Can Virginia’s Youngkin Rescue the GOP in Michigan?

With the Michigan GOP’s gubernatorial candidate trailing in the polls, the party is bringing in Governor Youngkin for an appearance that the party hopes will help galvanize its base around some of the same education-related issues that propelled the Virginian into office in 2021. Mr. Youngkin is scheduled to speak at the Michigan Republican convention on August 27, when the party will officially nominate candidates for a slate of positions including secretary of state, supreme court, and lieutenant governor.The visit stands to highlight the issues that the GOP in Michigan is aiming to campaign on — namely education and economic issues, which the gubernatorial nominee, Tudor Dixon, has highlighted in her effort to create a “family-friendly Michigan.”“Governor Youngkin’s victory in Virginia demonstrated the political power of parents who want to be involved in ensuring their children get a great education,” Ms. Dixon said in a statement. “He also understood the economic challenges facing families and the need for safe communities.”Mr. Youngkin’s victory in Virginia has been widely credited to his focus on education and issues related to curriculum in public schools, namely critical race theory. It’s clear he is hoping to help Ms. Dixon do the same in the Great Lake State.“Last year in Virginia, we listened to voters and they told us in overwhelming numbers that they needed to be empowered in the education of their children,” Mr. Youngkin said in a statement. “And as Tudor has witnessed across her own state, parents matter.”The visit comes as the Michigan GOP faces long odds against taking the governor’s office this November. While Michigan is typically seen as a battleground state, most forecasts expect voters to re-elect Governor Whitmer. The most recent polling in the race suggests Ms. Whitmer enjoys a 10-point lead over Ms. Dixon.So far, 2022 has not been the best of years for the Michigan Republican Party.The GOP’s presumptive nominee for attorney general in the state, Matthew DePerno, was recently implicated in a series of voting machine breaches that the state police are investigating.Michigan’s current attorney general, Dana Nessel, says that Mr. DePerno and his associates may have committed criminal acts when they “orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators.”“During the course of the investigation, facts were developed that DePerno was one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy,” Ms. Nessel said.It is only the latest in a series of scandals for the party. The GOP’s early frontrunner in the gubernatorial race was arrested on charges related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and four Republican primary competitors were disqualified for submitting fraudulent signatures.Ms. Dixon also staked out an unpopular position on abortion rights in the state when she endorsed the enforcement of a 1931 restriction that would criminalize all abortions except in situations where the life of the mother is at stake.She then doubled down on her position when challenged, emphasizing her opposition to an abortion exception in cases of rape and incest.According to Glengariff Group polling, 57.7 percent of voters in Michigan opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade and 86.2 percent said they considered abortion rights an “important” issue. There also is likely to be an abortion measure on November’s ballot.The visit from Mr. Youngkin represents a clear pivot from the party’s primary election strategy.While the primary was a scramble for President Trump’s endorsement, the GOP’s general election strategy is shaping up to be much less Trump-centric, according to a political scientist at the University of Michigan, Jonathan Hanson.Mr. Hanson argues that Mr. Trump’s endorsement was critical in landing Ms. Dixon the nomination, but that the pivot to education-related topics is a sort of return home for the gubernatorial hopeful.Ms. Dixon has always centered her strategy on schools, Mr. Hanson said, but she has expressed doubts about how much this issue will be able to drive turnout in 2022, especially with abortion rights on the ballot.“It’s pretty clear that this is going to be a pretty difficult pivot,” he tells the Sun. “The issues that she’s running on in the schools — I don’t know how much that carries.”

Can Virginia’s Youngkin Rescue the GOP in Michigan?

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