Reporters from the Detroit Journalism Cooperative sat down with gubernatorial hopefuls for substantive, one-hour interviews on the most pressing issues facing the state, as well as a few fun questions. Watch the interviews by candidate or topic at miweek.org
This year, Michigan voters will be selecting a new governor, who will be facing important issues that will determine the health and vitality of the state for years to come. The first step in the electoral process is the state primary on August 7, when the standard bearer for both the Democratic and Republican parties will be determined.
The Detroit Journalism Cooperative invited all major party candidates to the Detroit Public Television studio for individual, hour-long interviews with a panel of its reporters. Every candidate accepted this invitation except for Attorney General Bill Schuette.
The candidates received virtually the same questions and were able to respond at length, providing voters with a much more in-depth and contextual understanding of where each stood on the issues of importance to the state than they can glean from conventional coverage. The candidates discussed their positions on education, taxes, roads, water quality, the crisis in Flint, immigration, regional transit, recreational marijuana and government transparency. We even learn about what kind of car they drive and what books they are currently reading.
We have set up separate pages for each candidate and then topic pages, to make it easy to compare how the gubernatorial hopefuls stand on the issues you care about most.
So please consider their opinions carefully and, most of all, vote! And, please share this with citizens and voters in your network.
Support for the production of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative interviews came from the John S. and James L Knight Foundation.