see Evers as a candidate who will protect abortion access. But while it’s the top issue to both Democrats and Evers supporters, just half of voters overall say it’s very important in their vote, and fewer than a third of Michels’ supporters do (and most of them don’t want it to be legal).

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    Michigan: Whitmer leads Dixon for governor

    Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer leads Republican challenger Tudor Dixon by six points in her reelection bid. Most voters view the incumbent governor as competent and mainstream, while less than half see her opponent that way. Unlike Whitmer, Dixon is seen as extreme by most voters, a label that’s hurting her with those outside her own party. Most voters who view her as extreme are backing Whitmer. 

    But voters’ concerns about the state’s economy and a pessimistic economic outlook could provide an opening for Dixon.

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    Whitmer has a positive job approval rating, and one that’s significantly higher than Biden’s is in the state. For Whitmer’s backers, Biden appears to have little to do with her standing: nearly two-thirds say Biden’s support for Whitmer makes them no more or less likely to vote for her.

    Moreover, roughly a quarter of voters who disapprove of Biden’s job are still backing Whitmer. Many of these voters are independents who approve of the job Whitmer is doing as governor.

    whiter-biden-rating.png

    Whitmer also gets positive ratings overall on her handling the coronavirus outbreak. But those who feel the policies put in place in Michigan were too strict — a largely Republican group — overwhelmingly disapprove of her handling of the coronavirus, and most aren’t voting for her.

    whitmer-handling-coronavirus.png

    But it’s the economy that’s more on the minds of Michigan voters than the coronavirus, and most of them rate the state’s economy negatively (although better than the nation’s). Half of voters are expecting the U.S. to be in recession next year, perhaps leaving some room for Dixon to gain ground. As in Wisconsin, voters who place a lot of importance on the economy and inflation are mostly voting Republican, especially those who expect a recession.

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    And by two to one, more voters think Biden’s policies have hurt, rather than helped Michigan’s economy. This suggests that further nationalization of this race, and making it a referendum on Democrats nationally, could help Dixon.

    biden-michigan-economy.png

    Abortion has been a central issue in Whitmer’s campaign, and it’s giving her a boost. She leads big among those who say it’s very important in their vote. Abortion is the top issue for women under age 45 in the state. (For women overall it ranks only behind the economy.)

    Women are backing Whitmer over Dixon by a 19-point margin, and women who cite abortion as a very important issue prefer Whitmer by an even larger 37-point margin.

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    The issue of abortion will be directly on the ballot here. Most Michigan voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases in the state, and a majority would vote “yes” on Proposal 3, which would amend the state’s constitution and establish a right to abortion. This includes more than a quarter of Republicans — these Republicans widely favor abortion being legal in all or most cases in the state.

    michigan-abortion-proposal.png

    These CBS News/YouGov surveys were conducted between October 3-7, 2022. They are based on statewide representative samples of 1,285 registered voters in Wisconsin and 1,138 in Michigan. The samples were weighted according to gender, age, race, education and geographic region based on the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as to 2020 presidential vote. Margins of error are ±3.7 points in Wisconsin and ±3.6 points in Michigan.

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  • Shooting suspect in hotel near Detroit surrenders to police

    Shooting suspect in hotel near Detroit surrenders to police

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    DEARBORN, Mich. — An armed man accused of shooting and wounding one person and who then barricaded himself inside a room at a suburban Detroit hotel surrendered Thursday night and was taken into custody, Michigan State Police said.

    “The barricaded gunman has been taken into custody without incident,” state police said on Twitter.

    The surrender occurred shortly before 9 p.m. EDT, or nearly seven hours after the standoff began.

    Businesses in the surrounding popular dining and shopping area were evacuated or locked down.

    The barricaded gunman has been taken into custody without incident. Michigan Avenue is still closed and will be as the investigation continues.

    The shooting early Thursday afternoon stemmed from a dispute over money with staff at the Hampton Inn in Dearborn, Police Chief Issa Shahin said at a news conference. The wounded person was taken to a hospital. Their name and condition were not released.

    The suspect was contained in the hotel and armed with a long gun, Police Cpl. Dan Bartok told reporters.

    “Negotiators are working, trying to resolve this peacefully,” Bartok said.

    Shots were reported shortly after 1 p.m. at the hotel in the busy district in Dearborn, a city of over 100,000 people just west and southwest of Detroit.

    Police evacuated the hotel and surrounding businesses. Traffic into the busy downtown was blocked, Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw said.

    Earlier, state police tweeted that the “situation is active and dangerous” and that shots still “were being fired by the suspect.”

    Officers in tactical gear could be seen, as well as emergency vehicles.

    Some businesses near the hotel, including Dearborn Federal Savings Bank and Better Health Market, locked down with customers inside.

    “There are police everywhere,” said Cheryl Seguin, a security officer at the bank. “Police from multiple jurisdictions and federal, county, state agencies. Multiple police cars and other types of units — EMS, just about everything.”

    Patrick Collins, manager of the Better Health Market, described seeing police, automatic weapons and ambulances. Three customers were inside the market.

    “There’s a lot going on,” he said.

    ———

    Savage reported from Chicago. Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.

