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“Tom Barrett is a dangerous politician with an extreme record that would devastate Michigan families. Barrett has opposed vital job-creating initiatives, backed dangerous abortion bans that would jail women and doctors, and raised taxes on ordinary people while giving handouts to the rich. Mid-Michigan deserves a leader like Curtis Hertel who is willing to build bipartisan coalitions to pass common-sense solutions. There could not be a clearer contrast in this election, and with Curtis on the ballot, we will hold this seat in November,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene.
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To: Interested Parties
From: Aidan Johnson
Date: August 6, 2024
Subject: The Case Against Tom Barrett
Tom Barrett has always put his dangerous beliefs and wealthy political donors ahead of Mid-Michigan families. Whether it’s Big Pharma, the insurance industry, outsourcers, or anti-abortion extremists funding his campaign, Barrett knows how to take marching orders.
His record includes voting against incentives for new manufacturing plants in the region to support 5,000 good-paying jobs, supporting a near-total abortion ban with “no exceptions” for rape or incest, and raising taxes on mid-Michigan families while trying to give handouts to his billionaire backers.
While Barrett spent his career in Lansing trying to pass an extreme agenda and doing the bidding of his cherished donors, Curtis Hertel has been busy getting things done for his community. On the Ingham County Commission, Curtis expanded access to affordable health care, lowered the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, and preserved Michigan farmland. Later as Register of Deeds, he helped to uncover one of the largest cases of foreclosure fraud in Michigan history, taking some of the biggest banks in the country to court to preserve the homes of people who had been cheated.
And in Lansing, Curtis helped repeal the 1931 abortion ban, negotiated with GM to bring a new battery plant to the 7th Congressional District, helped pass the largest tax cut for working families in the state’s history, and secured bipartisan common-sense gun safety measures in the wake of the MSU shooting.
Curtis Hertel has outraised Tom Barrett every quarter since they both launched their campaigns last July. He currently has a more than 2:1 cash-on-hand advantage and is well-positioned to defeat Barrett and continue Elissa Slotkin’s record of pragmatic problem-solving in Michigan’s 7th district.
This November, voters in Mid-Michigan have a choice between Tom Barrett, who puts his self-serving, dangerous agenda above all else, and Curtis Hertel, who is willing to work with anyone to deliver for his community. The choice for voters is crystal clear.
Barrett Is A Threat To Women’s Reproductive Freedoms
Tom Barrett is an anti-abortion extremist who would be a disaster for women’s reproductive rights in Michigan and across the country. In the state legislature, Barrett cosponsored a resolution to make abortion a crime, threatening to put women and doctors in prison. Now, he supports a national ban on abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
In 2022, Michiganders overwhelmingly demonstrated their support for reproductive rights in one of the largest ballot initiatives in state history. But Barrett opposed the effort to protect abortion access and defended his support for the near-total abortion ban saying, “I know I’m right.” In an interview with the Detroit News, Barrett was questioned about his firm anti-abortion beliefs and argued that Roe v. Wade was incorrectly decided.
Despite ‘knowing he’s right’, Barrett removed the “values” section of his campaign website that vowed he would “always work to protect life from conception” while running last cycle. He has even gone so far as to call himself “100% PRO-LIFE – NO EXCEPTIONS.” In April of this year, when Barrett was asked about his extreme position, his campaign responded by saying “Tom’s position hasn’t changed” — making it clear that if elected, he would continue to push his anti-abortion agenda.
Most recently, Barrett labeled the state’s constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights “pretty extreme” and argued that abortion access won’t motivate voters this year because, “my opponent is not a woman.”
Unlike Barrett, Curtis Hertel has a track record of fighting to protect abortion rights. He was instrumental in repealing Michigan’s archaic 1931 abortion ban, and if elected, he would codify Roe v. Wade into law.
Barrett: Another Politician Bought By Big Pharma
In Lansing, Tom Barrett did fight for someone – his big donors in the pharmaceutical industry. He consistently prioritized Big Pharma over the well-being of his constituents. Barrett voted to keep Michigan as the only state in the nation that shielded the drug companies from liability when they sold defective and dangerous drugs.
He was also an outspoken critic of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has increased corporate taxes on Big Pharma and reduced prescription drug costs for thousands of Michiganders, including a cap on insulin costs at $35 per month for seniors.
Barrett even went so far as to oppose the Affordable Care Act and tried to strip health insurance from hundreds of thousands of Michiganders. Repealing the ACA would cost 887,000 Michiganders their health insurance and would mean nearly 2 million Michiganders with pre-existing conditions could face higher premiums, benefit exclusions, and denial of coverage.
For his loyalty, Barrett received thousands from Big Pharma lobbyists and his campaigns have been bankrolled by half a million dollars from Big Pharma’s allies. One of his top donors, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity PAC, opposes drug pricing reform and campaigned against it in 2021.
Barrett Is Bad For Mid-Michigan Families And Their Pocketbooks
Tom Barrett’s record in the state legislature is plagued with instances where he put his dangerous agenda ahead of the hardworking people of Mid-Michigan. Nowhere is this more evident than when he voted more than five times against bipartisan efforts to support 5,000 auto manufacturing jobs and bring a new EV battery plant to Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. If Barrett had gotten his way, General Motors would have taken its $7 billion investment and thousands of jobs out of state or overseas to places like China. After Barrett made his opposition to the deal clear, he earned the endorsement of a dark money group who lobbied against the bill.
