MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — The Whitmer Campaign rallied supporters in Muskegon Heights alongside a slate of other prominent democratic hopefuls Tuesday morning.
The appearance, a leg of the campaign’s ‘Getting Things Done Tour,’ saw dozens of supporters, staffers and community leaders in attendance.
Whitmer, introduced by Michigan Supreme Court Candidate Kyra Harris Bolden, told the crowd that the outcome of next Tuesday’s midterms would influence state government for decades.
She urged voters to do whatever they could to cement a Whitmer victory in the days preceding the election.
The mid-week rally came amid a tightening race.
A Cygnal poll out Tuesday showed the Whitmer Gilchrist ticket with a 6.4 point advantage over republican challenger Tudor Dixon, a path to victory considerably narrower than the double-digit spread recorded several months earlier.
“This is a state that we see toward the end of campaigns, people kind of gravitate into their traditional corners,” Whitmer related in an interview following the rally. “We're trying to earn the support of those who have not yet decided or those who have not yet voted.”
The governor declined to rate her performance when the two went head-to-head in the second and final gubernatorial debate at Oakland University last week, but noted the issues raised had struck a clear contrast with her opponent.
“It's very difficult to talk about a lot of complicated things in that small timeframe,” she said. “But I think what's really important is to recognize that we have made real investments.”
Whitmer listed efforts to rebuild Michigan’s roads, job creation and manufacturing gains as noteworthy facets of her legacy.
She named recent investments in public education and tuition assistance as among her most significant accomplishments.
“Bringing down the cost of higher education no matter what their path is here in Michigan,” Whitmer said of the effort. “So I think we're making progress. We cannot afford to go backwards, though.”
“We want to continue this progress and we want to continue to put money in people's pockets,” Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist added.
Whitmer suggested the work would continue and expand if elected to a second term in the governor’s office.
“Making sure that Michigan continues to be thought of as a state that is winning,” she said of her priorities. “We're competing… we’ve got to throw our foot onto the accelerator on all of those fronts.”
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