When we were hearing,
I think that we covered a
lot of different issues.
I'm hoping that voters saw the
stark difference at hand here.
I believe that we were strong,
and I'm sure that the people of
Michigan will believe that is.
And that is what the candidates
for governor had to say
last night's debate. But
was there a clear winner?
If you look at your social media feeds,
there were varying opinions
over who scored the most
points with voters last night.
Yeah, most most definitely.
Governor Whitmer focused primarily
on what she has done, touting that
record tutor Dixon talked about what?
He should have done differently.
Earlier today, I talked with an
expert on Michigan politics.
They had to get his thoughts
on that first debate.
Well, Thursday night's debate
was the first time the two candidates for
governor appeared on the same stage together.
John Truscott, CEO of the public affairs
firm Truscott Rossman joins us now.
John was also press secretary
for Governor Engler.
John, thank you for joining us.
So welcome aboard. My pleasure.
Any first impressions of the
debate you care to to share
with us right off the bat?
Yeah. And and I I
listened to the debate.
I was in the car driving.
So I didn't have the visual cues necessarily.
So you tend to pay attention a
little bit more to what is spoken.
I thought Governor Whitmer did
exactly what she had to do.
She stood up there,
didn't make any big gaffes or errors.
But I think the big surprise was Tutor Dixon.
She outperformed all of her
expectations and and really set
herself up as a credible candidate.
So I I kind of.
Look at this as the new
phase of her campaign.
She really,
really performed well last night,
OK? You know, John, have you
gleaned anything from that?
Is there a clear winner, I guess,
in your estimation there? I I think
if you're going by expectations of
what people expected to get out of it,
looking at the media coverage today
and what was written, I definitely
think Tutor Dixon was the winner.
She's not a runaway winner
or anything like that.
But by outperforming her expectations,
by giving her campaign some life,
I think she definitely scored
more points and and gets more
benefit out of the debate
any any missed opportunities that you saw?
I didn't see any missed opportunities.
I think pinning down the governor
on her abortion response,
it was she was kind of slippery,
so that was very difficult to do.
Had she been able to do that,
I think that would have been kind
of a line of demarcation for her
in the whole abortion debate.
But no, I don't.
I don't think either candidate
missed any opportunities.
I thought they both did, did very well.
But again, tutor Dixon stood up.
This was her first introduction
to the public for the most part,
and she did very, very well
now is it? It's a little she
did introduce herself to the
public folks watching the debate.
Is that a little too late I guess in
the campaign season for that first
interaction to really have occurred.
There is no doubt that it's late.
I don't think it's too late yet.
But the Dixon campaign,
you know, it has been hamstrung
as they haven't had money.
They've got a non functioning Republican
Party that isn't performing the
normal tasks that are that are that
the party would do for a candidate.
So they don't have that.
They're missing a lot of the basic.
Elements of a campaign.
So given the fact that she's in this
that I I would expect after this
performance and just the exposure the
numbers will tighten up a little bit.
I think this just became a
much more competitive race
now John I wanted to talk
strategy for a minute.
Governor Whitmer you know really
seemed to focus on on some of these
bipartisan efforts unity what
she views as her accomplishments
while we you know really saw a
tutor Dixon focusing on what she
sees as the governor's missteps
some of those failures in office.
Do you have any thoughts on that?
Well, I think what Tutor Dixon was
trying to do is remind people of
what we went through with COVID,
with the shutdown businesses and the
kind of the heavy hand of government.
Governor Whitmer, I mean I would
have done the exact same thing.
She's dealing with the
Republican legislature.
They have had some pretty
significant accomplishments.
You can quibble about who is to,
you know, who gets the benefit out of that.
But but clearly they've,
they've gotten some things done.
What this really comes down to
for the Dixon campaign is that
she has to make the argument,
are you satisfied with what was done?
Given all the negatives that were there,
does it balance out and do you want a
new direction or do you want to continue
on the path that that we're going?
All right. John, thank you
so much for your insights.
John Truscott, CEO of the public
affairs firm Truscott Rossman,
thank you again for taking the time.
We appreciate it.