by Arjun Singh
Republican candidate Tudor Dixon is now polling within one percentage point of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in the state’s gubernatorial race, per a new poll.
Dixon received 47.9% support while Whitmer received 48.4%, a difference of 0.5%, according to a poll from The Trafalgar Group. The small margin between them is a marked difference from earlier in the year when, in August, Whitmer was ahead by up to 15%, according to RealClearPolitics.
Dixon’s campaign has received a significant boost in the polls after the state’s gubernatorial debate against Whitmer on Oct. 10, where she targeted Whitmer on the issues of abortion, COVID-19 lockdowns and school education curricula for their focus on transgenderism and sexuality. Since the debate, the gap between both candidates has continued to narrow.
New @MINewsSource/@trafalgar_group #MIGov #Poll (10/18-21) shows incumbent #Whitmer and #Dixon in a statistical tie #mipol
48.4% @gretchenwhitmer
47.9% @TudorDixon
1.5% @LPMary4Gov
0.4% Other
1.8% UndSee Report: https://t.co/uz3hkDLmfT pic.twitter.com/T7bvXnH5st
— Robert C. Cahaly (@RobertCahaly) October 24, 2022
She also received an endorsement from former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a Democratic presidential contender in 2020 who recently left the party, claiming that it was controlled by an “elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.” Gabbard’s activism on transgenderism adds credence to Dixon’s effort to focus the campaign on this issue.
Another poll, conducted by InsiderAdvantage for American Greatness, showed both candidates locked in a statistical tie at 44% days after the debate took place.
“We are closing in on her as the momentum trends in our direction,” wrote Dixon on Twitter, with reference to the narrowing poll gap.
Whitmer, for her part, has sought to focus the campaign on abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade’s guarantee of a constitutional right to an abortion.
“I will keep fighting like hell to make sure Michigan women are protected,” Whitmer wrote on Twitter, adding that “Dixon pledged to enforce Michigan’s dangerous 1931 abortion ban — which would criminalize doctors and nurses.”
The Trafalgar poll surveyed 1,079 likely voters in Michigan and had a margin of error of 2.9%. FiveThirtyEight, a polling aggregator, grades Trafalgar’s polling with an “A-“ for reliability.
The Dixon and Whitmer campaigns did not respond to a request for comment.
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Arjun Singh is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Tudor Dixon” by Tudor Dixon. Photo “Gretchen Whitmer” by Gretchen Whitmer. Background Photo “Michigan State Capitol” by San906. CC0 1.0.
