LANSING, Mich. — Governor Gretchen Whitmer and GOP candidate Tudor Dixon have accepted an invitation from FOX 17 and our sister stations in Lansing and Detroit to participate in a televised debate ahead of the general election in November.
Whitmer and Dixon accepted the invitation from Michigan Scripps stations FOX 17, WXYZ and WSYM to participate in a debate in metro Detroit. The debate is expected to air statewide.
Whitmer proposed October 25 and has agreed to that date. Dixon has agreed to either October 17 or October 24 which were initially proposed to both candidates.
The campaigns will need to settle on an agreed upon date.
“Governor Whitmer looks forward to continuing Michigan's gubernatorial general election tradition and ensuring voters across the state have the opportunity to see the clear contrast between candidates,” said Whitmer for Governor communications director Maeve Coyle. “While Tudor Dixon champions a dangerous, special interest-backed agenda that would ban abortion and throw nurses and doctors in prison, dismantle public education, and slash funding for infrastructure and law enforcement, Governor Whitmer has worked to bring people together to cut costs for hardworking families, protect the right to choose, strengthen public education, and fix the damn roads.”
While accepting the debate invitation, Dixon said she believes “the debate should be sooner rather than later in the interest of allowing the voters the maximum time available to hear from the candidates and make their decision.”
Dixon says her campaign is extending an invitation to Whitmer to negotiate “mutually agreeable dates directly.”
Tudor Dixon posted on Twitter that she looks forward to debating Whitmer but said debates “must start BEFORE voting begins.”
I look forward to debating @GretchenWhitmer and making her answer for the many ways Michiganders are worse off than they were 4 years ago. Debates must start BEFORE voting begins, not after as Whitmer is demanding. She wants to hide, but the people deserve answers!
— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) August 24, 2022
Dixon did participate in a debate for the August primary gubernatorial debate hosted by FOX 17 and our E.W. Scripps Company partners WXYZ and WSYM on July 20.
When asked about reducing the number of children waiting for adoption in Michigan during that debate, Dixon said, “Well, I hope you’ll ask Gretchen Whitmer the same question because she just vetoed quite a lot of funding for adoption in the latest budget. So, she vetoed grants for adoptive parents that would help us to reduce that number of 3,000 kids. That would help families find the child that they are looking for and children find their forever home, but Gretchen Whitmer doesn’t want that. She also vetoed safe homes for pregnant women, so even pregnant women who are scared and may be looking for that answer, she vetoed that. So, we should ask her what she thinks about where these children end up.”
WATCH: FOX 17, Scripps stations host GOP gubernatorial debate
