Republican Tudor Dixon, who is running for Michigan governor, revealed on Wednesday that nearly two dozen county sheriffs have endorsed her and her newly released plan to combat rising crime in the state.
The 22 sheriffs wrote a public letter declaring their support for Dixon and her crime agenda, emphasizing they value “safety and security above all else.”
“We are pleased to come together to give our full and unwavering support to a candidate that respects our men and women in uniform, puts safety and security above a personal political agenda, and is committed to making meaningful changes to the current status quo,” the sheriffs wrote.
The group included Sheriff William Federspiel, a Democrat serving Saginaw County, a key swing county in Michigan that former President Donald Trump narrowly lost in 2020 by less than half a percent but narrowly won in 2016 by about one percent.
“We look forward to partnering with Tudor Dixon and her Administration on the critical issues facing law enforcement and making safety and security a top priority,” the sheriffs stated.
Dixon, who is hoping to unseat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), made the endorsement announcement at an event in Corunna, where she was joined by state officials to also discuss her $1 billion “building a safer state” plan.
The four-pronged plan entails increasing the state’s number of law enforcement employees and the retention rate among them; improving access to equipment, training, and mental health services; bolstering resources to process evidence in criminal cases more quickly; and creating a “working group” to help craft and pass legislation comprising her crime-related priorities.
Violent crime is up in several major Michigan cities since 2019, including in Detroit and Lansing, according to statistics Dixon provides on her website, citing annual state police reports.
Dixon characterizes the grim statistics as “Whitmer’s violent crime wave” and is also promoting a new simple 15-second ad of children and adults walking that reads, “All walks of life … deserve safe walks”:
Dixon, who is backed by former President Donald Trump in the battleground race, trailed Whitmer in a recent Detroit News/WDIV poll by about 13 points. Another poll taken just two weeks prior, however, showed Dixon within striking distance of Whitmer, behind the vulnerable incumbent governor by just five points.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
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