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  • Polling software CEO given bond, deadline to surrender in LA

    Polling software CEO given bond, deadline to surrender in LA

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    The founder and CEO of a Michigan software company targeted by election deniers accused of stealing data on hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers has been ordered to report to California authorities by the end of next week.

    Konnech Corp,s Eugene Yu, 51, was arrested in Meridian Township in Michigan on Tuesday and a 55th District Court official initially ordered him to remain in jail until an extradition hearing. Judge Donald Allen on Thursday granted Yu’s request for a $1 million bond but ordered him to wear a GPS tether, give his passport to Michigan authorities and surrender to Los Angeles authorities by Oct. 14.

    The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that Yu was being held on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information, while computer hard drives and other “digital evidence” were seized by the DA’s investigators.

    Konnech is a small company based in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2020, it won a five-year, $2.9 million contract with LA County for software to track election worker schedules, training, payroll and communications, according to the county registrar-recorder/county clerk, Dean C. Logan.

    Konnech was required to keep the data in the United States and only provide access to citizens and permanent residents but instead stored it on servers in the People’s Republic of China, the Los Angeles DA’s office said.

    The DA’s office didn’t specify what information allegedly was taken. But officials said it only involved poll workers, not voting machines or vote counts and didn’t alter election results.

    Konnech in a statement issued Tuesday said “any LA County poll worker data that Konnech may have possessed was provided to it by LA County, and therefore could not have been ‘stolen’ as suggested.” The statement also called Yu’s arrest “wrongful detention.”

    Mark Kriger, the attorney who represented Yu in court in Michigan on Thursday, said Konnech’s director of information technology has consistently said the company never stored data outside the U.S.

    The New York Times reported Monday that Konnech and Yu, who was born in China, became the target of claims by election conspiracy theorists that the company had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and had supplied information on 2 million poll workers.

    There wasn’t any evidence to support those claims, but Yu received threats and went into hiding, the paper said.

    Konnech has contracts with Allen County, Indiana, and DeKalb County in Georgia, the Times said.

    Kriger said Thursday that its clients also include St. Louis County and California’s Alameda County and San Francisco County. Konnech’s website said the company has 32 clients in North America.

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  • 2nd man convicted in Whitmer plot gets 4 years in prison

    2nd man convicted in Whitmer plot gets 4 years in prison

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    A man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s governor in 2020 was granted a major break Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison.

    Kaleb Franks was rewarded for testifying for prosecutors at two trials. His sentence was longer than the term given to another man who was the first to plead guilty but it still carried a significant benefit.

    Franks “made the right decision and came clean. That’s encouraging,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said.

    Franks was among six anti-government extremists who were charged in federal court with conspiracy and other crimes. Investigators said the group’s goal was to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and incite a U.S. civil war — the “boogaloo” — before the 2020 presidential election.

    “I would like to start by saying I’m sorry to the governor and her family,” Franks said in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

    “I understand that this experience had to have been very traumatizing and difficult,” he said. “I’m ashamed and embarrassed of my actions, and I regret every decision that I made.”

    The group considered Whitmer, a Democrat, and other elected officials to be tyrants who were infringing on constitutional rights, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses were shut down, people were told to stay home and schools were closed.

    Franks, 28, participated in a key step in the conspiracy: a ride on a rainy night to scout Whitmer’s vacation home in northern Michigan. She was not there at the time.

    He testified that he had hoped to be killed by police if a kidnapping could be pulled off at some point. The FBI, however, had undercover agents and informants inside the group.

    “I was going to be an operator,” Franks said last spring. “I would be one of the people on the front line, so to speak, using my gun.”

    Prosecutors said Franks’ cooperation was important because it backed up critical testimony from Ty Garbin, who pleaded guilty a year earlier and was sentenced to just 2 1/2 years in prison.

    “It really was invaluable to have the testimony of an insider,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler told the judge, referring to Franks.

    When the hearing began, his sentencing guidelines suggested a minimum prison term of 12 years. But Jonker reduced the range at the government’s request and settled on a much lower figure. Franks will get credit for two years in custody.

    An email seeking comment was sent to Whitmer’s staff. In August, after the convictions of ringleaders Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., she said the plot was a “disturbing extension of radicalized domestic terrorism.” Two other men, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, were acquitted in April.

    “They didn’t just want to kidnap her,” Kessler said in court Thursday. “The plot that Mr. Fox and Mr. Croft really wanted to do was to put (Whitmer) on trial, kill her and begin a second civil war. What’s really frightening about that is just how prevalent those kind of views have become.”

    Meanwhile, 120 miles (190 kilometers) away in Jackson, Michigan, a jury heard a second day of testimony in the trial of three members of a paramilitary group who were also arrested in 2020. Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar are not charged with directly participating in the plot but are accused of assisting Fox and others.

    ___

    White reported from Detroit.

    ___

    Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez

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  • Wish comes true for WWII veteran celebrating 100th birthday in Battle Creek

    Wish comes true for WWII veteran celebrating 100th birthday in Battle Creek

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    WWII veteran celebrates his 100th birthday

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  • Lansing man biked over 73,000 miles since being cancer free

    Lansing man biked over 73,000 miles since being cancer free

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    LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – A man who battled cancer is now taking his message on the road. The Lansing man biked more than 73,000 miles, that’s about three times around the world.

