GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Wednesday night, Michigan's Scripps news stations brought you the last gubernatorial debate before the Republican primaries.
Thursday, the team at FOX 17 checked in to what was said and if was accurate.
Candidates fired back at moderators, insisting critical race theory is taught in Michigan schools.
FOX 17 found that critical race theory curriculum is not taught in Michigan schools. Detroit Public Schools clarified, yet again, previous statements saying they do teach CRT, saying that comment made by the superintendent was taken out of context and that parents in DPS overwhelmingly support equitable historical Afrocentric education.
The school district says they teach history as it happened, both Black and American history, through the lens of equity.
Michigan teachers say they do not teach the curriculum, but use it as a guide to check in with their own implicit biases.
“Your baseless claims of it not being taught are inaccurate."
Candidate Ralph Rebrandt insisted he would ban "furry days" in schools. No such "furry days" exist at any Michigan school. Claims of "litter boxes" in bathrooms at Midland Public Schools were found to be overwhelmingly false, according to USA Today.
Garrett Soldano says he supports constitutional carry rights, and sighted a shooting at an Indiana mall earlier this month as to why constitutional carry is essential. In that case, a guy with a gun did stop a person with a gun from doing further damage. However, this happens less than one-percent of the time, according to a study by the National Crime Victimization surveys.
“We’re going to get constitutional carry through, someone who was constitutionally carrying stopped it within minutes."
Candidate Rinke's decades-old lawsuits were brought up as reasons why he's "not fit for the job." Rinke has always maintained that his choice to settle the suit is not an admission of guilt. All cases against him were closed.
Another chippy moment came when candidates started talking about endorsements. They've been going after Tudor Dixon as the "establishment" candidate over her Police Officer's Association and Right to Life endorsements, but especially her support from the DeVos family.
Dixon called it "sour grapes" from candidates who wanted that endorsement but didn't get it.
She went further and accused Soldano and Rinke both of being at a meeting back in May where candidates sought out the endorsement of the Michigan Opportunity Alliance, including members of the DeVos family.
FOX 17 called Soldano's campaign Thursday, and they said they were in fact at that meeting and did speak in front of the alliance, but that no one from the DeVos family was in the room for that. Soldano did shake hands with Betsy DeVos, his campaign said, but they never heard anything after that. A spokesperson called it a checklist item for their campaign.
Both Soldano and Dixon said most candidates, including James Craig and Perry Johnson, when they were still in the race, were at that meeting at the Daxton Hotel.
We did not hear back from Kevin Rinke's campaign on this.
