Michigan’s Democratic and Republican parties held nominating conventions over the weekend.
Despite a few political snags, each party now has their full slate of candidates ready for the November midterm elections.
Zach Gorchow is an editor at Gongwer News and Zoe Clark is Michigan Radio’s program director and resident political junkie. Both joined Stateside’s Cynthia Canty to discuss some of the biggest stories from this weekend's conventions.
According to Gorchow, the constant drumbeat of the GOP convention was “moving forward not backward.” Specifically, speakers hammered home the idea that voting Republican would prevent the state from returning to the era of Governor Jennifer Granholm.
Gorchow thinks Republican Lt. Governor nominee Lisa Posthumus Lyons best summarized some of the party’s fears regarding this sort of messaging.
“She [Posthumus Lyons] said ‘Michigan might have a case of amnesia,’ and I think that sort of showed the concern Republicans have that voters really don’t care about what happened during the Granholm era, and are really gonna be making their decision about the next eight years, not what happened for 2003-2010,” Gorchow explained.
Republicans also drove home the importance of unifying the party, though Lt. Governor Brian Calley did not once mention the name of gubernatorial nominee Bill Schuette during his convention speech. Gorchow and Clark said this omission certainly stood out.
“The relationship between team Snyder and team Schuette is just ice cold, and it got freezing during the primary,” Clark said. “And it has not completely thawed yet, and this is just one more indication that the wounds have not healed.”
Listen above to hear Gorchow and Clark discuss the race for Michigan attorney general, and some tense moments from the state's Democratic convention.
This post was written by Stateside production assistant Sophie Sherry.
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