    Gar Watson is a cancer survivor and bicyclist. He started biking because of his cancer treatments.

    “I actually had been a couch potato for around for five years before I got this cancer, so that ended up being a wake up call and I started riding to my treatments,” said Watson.

    He rode his bike from his house to his treatments in Lansing, a 14-mile ride roundtrip.

    “My crazy riding started during my radiation treatments, which lasted three weeks.”

    Watson was being treated for stage four Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

    “I was tired,” Watson said. “I had weekly blood draws through all of this, but then all the other doctor’s appointments, I was tired of the roundtrip.”

    The cancer was nearly gone at the time of his radiation.

    “I’ve been very fortunate, very lucky, for the battle I know a lot of people go through in cancer, I got off easy.”

    But, he needed to do something to keep himself busy, so he started biking at 49 years old.

    “Cycling was a knee-jerk reaction to cancer,” Watson said. “When I started out, I was just doing trail rides on the river trail by myself.”

    Watson would go on to ride 1,000 miles each month for the rest of 2014, and a total of roughly 7,000 miles that year.

    “I logged all that stuff for every ride I did, so that’s how, that’s why I know I for the first four years I was averaging 1,000 miles a month.”

    Eight years after being declared cancer free and 73,000 miles later, Gar Watson is still hitting milestones.

    “So I have since 2014, since May or June since whenever I started riding, a little over 73,000 miles.”

    Watson said he did not have a primary care physician for a few years before noticing the back pain, which ended up being a tumor. He still regularly sees a doctor to make sure he is cancer free.

    Read next:

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    Copyright 2022 WILX. All rights reserved.

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  • Michigan library could close after town votes to defund it over 5 LGBTQ-themed books

    Michigan library could close after town votes to defund it over 5 LGBTQ-themed books

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    Jamestown Township, Michigan — A small Michigan town is locked in a war over words. The battle in Jamestown Township is over five books with LGBTQ+ themes. 

    The books include “The Breakaways,” two books from the “Heartstopper” series, “Kiss Number 8” and “Spinning.” 

    A group called the Jamestown Conservatives recently led a successful drive to essentially defund the town’s library and remove the books from shelves. 

    “These books and lifestyle choices are destructive and wrong,” said one Jamestown resident during a meeting on removing the books.

    Library board president Larry Walton says removing the books is censorship. 

    “It’s heartbreaking to be associated with this situation,” Walton said. “I feel like we’ve kind of stepped back in time, talking about book banning.”

    Across the country, book banning in libraries and schools is gaining momentum. A recent study found that between July 2021 and June 2022,  more than 1,600 books were banned in more than 5,000 schools across 32 states. 

    “What we’ve seen are citizens calling and filing criminal complaints about books available in libraries,” said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education programs at free speech advocacy group PEN America. “And I’ve seen that in numerous states.” 

    Jamestown resident Dean Smith is among those who want the books off the shelves. He says his opposition isn’t about intolerance or bigotry, but instead about keeping any explicit books away from children. 

    “Community standards in Jamestown are not the same as in New York, L.A. or even in Grand Rapids,” he said. “We don’t want any sexually or violently graphic material on display for kids to see when they come in the library.”

    Emotions were high at the library board’s September meeting on the issue. 

    “I appreciate passion. I do,” board treasurer Deb Fridsma said at the meeting. “But it is a slippery slope. You cherish your freedom, but what you’re doing now is taking other people’s freedoms away.”

    The final chapter will be written in November, when voters will again be asked to decide on funding and the fate of the library. 

    Elaine Quijano


    Elaine Quijano

    Elaine Quijano is a CBS News anchor and correspondent based in New York City.

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  • Detroit police release body cam video of fatal shooting

    Detroit police release body cam video of fatal shooting

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    DETROIT — Police body camera footage showed officers pleading with Porter Burks to drop the knife he was carrying on the dimly lit Detroit street.

    “Drop the knife for me, man. Come here real quick. You’re OK,” said a member of the Detroit Police Department’s crisis intervention team about 5 a.m. EDT Sunday on the city’s west side. “You’re not in any trouble. Can you just talk to me and drop the knife?”

    “You’re not in any trouble, OK?” the officer continued. “I just want to help you. I just want to help you, man. OK? Can you just drop the knife for me please? Please? Whatever you’re going through I can help you.”

    But Burks — who had a history of struggling with mental illness — didn’t drop the knife and after pacing in the middle of the street suddenly sprinted toward officers, who fired 38 shots in three seconds. Burks was pronounced dead at a hospital.

    On Tuesday, Detroit police showed the footage to reporters. Police Chief James White called the shooting a “very tragic situation.”

    “Not the desired outcome. This is not what we wanted,” said White who later added “our mental health crisis in this country is real. Our mental health crisis in our city is real.”

    Burks suffered from schizophrenia, police said Tuesday.

    Officers initially were called to a home on the west side about a knife-wielding man who was having a mental health crisis and spoke to a man who identified himself as Burks’ brother. The man said Burks had slashed the tires on his car.

    Burks later was found walking along a nearby street. Officers can be heard on the body camera footage telling him not to approach the officers and to put the folding knife down.

    Burks replied: “No, I am not,” minutes before sprinting toward the officers.

