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Tudor Dixon wins 80 of 83 Michigan counties in GOP governor primary romp

Republican Tudor Dixon speaks to supporters on Tuesday in Grand Rapids after winning 80 of 83 counties in the state to win the Republican gubernatorial primary. (Bridge photo by Daytona Niles)
  • Tudor Dixon dominates statewide
  • Kevin Rinke wins three northern Michigan counties
  • Dixon was buoyed by an endorsement from Trump, but led in absentee voting as well

Tudor Dixon, a west Michigan businesswoman and conservative commentator, won nearly every county in Michigan to win the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday.

Dixon, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump on Friday, won 80 of the state’s 83 counties, including the most populous ones in metro Detroit and west Michigan.

 

Second-place finisher, Oakland County businessman Kevin Rinke, won three counties but they were less populated and in northern Michigan: Crawford, Roscommon and Luce. 

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Dixon, of Norton Shores just south of Muskegon, beat Rinke in Oakland County, according to unofficial results, getting 45 percent of the vote compared to Rinke’s 23 percent.

Dixon got 50 percent or more in three counties as well: in Washtenaw County in metro Detroit and in Gogebic and Dickinson counties in the western Upper Peninsula.

Unofficial results show that Dixon was doing well even before the Trump endorsement: in Oakland County, she got 42 percent of absentee ballots and 47 percent of in-person votes.

Republicans, as they were in 2020, were far more likely to vote in person than by absentee. In Oakland County, 55 percent of voters in the GOP primary voted in person. Among Democrats, 61 percent voted absentee.

Trump’s endorsement, which all of the candidates were seeking, may have hurt Rinke the most: He had 28 percent of absentee votes in Oakland and just under 20 percent of in-person votes.

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