Using clips of Whitmer and news reports, the ad bashes the governor over COVID-19 nursing home deaths, school shutdowns due to the pandemic, vaccine mandates, her alleged violation of pandemic rules, and the ongoing drinking water contamination crisis in the state. It also blames Whitmer for rising state prices and jobs Michigan lost during her tenure.
In the text that appears onscreen during the 60-second ad, the state Republican Party says, "Michigan can’t afford four more years of deadly incompetence, of serial hypocrisy, of abusing power, of suppressed human rights, of school shutdowns and mass exodus, of record crime, of lost jobs, of flip-flopping, of failure. This November, I will retire from Whitmer."
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The Michigan GOP, which first shared its ad with Fox News, asserts it will spend an initial five figures to run the spot online starting Monday, and it will ramp up to a six-figure digital and TV buy in the coming weeks. The state party launched its ad blitz ahead of Whitmer’s state of the state address, which she is scheduled for Wednesday. "This is the earliest the Michigan GOP has gone up with an ad against an incumbent – digital or broadcast," Michigan GOP communications director Gustavo Portela noted.
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"The reason we’re doing it is we’re seeing in poll after poll that she’s vulnerable, with the latest polling showing her losing to a generic Republican." Portela cited a Detroit News survey from earlier this month.
Whitmer is also a frequent target of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), which has spent $500,000 thus far in this cycle to aim at her in ads. Whoever comes out on top in Michigan’s crowded and competitive GOP gubernatorial primary on August 2 will be challenged in ousting Whitmer.
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The former state Senate Democratic leader and county prosecutor who defeated then-state attorney general Bill Schuette in the 2018 election and was considered a possible running mate for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, had built a formidable war chest of $12.6 million as of the end of October.
During the recently concluded college football bowl season, Michigan First, a group supported by the Democratic Governors Association, launched a six-figure ad blitz that touted "Whitmer’s actions to lower costs for families after working with Republicans to pass historic auto insurance reforms."
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While Republicans lost the White House and the Senate majority in the 2020 election cycle, they took out a big chunk of the Democrats' House majority, and they also managed to flip the Montana governor’s office from blue to red.
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