Morning Wire XX
[0] Michigan's 7th District is ranked as one of the top 10 most competitive House races in 2024.
[1] Former Republican State Senator Tom Barrett is hoping to flip the seat red in a historically D -plus -5 district.
[2] In this episode, Barrett joins us to discuss his campaign and what he believes are the most important issues for Michiganers this cycle.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[4] It's August 24th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
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[14] Joining us is former Michigan State Senator and current congressional candidate, Tom Barrett.
[15] Tom, thanks so much for coming on.
[16] Yeah, thank you for having me. So Michigan is an important battleground state in the presidential election.
[17] You've been a member of the Michigan State Senate.
[18] What can you tell us about the makeup of the people in the state?
[19] Yeah, well, you know, Michigan is, of course, a Midwestern state, a manufacturing state, a state of great people with families, vibrant communities, and a lot of different types of people here in Michigan.
[20] We've got a lot of diversity of different types of people, diversity of thought, you know, background, all of it here in our state.
[21] I think this state is frustrated by what we're seeing out of the current administration in Washington, D .C. I think people here want to change, and I think we're going to see that in the election results in November here in Michigan.
[22] Now, one thing we watched over the past few years is Governor Gretchen Whitmer locked down the state in what seemed to be very unpopular COVID policies, but she ended up winning her election pretty handily.
[23] How did that happen?
[24] Why was that?
[25] Yeah, well, you know, there were a variety of circumstances.
[26] Governor Whitmer built a war chest throughout her first term in office that allowed her to, you know, just heavily outspend her Republican opponent.
[27] You know, there was a very competitive Republican primary.
[28] Michigan has a later primary date than many other states, so it doesn't really allow a lot of time between the primary here in the state and when the ballots go out the door for early voting in Michigan.
[29] On top of that, there was an abortion referendum here in Michigan codifying abortion rights into the state constitution that really drove turnout highly amongst more left -of -center democratically inclined voters in Michigan, and the compounding effect of that and the overwhelming spending by Governor Whitmer really contributed to that electoral outcome that we saw two years ago.
[30] Now, do you expect abortion is going to be as big of an issue this cycle, or do you think that burned out a little bit?
[31] Well, you know, abortion certainly is an issue and continues to be a political issue.
[32] Here in Michigan, because this has now been placed into our state constitution, in Michigan, the voters placed this into our state constitution.
[33] I personally did not support that, but it passed the state and was placed into our state constitution.
[34] I think it will continue to be an issue that the Democrats push as a motivator for their base in this upcoming election.
[35] But I don't know it's to be determined yet.
[36] if that is going to be the same intensity that we saw two years ago.
[37] I have a hard time believing it'll remain as intense of an issue now two years after the voters in the state already placed it into the state constitution that way.
[38] Well, polls continue to show that abortion is about the seventh or eighth most important issue to voters overall, but it consistently ranks very high among women, particularly suburban women.
[39] Are suburban women a key demographic in Michigan like they are in other places?
[40] Oh, most definitely they are.
[41] And I think, you know, the women that I've spoken to and listened to over this race and on this campaign that I speak to are, honestly, they're concerned about the cost of living.
[42] They're concerned about the schools that their kids are attending.
[43] They're concerned about the security of our neighborhoods.
[44] And they're concerned about the pouring of 10 million or more people that have crossed our southern border that it's been completely neglected by the Biden Harris administration.
[45] You know, we've had more border crossing.
[46] illegally under their watch than the entire population of the state of Michigan.
[47] So there's a lot of issues that people are certainly vocalizing their opinion and concerns with.
[48] But the ones that, you know, have brought their issues and concerns to me speak highly about, you know, they've elevated, rather, the issues of the cost of living.
[49] Crime, borders, national security, the threats that we're facing from abroad, those have taken on a big part of what people have expressed to me as concerns that they have, whether they're suburban women or whether they're folks that live in rural communities or those that live in some of the cities throughout the state as well.
[50] So there are a lot of challenges the country is facing to be sure.
[51] Now, you ran for Michigan's 7th District Congressional seat in 2022 and lost.
[52] What's changed this time around?
[53] And what are the polls saying?
[54] Yeah, well, you know, what's changed, honestly, is a lot of the dynamics in the country, right?
