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Parents will be the decision makers in the 2022 elections and liberal lockdown governors face particular peril due to their policies’ harsh impact on children.  

We need to arm parents and school boards with facts and trust them to make decisions in their community’s best interest. Parents don’t want the government imposing harmful orders on their children. Fathers and mothers — not "birthing people" — want a say in the classroom, but first, they’ll have it this November. 

Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was the cruelest of all COVID-19 governors, closing schools to in-person learning, causing academic chaos when many students could least afford it. Some schools in Democrat-run cities were even closed in early 2022 while Whitmer sat idly by as students suffered. 

MICHIGAN GOP CANCELS ELECTION NIGHT WATCH PARTY AFTER STAFFER ALLEGEDLY THREATENED

Michigan’s election faces perhaps the greatest contrast of visions between candidates. Some have said it will be an epic battle between a conservative mom vs. a liberal "birthing parent." The way Whitmer has governed, contrasted with the way I have articulated I will, could not be clearer. 

GRETCHEN-WHITMER-BIDEN-MICHIGAN

U.S. President Joe Biden greets Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as he arrives in Traverse City, Michigan, U.S., July 3, 2021. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

On education, Whitmer employed political science, yielding authority to union bosses, who were also successful at manipulating the CDC into imposing rules friendly for adults, but harmful to children. She refused to listen to parents. 

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten threatened strikes and other anti-student actions if politicians didn’t comply with their selfish demands. Gretchen Whitmer was an accomplice to their selfish agenda.  

Beyond COVID-19, Whitmer’s ever-increasing investment into government schools has not created a successful learning environment nor has her governing held these learning institutions accountable for their failing grades. Michigan is 38th in the nation for academic achievement, and due to indifference, is expected to slide to the bottom five states by 2030. 

Traveling the state and listening to Michiganders, education is the topic that keeps coming up. Republicans know that they can win on this issue because progressives and the woke class actually believe that their stewardship of schools was a success during the pandemic! 

Compounding the problem is Whitmer’s lack of action as achievement declined. Over 50 percent of our third-graders recently failed the state literacy exam. This is a catastrophe.  

Whitmer has not only turned her back on our children she has turned her back on women. She leads the political charge with woke rhetoric attacking women forcing us to defend facts, and long-term held beliefs and traditions. As she tries to claim I’m only interested in culture wars, at least I know how to define "woman." 

On the issue of "womanhood," when I began this campaign, we vowed to protect girls’ sports. It’s not appropriate for biological males to rob our daughters of opportunities. The media wanted that to appear as a controversial stance. It’s common sense. 

Whitmer and her liberal allies have moved the fight well beyond fairness in women’s sports. Whitmer now winces when she uses the term "woman" because it goes against her woke allies. Again, liberal money runs through her veins and infects every bit of her governing at the expense of our daughters’ very identity. 

Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon speaks at her primary election night party

GRAND RAPIDS, MI: Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon speaks at her primary election night party after winning the nomination at the Amway Grand Plaza.  (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

During a recent meeting with leaders of the Michigan Democratic Party, Whitmer referred to women as "menstruating people." Let me be clear, we are done with this disgusting talk. The last thing I want to be identified by is a bodily function! Why does Whitmer want to denigrate and diminish womanhood? 

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Now, the National Education Association has passed a policy at a recent convention to replace "mother" with "birthing person." Mother is a title that holds deep meaning. Mothers love unconditionally, we wake in the middle of the night, worry, kiss away boo boos, mourn, celebrate, teach, push through exhaustion, mothers make the world go round and so much more.  

At a recent campaign event, a woman approached me who had adopted a child and wondered what "birthing person" made her.  

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The Democrats’ dogma on sexuality has real-world implications that will come back to bite them and their attempts to push further just in the timeframe of this campaign makes us wonder how far they will really go. They are using cultural and social issues to push their liberal agenda and fundamentally transform our country. 

We are not going to allow progressive Democrats, union bosses, and other liberal activists to strip us of our female identity. We will protect those words and our children because it is the right thing to do. Republicans are the real defenders of women's rights.