Though many in the GOP are less than thrilled about Terri Lynn Land’s decision not to debate her Democratic opponent in the Michigan Senate race, one Michigan Republican with a tendency for offensive statements said he’s fine with Land’s under-the-radar campaign.
Dave Agema, a Republican National Committeeman who has called gay people “filthy” and compared being gay to alcoholism, said that he just hopes Land wins.
“I say, do whatever it takes to win. I don’t care how she wins, whether she debates or not. If she has to not debate to win, that’s fine,” Agema told U.S. News on Wednesday.
Though Agema didn’t question Land’s campaign style, other Republicans have criticized her minimalist approach. The former Michigan secretary of state declined to debate Democrat Gary Peters, attends few public events and rarely talks to the press.
“She’d make a better senator than she does a campaigner,” Leland Prebble, a member of the Jackson County GOP committee, said last week, according to the Associated Press.
And many Republicans think Land’s quiet campaign could cost her the election.
“There have always been doubts about whether she can do it; whether she has command of the issues, the forensic skills, whether she can deal with the media,” said Bill Ballenger, a former Republican state legislator, told National Journal in August. “She has done, in my view, some things that simply underscore all the doubts and qualms about her — not only from Democrats and the media but from people in her own party.”
