https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/29/john-gibbs-hillary-scholten-michigan-midterms/

John Gibbs, Hillary Scholten Michigan race pursues the middle – The Washington Post

By Marianna Sotomayor

. . . .

Republicans argue that economic woes in an area that has traditionally valued fiscal conservatism will make it possible for Gibbs to keep the district under GOP control.

Democrats have in turn rallied around their candidate, Hillary Scholten, who lost to Meijer in the 2020 general election. They counter that Gibbs’s embrace of Trump, his previous criticism of women’s right to vote and other inflammatory statements are incompatible with a race that requires that a candidate appeal to the district’s growing middle.

The district’s new lines — encompassing more suburban parts of Grand Rapids, as well as the lakeshore cities of Muskegon and Grand Haven — have Democrats confident they can close the six-point gap that marked Scholten’s previous loss to Meijer. Republicans also acknowledged that possibility, with several strategists who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations noting that Meijer’s moderate bona fides made him the most likely GOP candidate to keep the seat.

. . . .

PolitiFact has rated as false the claims that Scholten “dismissed” the destruction that rioters caused during the George Floyd protests. At the time, Scholten put out a statement encouraging people to “continue to speak out for George and all victims of violence” but pleaded “with those who take to the streets to make that effort peaceful and to not resort to violence and destruction.”

Scholten jokes that the Republican ads have earned her a new nickname at home from her two young sons: “Agent of Chaos.”

As a fourth-generation West Michigander and deacon in her Dutch Reformed Church, Scholten says she is confident that her reputation will usurp what she describes as “baseless attacks by someone that has no connection” to the district. (Gibbs recently moved to Grand Rapids, but he was born and raised in Lansing, the state capital.)

“I think it’s almost having a boomerang effect, where people see that attack against someone like me that has such deep connection and respect in our community, and it reflects more negatively on the person that is insulting them,” she said.

“You weren’t here then,” Scholten said in response to claims by Gibbs and the GOP about the protests. “You don’t know.”

In an effort to attract the middle, Scholten also has been critical of her party, especially on fiscal issues.

“We’re doing everything to cope with rising prices, but Washington doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all,” she says in her most recent ad. “Democrats, stop the spending. And Republicans, stop putting politics before people.”

Scholten also is trying to highlight differences with her opponent on abortion rights. Voters in November will decide whether to protect reproductive freedom in the Michigan Constitution or adopt a 1931 law that bans abortions except if the mother’s life is threatened and criminalizes the person who performs the procedure.

A recent CNN poll showed 54 percent of Michigan’s registered voters support the amendment that would enshrine protections for reproductive freedom.

Scholten pushed back against Gibbs’s characterization that she is in favor of abortions until birth, noting that she is “not pro-abortion” while speaking about it in personal terms. At 13 weeks pregnant, Scholten was offered an abortion by a doctor after a diagnosis of Turner syndrome. She and her husband “chose life,” Scholten said, but the fetus had died by Scholten’s 19-week appointment.

Gibbs has said he would support a 15-week federal ban on abortion, saying it is a “position based on common sense” because most European countries have more conservative laws limiting abortion. That is a slightly more moderate position than he espoused before the primary, where he downplayed the need for exceptions because, he said, medicine was sufficiently advanced to save the life of the mother. He told The Detroit News, “There are many great Americans all around the country who were actually conceived from rape, and they’re doing great things.

. . . .

For voters like Killion, Gibbs’s apparent attempt to distance himself from Trump may not be persuasive. He says that touting the connection to Trump “throws up an alarm” since he believes many in the Republican Party have put “blinders on” and follow only the former president.

“At the end of the day, I don’t care about who endorses you. I want to know what you plan on doing,” he said.

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You can read the full article at the link!

These days, running for office on a platform of real family values, practical problem solving, fiscal responsibility, common sense, individual freedom, and human decency is an act of great courage. Obviously, Hillary has had to “take the cheap shots and low blows” from her opposition. Also, she was “caught in the middle” on the very dubious political “strategy” of the national Democratic Party to promote the far-right Gibbs over the more moderate Congressman Peter Meijer (D-MI), who bested Hillary in the “pre-redistricting” 2020 race and who was one of the few GOP Reps voting to impeach Trump. 

The folks in Michigan-3 can be confident that in casting a vote for Hillary they will get a responsible, non-ideological, approachable Representative who understands the community and is laser-focused on solving their problems and addressing their concerns. She exudes integrity and humanity. She knows what it is like to raise a family while working full-time on demanding and sometimes emotionally draining jobs. Hillary is smart, informed, courageous, a great team member, and someone who will work cooperatively with anybody to get the job done for her district and for America. She is just what we need in Washington right now.

I hear lots of talk about “what it will take to get America back on track!” Electing Hillary Scholten won’t solve all of our nation’s problems, but it would be a fantastic start that will pay dividends for many year to come!

Go Hillary! 

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS