Tudor Dixon is both a conservative commentator and a businesswoman running for Michigan governor. The Republican primary is on Tuesday, and Dixon just received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement on Friday.
Dixon and I speak about her background in manufacturing, creating a business-friendly environment In Michigan, and why she believes she’s best suited to take on incumbent Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is running for the November election. Dixon stated that she is in favor of lowering the personal income tax and reducing regulations. She also supports modernizing education to encourage vocational opportunities.
This interview was edited to improve clarity, grammar and length.
Cameron Arcand: Could share a little bit about your background and how you’re feeling after yesterday? You just got President Trump’s big endorsement.
Tudor Dixon: Yes. It was an honour to welcome him into the race. We feel really excited about where we’re going, how we’ve gotten here, and how much work we’ve done to get here.
You asked me about my past and I could tell you how it led to where I am today. My family has a history of manufacturing. My family was a Michigan steel finder. My family moved out of the foundry to the forging business. We also went on to the heavy-duty automotive sector. The last five years have seen me fighting for conservative voices via a conservative media platform. That’s how I was led to the political world–by talking to congressmen and senators every day, and then building a team to run up against Gretchen Whitmer.
CA: Awesome. Right now, the nation’s biggest news story is the economy. We saw this week the White House attempt to minimize the fear of a recession. Technically, we are in recession. I was wondering if I could hear about what your plan is to tackle some of the economic issues we’re handling.
TD: Yeah, that’s challenging at the state level, but we definitely want to look at what we could do to ease the burden on the people of Michigan. The legislature passed a bill that will reduce personal income taxes. This is something we can immediately do. Now, they’ve done that two different times at two different levels. Both times, the governor has vetoed it. So, we think that’s one way to immediately get some relief into the pockets of the people of Michigan. But [it would]Protect against dangerous policies that Gretchen Whitmer might continue as governor. Whitmer wants to cut off one of our gas pipelines in Michigan. This would raise the price of gasoline. We want to make sure that we don’t have any increases in costs on the people of Michigan, and certainly not on the products that travel through our state.
CA:How can the U.S. bring back manufacturing jobs and what is your plan for making Michigan the leading manufacturing state?
TD: We need to be friendly to the job creators and make sure that they feel that they have a friend in the government in Michigan, and that’s not happening right now. Even if you talk to the automotive industry, which is our legacy industry here in the state of Michigan, they’re even looking outside of the state of Michigan when they’re building new factories.
Even if it’s going to be a U.S. factory, it’s not coming to the state of Michigan anymore. It is simply because Michigan’s regulatory system is too complex and out-of-control. They’ll tell me these are our largest industries, but even our smallest industries are telling me that if they wanna expand[…] the government will say, “You know, it’s gonna take a long time for us to get the permits. You might be able to break ground in eight months and then start making product within a year.” Whereas our neighboring states, and some of our Southern states, are saying, “We’re gonna help streamline the process. We’re gonna come alongside you. We know you’re in a race in manufacturing, and we wanna make sure that our state is the place for you to be, and we’re gonna have you break ground right away.” That’s not happening in Michigan.
So that we are able to bring in business from overseas and also help Michigan thrive, we need it to happen. Manufacturing is our niche, and that’s what we need to focus on. We need to make sure that if a business comes here, they’re going to have a strong workforce. This means we must help students, who may not want to attend college, or are not able to thrive in college, have an opportunity to train in skilled trades and be able to access that training in any school in the state.
CA: It’s so interesting that you talk about how they’re not coming to Michigan in particular. Are there any reports on the campaign trail about people who lost their jobs in manufacturing, or moved to another country such as Mexico or China? What’s your message to those people who aren’t feeling optimistic about the future?
TD: We had one of our dairy farmers because agriculture is our second-largest industry. They’re experiencing the same thing with government overreach. And so, one of our dairy farmers said, “I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to expand my farm. Even though I had the land, I couldn’t expand my farm in the state of Michigan because I wasn’t allowed to add more cows to my dairy farm. Then I chose to travel to Indiana and South Dakota. And at the end of the year, both of those governors called me and said, ‘Thank you for doing business here’.”
He said, “It’s a shame, but I’ll continue to expand in those states rather than expand in Michigan, because I just don’t feel like I’ve wanted here.” In Gretchen Whitmer’s government, she’s created this environment where the government is the big brother. They don’t trust business. They are constantly required to find and correct wrongdoings in businesses, and then control them. Whereas other states are saying, “Hey, we get it. There’s no government without business. We’re grateful that you’re here and treating businesses better.” I mean, if you’re talking about farmers who are saying, even though I have the land, I’ll go someplace else, that’s pretty significant.
CA:On Tuesday, there are many other candidates. You are different than the rest.
TD: I think exactly what we’ve been talking about. The fact that I understand our manufacturing environment in the state of Michigan and also, what it is to be a manufacturer and have the state come in and peer into your business, and want to know what you’re doing all the time. I know how that works on the private sector side, and I can make it easier on the public sector side to make sure that we are drawing our business in, but also I’m a mom of four daughters and my girls are all school-age. Another problem we face in Michigan is a decline of our education system. We can fix that.
This is our huge opportunity because we’ve got parents involved in ways they’ve never been involved before. Our legislature has agreed to make critical education changes to get our educational system back on track. That is what sets me apart. I hope the message will get out Tuesday to encourage people to vote for us.
About Post Author