[55] now are different.
[56] And, you know, as I feel worse now than they were even two years ago, we've had more illegal border crossings.
[57] We've had a surge in threats abroad with national security concerns.
[58] We still have a stubbornly high cost of living and we have an open assault on energy through this administration.
[59] Another fundamental difference in this campaign is that I'm not running against an incumbent as I did two years ago.
[60] And I think the differences at the top of the ticket are also something that is going to be different this time than it was two years ago.
[61] You know, we're prepared to run a campaign and do the hard work it takes to win, and this is ranked as the most competitive congressional seat in America.
[62] We've had two different polls throughout this race, one that we did internally, one that was a publicly commissioned media poll, both had me with a seven -point lead in this race.
[63] We're taking absolutely nothing for granted.
[64] I was outspent by an absolutely astounding margin two years ago.
[65] And we're far more competitive on the fundraising and the resources it's going to take to win on this campaign than the challenges we had two years ago.
[66] I'm doing the hard work it's going to take to win because the stakes are too high and the outcomes are too important.
[67] And we're leaving no stone unturned.
[68] What's the state of the election system in Michigan?
[69] Has Michigan moved to tighten things up and or expand mail -in voting?
[70] What direction is it going in your state?
[71] Well, Michigan has expanded mail -in voting a number of different ways.
[72] most recently added early in -person voting in addition to no reason mail -in absentee voting.
[73] I had sponsored legislation when I was in the state legislature to require voter identification to be issued a ballot.
[74] Unfortunately, that was vetoed by Governor Whitmer.
[75] That's something that is widely supported by nearly every demographic of people in every single type of public poll that's been commissioned on it, and yet it was vetoed by Governor Whitmer.
[76] we did not have a legislative majority sizable enough to override her veto so that veto was not overridden.
[77] And, you know, Michigan has moved in this direction of allowing for no reason absentee voting, early voting, and all these other mechanisms.
[78] It's really incumbent on my campaign to make sure that we go out and find the voters where they are and present the argument for my race and for my campaign, regardless of whatever methodology they choose to vote with.
[79] We want all legal votes to be counted, of course, but we want to ensure that we have integrity to make sure that non -legal votes and votes that shouldn't be cast are not counted because that's an assault and an attack against the legal election process.
[80] So we have to have, you know, scrutiny that's applied in an appropriate way.
[81] Now, I want to talk about J .D. Vance for a second.
[82] Do you think his message is resonating with Michiganders?
[83] And if so, does the VP pick matter that much?
[84] Yeah, I think, you know, what impresses.
[85] me the most about Senator Vance is not really his Ivy League education law degree and the other certainly accomplished things about his background.
[86] What really impresses me the most about him is the deployment that he did in Iraq as an enlisted Marine.
[87] Look, J .D. Vance was a young man when he joined the Marines.
[88] It is a lot like my own path that I took.
[89] I joined the Army as a teenager right out of high school, was an enlisted soldier, did that for several deployments, and then ultimately had the opportunity was selected to go to flight school and learn to fly some amazing helicopters and I ended up serving 22 years in the Army and it was the greatest adventure of my life and one that I'm certainly proud of.
[90] I'm excited that we are going to have a new generation of leaders in Washington like J .D. Vance who know what it is like to get sent overseas in a foreign conflict.
[91] I'm really excited to see that torch get passed to my generation of veterans who served and did what we were asked to do.
[92] So to what degree that affects the presidential election race, I still think it'll overwhelmingly come down to the two candidates that are, you know, at the very top of the ticket, President Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris.
[93] Those are going to be the motivators for people.
[94] But I am excited to see J .D. Vance's experience really blossom as Vice President of the United States and put my generation of veterans into the mind of what is going on on America's foreign policy that's been neglected for so long.
[95] All right.
[96] Well, Tom, thank you so much for coming on and thank you for your service.
[97] Yeah, thank you for having me for any of your listeners that want to learn a little bit more about me. They can go to my website, Tom Barrett for Congress .com, see a little bit more about my platform and my background and certainly appreciate the opportunity to spend a little time with you today.
[98] That was Tom Barrett, former Michigan State Senator and current congressional candidate.
[99] And this has been a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.