Barrett also voted to raise the gas tax with an automatic increase based on inflation. When that legislation was signed into law, Michigan already had one of the highest tax rates on fuel in the nation. The regressive policy disproportionately impacts poor families who tend to live further from their jobs or have older cars that are less fuel efficient. Barrett also attempted to repeal the state’s earned income tax credit which “would have negatively impacted millions of Michiganders.”
While Barrett was raising costs on mid-Michiganders, he was trying to cut taxes for his billionaire backers. On one occasion, he voted against closing a tax loophole described as “the most lucrative handout ever,” which would allow his insurance industry donors to dodge an $80 million tax bill. On another, he supported a bill backed by one of his top donors that cut property taxes for large, private forest owners at the expense of public schools.
Unlike Barrett, Curtis has a record standing up for mid-Michigan families. He negotiated with GM to bring electric-vehicle and advanced battery manufacturing jobs to the Lansing and Detroit regions — making sure next generation auto plants are made in Michigan. Curtis was also instrumental in passing the largest middle class tax cut in Michigan history, including the repeal of the retirement tax.
Barrett Tried To Overturn The 2020 Election
Following the 2020 election, Barrett joined 10 other extreme MAGA Michigan Republican legislators in writing a letter to Congress urging federal lawmakers not to certify the 2020 election. In the letter, he encouraged Congress to give state legislatures more time “‘to meet, investigate, and as a body vote on certification or decertification of the election,’” giving Barrett the ability to throw out the votes of more than 5 million Michiganders.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Barrett visited the White House with other Michigan election deniers “at the behest of then-President Donald Trump immediately after the election […] widely seen as an attempt by Trump to pressure the lawmakers to potentially overturn the legitimate election results.”
Despite Barrett’s lies that the results of the election were “an unknowable thing,” a Republican-controlled Michigan Senate Oversight Committee released a report of its investigation into the 2020 election that found no evidence of “significant acts of fraud” to subvert the voters’ will.
Barrett’s election denialism was so strong that it eventually led Republican Liz Cheney to endorse his Democratic opponent, Elissa Slotkin, in 2022 because she couldn’t trust that Barrett would uphold the will of the voters.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Heartland Signal: Tom Barrett thinks abortion won’t be a big a factor in 2024 because his opponent is a man [Heartland Signal, 2/23/24]
American Journal News: Republican Tom Barrett has cozy ties with anti-union group [American Journal News, 1/17/24]
Heartland Signal: Tom Barrett accuses opponent of raising taxes, despite voting to raise Michigan gas tax in 2015 [Heartland Signal, 5/17/24]
The Daily Beast: Republicans Try to Have It Both Ways on the Auto Strike [The Daily Beast, 10/3/23]
The area surrounding Lansing, Michigan—where some 2,000 United Auto Workers members are on strike at a General Motors plant—is the turf of Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, one of the most competitive in the country.
The lead GOP candidate in the race, Tom Barrett, is a consistent anti-union conservative who criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent repeal of the state’s right-to-work law, which eroded labor’s clout by allowing workers in unionized shops to opt out of paying dues to the union for their bargaining efforts.
Michigan Advance: Republicans and independents endorse Democrat Curtis Hertel, emphasize people over party [Michigan Advance, 7/18/24]
POLITICO: How a swing district Democrat is running as a ‘conversations’ candidate [POLITICO, 4/3/24]
Lansing State Journal Hertel Op-Ed: Abortion rights should transcend party politics [Lansing State Journal, 6/23/24]
Michigan Advance: Hertel hits on partisan divisions, floats middle class tax cut at campaign event in Okemos [Michigan Advance, 3/11/24]
PATH TO VICTORY
Michigan’s 7th Congressional District is always one of the most competitive races in the country. Both Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rate the race a “toss-up.” Last cycle, this was also one of the most expensive House races in the country. Democrats spent $12.5 million and Republicans spent $13.5 million. The difference was that Congresswoman Slotkin significantly outraised Barrett, and that is exactly what Curtis Hertel is on track to do. Last quarter, Curtis raised $1.3 million and currently has a more than 2:1 cash-on-hand advantage.
What’s more, voters have already rejected Barrett at the ballot box. In 2022, Democrats spent millions highlighting his dangerous anti-abortion agenda and his extreme record in the state legislature. Now, it is merely a matter of reminding voters who Tom Barrett really is.
Another factor that will help Curtis will be the heavy focus to turn out students at Michigan State University. The campus saw massive turnout in 2022 when abortion was on the ballot, and since then Democrats in the state legislature have made it easier for students to register and vote early. This will be a marginal, but meaningful difference between winning and losing this seat.
The bottom line is that this race will come down to holding Barrett accountable for his deeply unpopular and dangerous record. Whether it is supporting a national abortion ban, introducing legislation that would criminalize doctors, voting against 5,000 good-paying jobs, or protecting the pharmaceutical industry to ensure campaign contributions, Tom Barrett is too extreme for a district that has a history of electing commonsense leaders. Barrett hasn’t changed and neither have the voters who rejected him last cycle. |