    Five fired their weapons. Burks suffered about 15 wounds, according to police.

    White defended the officers’ response, saying it’s part of their training.

    “The officers had to stop a threat. They felt threatened,” he said. “There’s no time in three seconds — and someone charging at you with a knife — to look over to see what other people are doing. You, as a trained police officer, are trained to stop the threat.”

    Officers intended to get Burks “some help … to get him secured and to a hospital,” White said.

    It was not Burks’ first contact with Detroit police.

    On June 26, he was admitted to a Detroit hospital psychological ward after he was found walking in his neighborhood “looking to fight someone,” police said.

    Burks escaped two days later in hospital garb and was arrested by officers as he ran in and out of traffic.

    In August 2020, he stabbed his 7-year-old stepsister in the neck. That March he stabbed his sister in the neck and his brother in the head.

    “This is not just a police matter,” White said. “We need help with this system. The officers are routinely put into this mode, and candidly, we’re seeing more and more violent episodes.”

    Advocates for people with mental illness say they face greater risk of a police encounter resulting in their death.

    Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told The Associated Press for a story last month that many communities lack a mental health crisis infrastructure, and that nearly 130 million people in the United States live in areas with a shortage of mental health providers.

    The Treatment Advocacy Center said in a 2015 report that people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other people approached by law enforcement.

    The officers who fired shots Sunday at Burks have been placed on administrative leave.

    State police are investigating Sunday’s shooting and will submit their findings to the Wayne County prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, Detroit police are conducting an internal administrative probe.

    On Monday, attorney Geoffrey Fieger said his firm had been retained by the Burks’ family and was working to obtain evidence from the shooting.

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  • The Next Presidential Election Is Happening Right Now in the States

    The Next Presidential Election Is Happening Right Now in the States

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    Kristen McDonald Rivet let out a big, slightly rueful laugh. “I was underestimating the level of national attention this race was going to get,” she told me. “In the extreme, I was underestimating it.”

    A city commissioner in Bay City, Michigan, McDonald Rivet decided earlier this year to run as a Democrat for the State Senate. She knew the race would be competitive in a closely divided district. But she had little inkling that the seat she was seeking would come to be regarded by Democratic operatives as one of the most crucial in the country.

    Thousands of people run for state legislatures every two years, and many of the campaigns are important but sleepy affairs that hinge on debates over tax rates, school funding, and the condition of roads and bridges. Not this year, however, and not in Michigan. With Republican election deniers running up and down the ballot in key battlegrounds, many Democrats believe that the fight for power in state capitals this fall could ultimately determine the outcome of the presidential election in 2024.

    Read: How the Democrats rallied

    Democrats have carried Michigan in seven of the past eight presidential elections, but they have not held the majority in its State Senate for nearly 40 years. This year, however, they need to pick up just three seats to dislodge Republicans from the majority, and a new legislative map drawn by an independent redistricting commission has given Democrats an opportunity even in a year in which the overall political environment is likely to be challenging for the party.

    If Michigan is famously shaped like a mitten, the Thirty-Fifth District sits between its thumb and forefinger, encompassing the tri-cities of Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland near the shores of Lake Huron. The area voted narrowly for Joe Biden in 2020, but Mariah Hill, the caucus director for the Michigan Senate Democrats, told me she considers it the party’s “majority-making seat.”

    McDonald Rivet won her election as a commissioner in Bay City with about 350 votes; this year, in her first run for a partisan office, she told me she had raised about $425,000, which is a considerable sum for a state legislative candidate. National groups such as EMILY’s List, the States Project, and EveryDistrict are directing money and resources to her campaign.

    Progressives have been intensifying their focus on state legislative power over the past decade. In the 2010 GOP wave, Republicans caught Democrats flat-footed, swept them from majorities across the country in 2010, and then locked in their advantage for years to come through gerrymandering in many states. Democrats reclaimed seven state legislative chambers in 2018, but their momentum slowed in 2020, when they failed to pick up a single chamber. They also lost the majorities they had gained in New Hampshire.

    Read: The Democrats whose 2020 goal is grander than the presidency

    In an earlier era of U.S. history, battles for control of state legislatures took on national importance as proxy fights for power in Washington. Before the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, state legislatures—not voters—appointed U.S. senators. In modern times, however, state legislatures are frequently overlooked relative to their influence on policies that most directly affect voters’ lives. Donors shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to sway presidential and congressional elections. But while gridlock often consumes Capitol Hill, state capitals are hives of legislative activity by comparison.

    The urgency behind the Democratic push to win back legislative chambers escalated in the run-up to 2020, when the party knew that the majorities elected that year would be tasked with drawing legislative and congressional maps after the decennial census. But it might be even greater now. The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June allowed states to severely restrict or altogether ban abortion, instantly raising the stakes of legislative races across the country.

    Another potential Supreme Court decision has spiked Democratic fears to a new level. The justices in the term that begins this month will hear arguments in Moore v. Harper, an election-law case that legal experts say could dramatically reshape how ballots are cast and counted across the country. Republican litigants want the high court to affirm what’s known as the independent-state-legislature theory, which posits that the Constitution gives near-universal power over the running of federal elections to state legislatures. A ruling adopting that argument—and four conservative justices have signaled that they are open to such an interpretation—would allow partisan legislative majorities to ignore or overrule state courts and election officials, potentially granting legal legitimacy to efforts by Donald Trump’s allies to overturn the will of voters in 2024.

