Michigan GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Tudor Dixon attacked Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as “vindictive” and unresponsive during an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Dixon, who leads the pack of Republicans running for governor, is a conservative media personality, manufacturing businesswoman and mother. Dixon told the DCNF that Whitmer has not listened to the needs of the people.

“She’s been nonresponsive. She’s actually been vindictive,” Dixon said. “She’s gone after people, businesses and even parents who have questioned her responses to the pandemic.”

Dixon said her message resonates with a state struggling to rebound from COVID-19 lockdowns.

“I started my campaign after watching the effects of the policies of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during the pandemic and being a mom, just seeing what the other parents were going through and the battles that parents were going through just to have their kids be able to attend school in person,” Dixon said.

During the height of the pandemic in April 2020, Whitmer signed one of the country’s most intensive stay-at-home orders, essentially banning people from gathering and traveling between properties except for “essential” services. Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies were challenged in court and eventually declared unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Congratulations to Gretchen Whitmer.

Thanks to her Green New Deal politics, 8,000 people are losing their jobs. Their families will be crushed.

Gretchen Whitmer has cost Michigan thousands of Auto jobs in just 4 years. She just keeps lying about it. https://t.co/XH0t4zbp6T

— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) July 21, 2022

“We need confident leadership that knows that the state can come back when we have the opportunity, and then we can be the best again,” said Dixon.

The latest Mitchell Research poll shows Dixon is gaining ground in the Republican primary with 28% of voters supporting her campaign, ahead of Kevin Rinke, Garrett Soldano, Ryan Kelley and Ralph Rebandt. Rinke received 20% support, 15% said they would support Kelley, 10% supported Soldano, 1% supported Rebandt and 26% of Republican voters remained undecided.

A Detroit News poll found that 60% of Republican voters think an endorsement from former President Donald Trump is somewhat or very important in deciding which candidate to support.

Whitmer is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and will face the winner of the Aug. 2 GOP primary in November. A Detroit News poll found on July 13 that Whitmer leads all her GOP challengers in head-to-head competition.

Rebandt told the DCNF that he does not “believe the polls.”

“Manipulated polls are being used to manipulate voters,” Rebandt said.

Representatives for Whitmer, Rinke, Kelley and Soldano did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

The Mitchell Research Center poll was conducted via a phone survey of 501 potential voters in the Republican primary on July 17-18, with a margin of error of 4.4%.