Tudor Dixon, the Republican candidate for governor held two events in Marquette over the weekend. She visited the Rippling River Resort and the Honorable Distillery on Saturday. (Journal photo by Alexandria Bournonville)

By Alexandria Bournonville

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — Republican candidate for governor, Tudor Dixon, held a rally in Marquette over the weekend.

Dixon called her appearance at the Honorable Distillery on Saturday a Freedom Rally.

The candidate also participated in Q&A at Rippling River Resort that same day.

At the distillery, Dixon was preceded by local representatives before speaking to her Upper Peninsula supporters.

The crowd seemed enthusiastic about the event.

Dixon reinforced her conservative views. She said her stance on education is driven by her personal experience raising children here in Michigan.

“We want to make sure parents are completely involved in their child’s life no matter what their child is going through…” Dixon said. “Mom and dad have to be the first resource for safety.”

Dixon said she would support a “similar bill to what you saw in Florida where you don’t talk to kids about sex and gender under fourth grade.”

The Florida bill, which has been nicknamed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, says “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

Dixon expressed concern about children’s reading and writing scores worsening over time.

She predicted that if the trend continues the crime rate would rise and law enforcement would struggle as a result.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re also supporting our law enforcement officers,” she said

“You’ve heard our plan to put one billion new dollars into law enforcement,” Dixon said, “to make sure that we are recruiting and retaining police officers across the state of Michigan.”

She said she wants to make it easier for small businesses to obtain permits.

She claimed the current Gretchen Whitmer’s administration “lost 82,000 jobs while in office. “

Dixon vowed to help create jobs if elected.

She said she opposes “red flag laws” which would give a judge the ability to take someone’s guns based on the suspicion they will hurt themselves or others.

She said she wants to keep “law-abiding citizens from being punished.”

She ended her speech by saying that “no kid will be left behind” in the Dixon administration.

On her website, Dixon has “called for all so-called ‘diversity/equity/inclusion”‘consultants and administrators in public schools to be cut and the funding for their positions to be repurposed and used for armed school security.”

She also said she would block mask mandates in schools.