    Read: The case that could blow up American election law

    With the next presidential election in mind, Democrats have prioritized gubernatorial elections in the closely fought states, including Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia, where Trump tried to jawbone legislators and other high-ranking officials into overturning his defeat in 2020. They’ve also steered donations to long-neglected secretary-of-state races in some of those same battlegrounds. But the looming Supreme Court ruling in Moore v. Harper has, for some Democrats, turned the fight for state legislative control into the most pivotal of all. “A single state legislative race in Michigan or Arizona could well prove more important to our future than any congressional or U.S. Senate race in America,” Daniel Squadron, a co-founder of the States Project, told me.

    Squadron’s group is spending $60 million to back Democrats in state legislative races in just five states, in what it is calling the largest investment by a single outside organization ever for those campaigns. The effort is in part designed to counter what has historically been a significant GOP advantage, led by the Republican State Leadership Committee and major conservative donors, such as the Koch family.

    Precisely how realistic the States Project’s goals are, and where Democrats should be spending most heavily, is a source of some debate within the party. In Arizona, a swing of just more than 1,000 votes in the State House and 2,000 votes in the State Senate would have flipped those chambers to Democrats in 2020, and the party needs to pick up only one or two seats this year to win majorities. But Arizona’s maps became more favorable to Republicans in redistricting, and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee—the party’s official state legislative arm—views winning majorities there as a relative long shot, especially during a difficult midterm year in which Democrats typically lose seats. The DLCC is instead more focused on protecting Democratic incumbents in Arizona and defending the party’s narrow advantages in states like Colorado and Nevada. Jessica Post, the committee’s president, acknowledges that there is a “philosophical difference” between the DLCC and some of the outside progressive groups.

    “We think that the playing field is wider than simply flipping three battleground states,” Post told me. “We think that we have to protect Democratic majorities across the country.” The States Project is also investing in a few states where Democrats narrowly control the legislature, including Maine and Nevada. But Squadron defended the decision to play offense elsewhere, noting that swaying state legislative races costs “a fraction” of what it does to influence statewide and national elections. “It’s necessary,” he said. “The stakes are high enough that whether the odds are low, medium, or high, we have to take this on.”

    There is widespread agreement, including among Republicans, that the Michigan State Senate is in play, and that the race in the Thirty-Fifth District could be decisive. “There’s no question things are tight right now,” Gustavo Portela, the deputy chief of staff for the Michigan Republican Party, told me. GOP candidates are focusing their campaigns heavily on inflation, he said, though he noted that the new maps tilt toward Democrats and that Republicans currently lag them in fundraising.

    Campaigns and outside groups are running TV ads in some districts, but the candidate who wins a state legislative race tends to be the one who knocks on the most doors. McDonald Rivet is facing a Republican state representative, Annette Glenn, who supported Trump and called for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election in Michigan, which Joe Biden won by more than 150,000 votes. (Her campaign did not respond to requests for comment.)

    With an army of about 100 volunteers, McDonald Rivet told me her team has already knocked on more than 30,000 doors. Many of the people who answer cite worries about kitchen-table economic issues, or schools, or health care, or abortion—the topics you’d expect voters to bring up. But a surprising number, McDonald Rivet said, express unprompted concern about the future of American democracy, about whether election results will be respected. “I often hear people say, ‘I never thought I would question the health of democracy,’” she said. “‘These are things I have taken for granted my entire life.’”

    Protecting democracy is just one of the many issues McDonald Rivet highlights when she talks with voters, either at their homes or during the small meet-and-greet events she holds in the district. But she, too, is worried. Michigan Republicans have nominated election deniers for both governor and secretary of state. McDonald Rivet told me that some Republican candidates for the state legislature have stated publicly that the only electoral outcome they would accept in 2024 is a Trump victory.

    Read: The election denier who could run Michigan’s elections

    When I asked Portela whether a Republican legislative majority would honor the result of the popular vote for president, he twice dodged the question. “That’s nothing but fear-mongering from Democrats who are desperate,” he replied. “That’s not what’s at stake right now.” Perhaps he’s right. But to Democrats, it’s the evasiveness, the refusal to affirm a fundamental tenet of American elections, that suggests they are right to worry.

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  • “They cheat like hell, these people”: Trump airs 2020 grievances in Michigan, weeks before midterm elections

    “They cheat like hell, these people”: Trump airs 2020 grievances in Michigan, weeks before midterm elections

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    Warren, Mich. — For the first seven minutes of his Michigan rally Saturday, former President Donald Trump stuck to two familiar issues Republicans are running on this November: inflation and the rising cost of living under President Biden, and immigration and the southern border. 

    Then, he turned to a topic that’s been occupying him since November 2020: that the presidential election had been “stolen” from him. 

    He claimed John James, now a congressional candidate for Michigan’s 10th District, had won his last race for U.S. Senate in 2020. He did not. James lost to Sen. Gary Peters by over 92,000 votes. Trump accused Democrats of obliterating “election integrity.” He said America is a “third world country” because of how ballots are counted, and he praised France for using paper ballots.

