KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. — The candidates for governor made their final pushes to appeal to a shrinking number of undecided voters Monday.
It remained a tight race as the contest with Governor Whitmer maintaining a slight lead over challenger Tudor Dixon.
A recent poll out from Cygnal showed Dixon trailing by three and a half points the Sunday prior to election day.
The Republican gubernatorial hopeful rallied supporters near Battle Creek in Springfield Monday, less than 24 hours until polling locations were slated to open.
“Tomorrow is our opportunity,” Dixon exclaimed. “We will reduce regulation and bring the American Dream back to the State of Michigan.”
Dixon repeatedly took aim at the Whitmer campaign throughout the appearance, parsing through familiar criticisms that ran the gamut from school safety to state-mandated pandemic precautions.
The candidate, who entered the primaries without the name recognition her competitors enjoyed and surged ahead, securing the nomination in the wake of a coveted, endth-hour endorsement from former President Donald Trump, thanked her opponent for familiarizing voters with her name and platform.
“We've got to kind of thank Gretchen, because when I first came out of the primary, I had these little reporters come up to me and they're like, how do you think you could possibly go up against Gretchen Whitmer, you're not a career politician,” Dixon related. “You don't have the name ID across the state, you're not going to be able to do this and I was like, you know what, don't worry. Everyone in this state is going to know my name and Gretchen Whitmer is going to pay for it.”
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, meanwhile, was similarly occupied criss-crossing the state in the campaign’s final push for support. She seemed unconcerned over tight pre-election polling which showed her lead had dwindled significantly from the double-digit edge she enjoyed following the August primary.
“I am not surprised by any polling that says it's close,” Whitmer related during a one-on-one interview with 13 ON YOUR SIDE Monday morning. “We know this. This is Michigan, this is what happens.”
Whitmer defended her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a frequent target of Dixon’s campaign.
The governor also touted her work in education, job creation and fixing the roads as accomplishments she hoped would secure her administration a second term Tuesday.
“We really are working to secure Michigan's economy and uplift people and give everyone a path,” Whitmer said. “So the question is now, can we throw our foot on the accelerator with four more years of the groundwork we've been laying and take this to the next level, or are we going to go backwards?”
Dixon was slated to finish-out Election eve in Grand Rapids and was expected to remain to watch results come in Tuesday, with Whitmer’s campaign watching from Lansing.
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