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That I have to ask the question above in the headline is another indicator of why Michigan is a blue state and most likely will be for the foreseeable future. However, it is not Kevin Rinke’s fault that Michigan is currently a blue state — though he is most likely helping keep it one at the Governor’s mansion in 2022.

Earlier this year, I commented on my radio show on WAAM Radio in Ann Arbor Michigan, that the Whitmer administration had done the damn near impossible. They made the eight years of the Granholm administration look like amateur hour in terms of how to wreck a state in less than half the time. I promised at that moment I would support the GOP nominee, whoever that would be, against Gretch in November of 2022. I’m one of those pesky independents that both R’s and D’s need to get a win and have zero issues of skipping a line on a ballot if I think all options suck, so this was a big step for me.

Monumental in fact.

The Republican race for the nomination to see who will face Whitmer has actually been pretty docile up until the past couple of weeks. With the exception of two of the candidates going down due to petition signature fraud, everything was pretty low-key.

That quiet, of course, had to come to an end as we wind down this campaign and the Rinke camp decided it was time to go off the rails by calling a family that has supported a plethora of conservative causes over the past couple of decades “America’s betrayers.”

Simply asinine.

Here is the commercial that slimes not just an opponent for the GOP nod against a truly horrible Governor but a family that has done more than their share supporting policies that help better the people who live in this state.

She owes them. Tudor Dixon’s campaign is bankrolled by Never Trumpers, Liberal Billionaires, and anti-MAGA turncoat Betsy DeVos. DeVos wanted to remove President Trump from office on January 6th.

(Interviewer) “In your book, you mentioned some of the discussion you had invoking the 25th amendment.”

(Betsy DeVos) “Well, I wanted to understand what the law with the amendment said.”

Dixon is bankrolled by liberals, Never Trumpers, and America’s betrayers. We just can’t trust Tudor Dixon

Liberals, Never Trumpers, and America’s betrayers.

Oh my.

All you need to complete the nonsense in this commercial is for Rinke to come out in ruby red slippers and click them together to hopefully snap back into reality and not the political idiocy of Oz in which this commercial resides.

So being I’m not a newbie at politics, I fully understand that when it comes down to crunch time, candidates who are polling in the one, two, and three positions are going to start getting rough with each other. In fact, the reason why Rinke pulled this stunt is that the latest polling just came out and shows that Dixon has a four-point lead over him. From Deadline Detroit:

With the Aug. 2 primary quickly approaching, a new poll of state Republicans shows GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Nixon with a narrow 4 percentage point lead over Kevin Rinke, the Detroit News reports.

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The lead falls within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

The poll, taken July 13-15, is of 500 likely Republican primary voters. It was commissioned by the Detroit News and WDIV, and conducted by Lansing-based Glengariff Group.

It also showed gubernatorial candidates Ryan Kelley and Garrett Soldano trailing behind Rinke. However, 38 percent of the likely GOP voters said they hadn’t made up their minds.

Yet the problem I have — and quite frankly anyone who gives a damn about changing Michigan from a blue state to a red state should also have — is that Rinke wants to smear his opponent on faulty reasoning and by dragging a family that has done more for “conservative” causes than he could ever dream of doing.

Rational people can disagree on policy or actions and I do disagree with Betsy DeVos about her decision to resign two weeks before Trump’s term ended in January of 2021 for the reasons she stated.

As the January 6 Commission has brilliantly shown, Trump did nothing to encourage a bunch of Hot Heads to go down to the Capitol and overthrow the United States government. Seriously, that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger think that the guy who dressed up as one of the Village People was gonna install himself as Speaker of the House or something is amazing and silly. Super cute story but it was never gonna happen no matter how many prime-time hearings they have to try and scare people.

Yet dissing the Devos family and their history of supporting causes that Kevin Rinke and all the other candidates for the GOP nomination say they support, is just plain lunacy. Actually, it sounds like something Whitmer and her Public Relations people would come up with to piss off die-hard Trump supporters and split the base pre-November.

So just to drive the point home here, I could bury this story in links to leftist rags that have verbally lit the DeVoss family on fire for their support of causes that are “right-wing” in nature. From their support of charter schools in the state to helping fund pro-life group Right to Life Michigan and this little nugget about the lockdown protests two years ago.

Why the DeVos family’s backing of the Michigan protests is no surprise.

Having met both Dick and Betsy Devos during his 2006 campaign for Governor and getting to spend a couple of minutes here and there with them, I believe they are not Never Trumpers or Liberal Billionaires as described in that ad. That anyone would smear them as such and say they are Republican is not dealing with people straight but using progressive talking points veiled as reasoned thought.

There are ways to go after your opponents in good faith and not write a script for Team Whitmer to use if Tudor Dixon becomes the nominee here. Garret Soldano, in the last debate held with all five GOP candidates, hit Dixon on where she was during the protests against lockdowns in 2020. She responded and they had an interesting exchange that did not devolve into… YOU’RE BACKED BY PEOPLE WHO I WISH WERE BACKING ME.

Also, the fact that Dixon held a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago at which Trump spoke might be a tip that POTUS 45 does not share the view of Rinke that calling anyone that leads him in the polls a Never Trumper is appropriate. Michigan Candidate for Governor Holds a Fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Trump also mentioned her at a rally he held here after the Mar-a-Lago event, so maybe Rinke knows something “The Donald” doesn’t know.

Then again, maybe not.

I’m actually interested in slowly turning Michigan red which will take decades to do. Last spring, when I committed myself to support the Michigan GOP and their candidate, I hoped they could produce a solid candidate to take on Governor Gretch and really start that long process.

If this scorched earth policy that Kevin Rinke has engaged in to win a nomination is an indication of how he would govern, I’m gonna have to pass on my earlier pledge. I have seen the more-money-than-brains act down in Texas with Beto O’Rouke and it gives me heartburn much worse than the fine Tex-Mex food in the Lone Star State.

I can guarantee you that Michigan does not need that type of nonsense here.

I hope that the other candidates will step up in the closing days and call out this type of Whitmer future attack ad material by someone who wants to damage an opponent at any cost. Michigan is a blue state that once in a while turms purple and calling everyone a Never Trumper or Liberal Billionaire to score points is so George Soros it makes me ill.

Michigan has been suffering for the past four years with Whitmer Inc. and we need to change. If Kevin Rinke thinks trashing people who have shown they are conservative through action is the right move, that is shameful. If he is the best the Michigan GOP can nominate, I have some bad news.

Prepare for politics as usual in the State of Michigan — and that will not end well.

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