Supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon booed Fox News on election night after the network called the Michigan race for incumbent Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Dixon’s watch party in Grand Rapids was airing a livestream of Fox News on Tuesday when the network made the call and the crowd immediately reacted with “loud boos,” according to Mlive reporter Jordyn Hermani.
Around 11:15 p.m. ET, Fox called the race for Whitmer, who had received 51 percent of the vote with 33 percent of the total votes counted. Dixon had just over 46 percent at the time the race was called.
Taking the stage after the race was called for Whitmer, Dixon, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said the race was still too close to call and insisted that she’d stay up all night until all the votes in Macomb County are tabulated.
“This race is going to be too close to call, despite what Fox thinks,” Dixon told the crowd at her watch party roughly 20 minutes after the race was called, adding that “the major counties have a very, very long way to go.”
“We don’t accept that Fox is calling this,” the Republican said. “There are so many more votes out there, and we are going to get this done.”
In a statement released early Wednesday, Dixon’s campaign called Fox’s decision “premature.”
Getty
Michigan officials have said they don’t anticipate complete results until Wednesday night, but had expected early counting to show a Republican advantage as mail ballots were still being counted. Whitmer’s lead this early on suggests that the incumbent governor will go on to win even bigger once all the ballots are counted.
Fox was the first network to call the governor’s race in Michigan, and the only one to call it before midnight.
As of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, just over 13 percent of the votes in Macomb County had been tabulated. Whitmer won 50.4 percent of the county vote, compared to Dixon’s 47.8 percent.
Officials expect that 4 million votes were cast in the state’s midterm elections, with half being absentee votes. Whitmer also was seen faring especially well in Oakland County, Michigan’s second-largest county and what had been a Republican stronghold for decades. However, the region is moving increasingly Democratic. Whitmer won Oakland with 57 percent of the vote in 2018.
The governor was also ahead in Muskegon, Dixon’s home county, 51 percent to 47 percent.
Comments are closed.