Rusty Hills, lecturer in public policy, has been putting his years of experience as a Republican politician to analyze recent trends in Michigan politics on both sides of the aisle.
In an opinion piece for CNN, he says the influence of former president Donald Trump on the state GOP has resulted in the nomination of two candidates—for secretary of state and attorney general—who "have absorbed all the wrong lessons from Trump. While the incumbent Democrats in Michigan are vulnerable, the Trump-endorsed candidates have built their campaigns around the disproved claims of a rigged 2020 election—an issue that may not have much traction among swing voters."
"I am hard-pressed to believe that focusing on the integrity of an election—an issue that has been settled numerous times in the last two years—will be the driving force that animates most voters to the polls in a large, swing state like Michigan come November 2022," he writes.
In another opinion piece for the Detroit News, Hills criticizes the state's Democratic leadership for challenging a 1931 law that bans abortion, punishable as a felony with a four-year prison term. He says their argument that "those archaic statutes are unconstitutionally and dangerously vague,” is itself vague and opens the way to challenging other basic laws, including the Michigan constitution.
"If Whitmer, Nessel, and others are going to get rid of everything that is archaic and vague, why stop at this 1931 law restricting abortion?" he asks.
You can read the opinion articles below:
- Opinion: When will the GOP learn from Trump's mistakes?, CNN, April 29, 2022
- Opinion: I prefer archaic laws to Whitmer, Nessel's abortion agenda, Detroit News, May 1, 2022