    Former President Trump Holds Rally In Warren, Michigan
    WARREN, MI – OCTOBER 01: Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Save America rally on October 1, 2022 in Warren, Michigan.

    EMILY ELCONIN / Getty Images


    Trump did not acknowledge a Michigan investigation led by a panel of state Republicans that found no evidence of widespread fraud.

    And then he urged the crowd crammed into the arena in Macomb County, where he won by 8 points in 2020, to turn out in November so that they can overtake Democrats.

    “Michigan patriots have to shatter every record, because they cheat like hell, these people,” Trump said, implying that Republican voters have to run up the margins so Democrats “can’t rig it.”

    Republican voters in the state — and at the rally — also believe Trump was cheated in 2020. “Absolutely,” the election was stolen, said Deborah Brown, a retired telecommunications worker and longtime Republican. 

    Over half Republican politicians in the state, too, agree with Trump that the election was stolen. 

    Nine of the 17 statewide and federal GOP congressional nominees in Michigan have expressed doubt about President Joe Biden’s victory, even though his margin in the state exceeded 154,000 votes, according to a CBS News analysis. Three of those nine are incumbent members of Congress who voted to object to the electoral college results in Arizona and Pennsylvania on Jan. 6, 2021. They were all recognized by Trump during his rally. 

    This is happening in all of the states that Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020: in Arizona, 11 out of their 13 candidates are considered “election deniers.” In Wisconsin it’s 5 out of 13 candidates, in Georgia 10 out of 19 candidates deny Mr. Biden won the election, and in Pennsylvania, it’s 9 out of 20 who believe this is the case.

    “How pervasive the fraud was, that’s a secondary issue,” Michigan Republican candidate for secretary of state Kristina Karamo told CBS News before Trump’s remarks. “Some people just don’t know how big of a problem it is, but when you start to lay out the evidence, it’s horrible.” 

    Karamo cited wireless modems being used in some of the state’s election machines, falsely claimed they were hacked in 2020 and suggested they invite fraud in future elections. While there’s been no instances of fraud in these systems, some have moved away from using modems according to The Detroit News.

    In response to a question on whether she believes the upcoming election will be credible, Karamo declined to answer and instead said she “can’t believe” Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s warnings that election officials have been threatened with violence.

    “I think that is so grossly irresponsible of an election official to say that. I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life, I’ve never seen anything like that ever,” Karamo said. 

    In early September, Benson said on “Face the Nation” that many secretaries of state and election officials are worried about “violence and disruption on Election Day… and in the days surrounding the election.”

    A Brennan Center survey of election officials in March found that 1 in 6 officials have “experienced threats.” 

    Republicans including Shane Hernandez, GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, are calling for voter ID laws and closer monitoring of drop boxes. He said that state Republicans want to replicate Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s poll-watching measures on Election Day. 

    “We need to make sure we have the team on the ground to make sure people are comfortable,” he said. 

    The GOP nominee for Michigan governor, Tudor Dixon, signaled she agrees with the falsehood that Trump won the 2020 election, raising her hand at a primary debate when asked if candidates believe it was stolen, though she didn’t bring it up at the Trump rally Saturday.

    A Trafalgar Poll released last week found Dixon is trailing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by about 5 points. No poll in the state has shown Dixon leading in the past month.

    The unfounded belief that the election was stolen — “that’s why so many people are here now, and we expect to get [Trump] back. There’s a lot of Christians like myself here, and we’re praying that [Trump] gets back in here in 2024,” Brown, the retired communications worker said as she waited in line for the rally. She said she’d like to hear GOP candidates say more about the 2020 election and “election integrity,” too, a sentiment shared by other rallygoers.

    Michigan pollster Steve Mitchell says most Michigan GOP voters think Mr. Biden “is an illegally elected president.”

    “If you’re going to run as a Republican and you find yourself denying that, you’re not going to get support from Republicans,” Mitchell said. 

    The source of their belief in this is Trump. “The voters believe him,” Mitchell said. “There’s nothing that anyone can do to dissuade them from the fact that the election was not indeed stolen in Michigan.” 

    Ronald Dwyer, who’s running for Oakland County commissioner, is the rare GOP candidate in the state who isn’t sure there was enough fraud to turn the election against Trump, but he still thinks it’s time to move on. 

    “We’re halfway through the current term; we just got to move forward,” he said. 

    A CBS News poll in September found that 63% of Republicans believe there was “widespread fraud” in the 2020 election, primarily in Democratic and urban areas. Another poll found that if they lose midterm elections, 64% of Republicans said they should accept the results and look to 2024, while the remainder said they should challenge places where Democrats won. 

    Who controls the statewide positions in Michigan and other battleground states could play an outsized role when it comes to certifying the winner of the next presidential election, in 2024. 

    Whitmer, who was taunted by chants of “Lock her up!” from a GOP-heavy crowd Saturday, has argued she’s the “last line of defense” against what she characterizes as GOP efforts to weaken democracy, according to Bridge Michigan. 

    Carl Marlinga, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 10th District, said a central reason for his campaign is to help ensure Michigan Democrats are the majority in the congressional delegation — in case the Electoral College results are tied in 2024 and the state’s congressional delegations become the final arbiters of the presidential election. 

