EXCLUSIVE — The abortion matter was a political albatross for former Michigan Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett’s first campaign for Michigan‘s 7th Congressional District, one of the country’s most expensive races last election cycle.
But with eventual winner Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a second-term incumbent, running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, Barrett is hoping the matter will be less politically charged now, particularly after the state constitutionally protected access to the procedure in 2022.
During an hourlong interview with the Washington Examiner at his campaign headquarters in Lansing, Barrett, 42, downplayed the possibility to “ever replicate the intensity around the [abortion] issue that it had in 2022.”
“Roe v. Wade had just been overturned, 50 years of precedent, and all of a sudden, we wake up the next day, and that’s not the case anymore,” Barrett said. “And then, at the same time, Michigan had this pending ballot, constitutional amendment, to ratify a pretty extreme pro-abortion standard in Michigan in our constitution.”
While contending that Democrats are underscoring abortion to overshadow concerns regarding the southern border, the cost of living, and crime, Barrett, a former Michigan state representative and Army veteran, also argued that members of Congress have “a lot smaller of a role as it relates to abortion policy.” Regardless, Democrats — including one-time state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., a declared candidate for Michigan’s 7th District — are preparing to criticize him for his abortion positions, especially his stance on a federal ban.
“The fundamentals of this race remain the same: Tom Barrett supports banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and voted five times against legislation that is creating thousands of good paying union jobs in mid-Michigan,” a Hertel spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner. “Voters already rejected his out-of-touch extremism once and will do so again next November.”
Barrett reiterated his defense of his 2021 opposition to the incentives for a new General Motors electric vehicle battery factory in nearby Delta Township.
“It was easy to attack me on it under the guise of, ‘Look what’s going to happen’ and ‘Tom Barrett voted against X number of jobs,’” he said. “That’s a potent attack. But when you explain to people the cost per job, that the corporate executives are going to be getting all this money and very little of it is going to be given to the actual workers doing the jobs, and you point out the national security concerns and other things, I think you erode the public support for a program.”
Barrett is the only Republican who has announced a campaign for the 7th District, a central Michigan district anchored by Lansing and whose lines between Detroit and Grand Rapids were redrawn in 2022 because of post-2020 census redistricting. And with Hertel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s (D-MI) former legislative director, the only declared Democrat, the pair’s primary posturing is a preview of their likely general election, considered a Democratic-leaning toss-up contest by prognosticators, such as the CookPoliticalReport. Their respective primaries are not until August.
Aside from abortion, Barrett attributed his 2022 campaign loss to Slotkin’s incumbency advantage — for example, the former CIA analyst and Pentagon official’s fundraising edge — as well as problems with the top of the then-Republican ticket, namely GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon. For reference, Slotkin’s campaign raised $9.9 million two years ago, compared to Barrett’s $2.8 million, excluding outside fundraising and spending. She won Michigan’s 7th District by 6 points, 52% to Barrett’s 46%, or 20,185 votes.
“My opponent is not a woman. He does not have the depth of resources that Slotkin had. The top of the ticket should be far more competitive. The abortion proposal, which dominated the race and every race in America seemingly two years ago, is not on the ballot in Michigan this year,” Barrett said. “In addition to that, I feel like the same issues that we were really highlighting in 2022 — cost of living, energy, national security, the border, crime, all of these things — are as bad or worse today as they were in 2022.”
“I already know people in the district. I’m not meeting them all for the first time,” he added. “It’s never easy to raise money, but it’s a little bit easier when donors are a little more familiar with you because they’ve heard your name before.”
Hertel, though, also has name recognition, with his father, Curtis Hertel Sr., serving as co-speaker of Michigan’s House of Representatives from 1993 to 1994, and his brother, Kevin Hertel, winning his state Senate campaign in 2022.
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With Barrett repeating that his 2024 campaign could be “the end of the road” for his political career, he was simultaneously “cognizant of the challenges” should he win in November and become part of a U.S. House Republican conference that appears to disagree with him largely, specifically on foreign policy.
“We essentially have a tied game in the U.S. House right now, so it makes it extremely difficult to govern from that standpoint,” he said. “I don’t go into this with rose-colored lenses. My best-case scenario is I win this election, and then the hard work really starts in trying to govern this country and move us in the right direction, in spite of the challenges that we’re facing, in spite of all the differences that we have, in spite of the overheated political rhetoric. We still got to do our part to move the country in the right place.”