    “I want to be there in January of 2025– I want to be at least one of the 435 to say whatever the reality is, whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican, I want to make sure the real winner gets certified,” he said. 

    While Trump says he doesn’t think there will ever be a “fair election” again, he’s hoping the candidates he supports this November will pass more restrictive election laws.  

    “Everywhere the Republican party has a chance, we must pass critical election integrity reforms,” he said. 

    The Michigan GOP-led Legislature is already trying to do this. In 2021, the state senate introduced 39 election-related bills — to require photo IDs to vote and others to curb access to absentee ballot applications, according to the Detroit Free Press. Whitmer has vetoed several of these bills, calling them part of a “a coordinated, national attack on voting rights that is designed to undermine confidence in our election system.”

    In Michigan’s August primary, the number of absentee ballots issued and returned was nearly double the amount in 2018, after the state dropped its requirement for voters to have an excuse in order to obtain a mail ballot. Last Thursday, Michigan began making absentee ballots available to be picked up. 

    Aaron Navarro

    Aaron Navarro is an associate producer for the political unit at CBS News, focusing on House and gubernatorial campaigns as well as the census and redistricting.

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  • Tudor Dixon seeks a culture war in campaign against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer | CNN Politics

    Tudor Dixon seeks a culture war in campaign against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Tudor Dixon, the Republican taking on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November’s midterm election, is turning to tactics that have worked for other Republican winners in competitive governor’s races as she seeks to turn the race into a cultural battle over education, transgender athletes and more.

    But her clash with a well-funded Democratic incumbent governor – one taking place in a state where a referendum that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution has emerged as a dominant issue – is showcasing the limits of those efforts at cultural appeals to the moderate, suburban voters who could decide the race’s outcome.

    National Republicans have largely abandoned Dixon in the race’s closing weeks, leaving her outspent and floundering in one of the nation’s most important swing states.

    Dixon sought to change the race’s trajectory on Saturday when former President Donald Trump traveled to Michigan for a rally in Warren with Dixon and other GOP candidates, including Matthew DePerno, who is challenging Attorney General Dana Nessel, and Kristina Karamo, who is taking on Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Dixon, DePerno and Karamo have all parroted Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

    Trump called Whitmer “one of the most radical, most sinister governors in America,” criticizing her support for abortion rights and Michigan’s pandemic-related lockdowns.

    The former President, echoing Dixon’s focus on cultural issues and education, called Dixon “a national leader in the battle to protect our children by getting race and gender ideology out of the classroom.”

    Trump’s attack on Whitmer as “sinister” is the latest in a series of rhetorical escalations by the former President. On Friday, he said on his social media website Truth Social that the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, had a “death wish” after Congress approved stopgap funding to avert a government shutdown.

    Dixon, meanwhile, spoke twice Saturday – once before Trump, and again when Trump invited her on stage. As she lambasted Whitmer, the crowd repeated a familiar Trump rally chant, this time directed at Whitmer rather than 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton: “Lock her up.”

    “We’re not going to let our kids be radicalized. We’re not going to let our kids be sexualized. We’re not going to let our law enforcement be demonized. We’re not going to tell our businesses they can’t expand,” Dixon said.

    Dixon, a conservative commentator and first-time candidate, emerged from a crowded primary after receiving the financial support of former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos’ family. The Michigan GOP megadonors funded a super PAC bolstering Dixon’s campaign. And Trump waded into the race in the closing days of the primary with a Dixon endorsement that came after a handwritten letter from DeVos urged him to back Dixon, as reported by The New York Times.

    “The Dixon campaign is seeking to get its name ID up and MAGA base fully engaged to close the polling gap and that is what they hope to gain from a Trump rally in Macomb County,” said John Sellek, a Republican public relations adviser and head of Harbor Strategic Public Affairs in Lansing.

    However, she has struggled to raise money and gain traction since her August primary victory.

    Democrats on Saturday said Dixon’s comments at the Trump rally were an effort to distract from issues on which her positions are unpopular – particularly abortion rights.

    “Tonight, Michiganders saw a schoolyard bully on stage – not a leader,” Michigan Democratic Party chairwoman Lavora Barnes said in a statement. “Tudor Dixon hurled insults and rattled off a litany of grievances because she knows that her dangerous agenda to ban abortion and throw nurses in jail, dismantle public education, and slash funding for law enforcement is out-of-step.

    “Michigan families deserve a real leader who will work with anyone to get things done, and Tudor Dixon has shown time and again she will continue to divide and pit people against each other if it means she and Betsy DeVos gain political power,” Barnes said.

    Whitmer’s campaign and her supporters have dwarfed Dixon in television advertising spending – and Dixon’s campaign is currently off the air in Michigan, underscoring the reality that major Republican donors have shifted their focus to other races they view as more winnable.

    Since the primary on August 2, Democrats have spent about $17.6 million on ads in the governor’s race, while Republicans have spent just $1.1 million, according to data from the firm AdImpact. And over the next month through election day, Democrats have $23.4 million booked while GOP has just $4.3 million booked.

    Early voting is already underway in Michigan. And in the governor’s race, Whitmer is widely viewed as the favorite by nonpartisan analysts. The race is rated as one that “tilts Democratic” by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. The Cook Political Report and University of Virginia Center for Politics director Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball rate it as “likely Democratic.”

    “The battle has been fought on the Democrats’ terms with millions and millions of dollars, and there’s been essentially no effort to fight back,” Michigan-based Republican strategist John Yob said on the Michigan Information & Research Service Inc.’s “MIRS Monday” podcast this week. “On the Republican side, we’ve never faced this before. And, you know, it doesn’t look very good in terms of a way out unless some serious money gets on TV pretty quickly.”

    The most dominant issue in the governor’s race has been abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Michigan’s Republican-led legislature has refused to change a 1931 law that would prohibit abortion in nearly all instances. Whitmer and other pro-abortion rights groups sued to block that law. And a Democratic-backed referendum that would amend Michigan’s constitution to guarantee abortion rights is on November’s ballot in the state.

    Dixon, who opposes abortion except when necessary to protect the life of the mother, has struggled to redirect the race’s focus.

    “You can vote for Gretchen Whitmer’s position without having to vote for Gretchen Whitmer again,” she told reporters last week, explaining that voters could support the referendum but oppose the incumbent governor.

    In an effort to shift the contest’s focus, Dixon’s campaign has borrowed tactics from Republican governors who have won in battleground states in recent years.

    For months, she has focused on parental control of schools’ curriculum, as well as school choice. It’s a message built on that of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican whose 2021 victory was an early harbinger of a potentially favorable political landscape for the GOP in this year’s midterm elections.

    “That’s why Gov. Youngkin’s message resonated,” Dixon said in an August interview on Fox News alongside Youngkin, who was campaigning in Michigan.

    “He said, ‘I’m listening to you. I want parents involved. And I’m going to bring you back into the schools,’” Dixon said. “That’s what people want to hear right now.”

    In her latest move to redefine the race, Dixon this week proposed two policies aimed at the LGBTQ community and schools.

    In Lansing on Tuesday, Dixon proposed a policy modeled after the controversial measure Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law earlier this year that critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

    “This act will require school districts to ensure that their schools do not provide classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K through three, or in any manner that has not age- or developmentally appropriate,” Dixon told reporters, blasting what she called “radical sex and gender instruction.”

    Florida’s HB 1557, the Parental Rights in Education bill, passed earlier this year effectively bans teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms for young students. LGBTQ advocates say the measure has led to further stigmatization of gay, lesbian and transgender children, causing more bullying and suicides within an already marginalized community.

    Then, on Wednesday in Grand Rapids, she unveiled her proposal for a “Women’s Sports Fairness Act,” which would ban transgender girls from competing in sports with the gender they identify with.

    “As a mother of four girls, nothing infuriates me more than the prospect of my daughters losing their friends and their teammates, losing opportunities in sports or otherwise, because some radically progressive politicians decided one day that they should have to compete against biological men,” she said. “Gretchen Whitmer has embraced the trans-supremacist ideology, which dictates that individuals who are born as men can be allowed to compete against our daughters.”

    Whitmer’s campaign has largely ignored Dixon’s proposals, and did not respond to a request for comment on them. Instead, Whitmer has in recent days emphasized her economic message and her support for abortion rights.

    Whitmer is leaning into policies enacted by Democrats in Washington in recent months, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August.

    Whitmer in September signed an executive directive capping insulin costs at $35 per month and out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 a year for Medicare recipients.

    And last week, Whitmer announced that student loan borrowers will not be taxed on the debt relief that Biden had ordered.

    What has dominated media coverage of the race in recent days, though, are a series of jokes Dixon has made about the 2020 kidnapping plot against Whitmer.

    A federal jury in August convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home in 2020. They were also convicted of one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction after prosecutors detailed their plans to blow up a bridge to prevent police from responding to the kidnapping of the governor. The men now face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

    “The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head, and ask if you’re ready to talk,” Dixon said at an event last week in Troy alongside Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump White House aide. “For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom.”

    After her comment drew backlash, Dixon joked again about the kidnapping plot at a second event Friday, this time with Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former President.

    She told a crowd that, at a stop with President Joe Biden at the Detroit Auto Show last week, Whitmer looked like she’d “rather be kidnapped by the FBI.”

    “Yeah, the media is like, ‘Oh my gosh, she did it again,’” Dixon said, anticipating the reaction to her second reference of the day to the 2020 kidnapping plot.

    As she told the crowd that her earlier remarks about the plot to kidnap Whitmer had been characterized as a joke, Dixon said: “I’m like, ‘No, that wasn’t a joke.’ If you were afraid of that, you should know what it is to have your life ripped away from you.”

    Whitmer’s campaign and Democratic groups condemned Dixon’s remarks Friday.

    “Threats of violence and dangerous rhetoric undermine our democracy and discourage good people on both sides of the aisle at every level from entering public service,” Whitmer campaign spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement.

    “Governor Whitmer has faced serious threats to her safety and her life, and she is grateful to the law enforcement and prosecutors for their tireless work,” Coyle said. “Threats of violence – whether to Governor Whitmer or to candidates and elected officials on the other side of the aisle – are no laughing matter, and the fact that Tudor Dixon thinks it’s a joke shows that she is absolutely unfit to serve in public office.”

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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