Aric Nesbitt’s recent political ad for Michigan Governor seat normalizes a far right agenda including the criminalization of immigrants

It’s an election year in Michigan, so we are now beginning to see more and more political ads on TV and online.

I recently saw an ad from State Senate Minority leader Aric Nesbit. Aric Nebitt, who attended the far right Hillsdale College, was first elected to the State House in 2010, representing Van Buren County and part of Allegan County. In 2018, Nesbitt was elected to represented the 20th Senate District in Michigan and he was named Minority Leader of the State Senate to begin 2025.

I want to deconstruct Nesbitt’s most recent political ad, which you can watch here. The narrative in this 30 second ad, which features Nesbitt himself says this:

There are a lot of rich guys running for Governor. Me, I grew up shoveling shit and castrating hogs on the farm.

I’m Aric Nesbit and those dirty jobs prepared me to drain the Lansing Swamp. As your next Governor I’ll:

Eliminated the state property tax

Teach Kids the ABCs, not DEI and gender non-sense

Stand with Trump and put working families first

And deport every criminal illegal

Liberals might squeal, but we’re taking Michigan back!

First, while it is true that there are a lot of rich people running for governor in Michigan, but Nesbitt is one of them, regardless of his attempt to present himself as a working class guy. If you look at Nesbitt’s campaign finance data as a candidate for Governor you can see that he is the top contributor so far, putting $383,965.00 into his campaign. The second largest contributor is Growing Michigan Majority Fund giving $166,500.00. However, it is important to note that Nesbitt is the single largest contributor to that fund. In addition, there are dozens of rich people and companies that are contributing to Nesbitt, so even if he isn’t a rich guy, he will be representing the interests of rich people.

Second, the term draining the swamp is an old political phrase, but it was more recently used by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign in 2016.

Third, Nesbitt lists four main actions he will take as Governor. Eliminating the state property tax – On the surface this might seem appealing to working class people, but what it really means is that as part of the far right plan eliminating property tax reduces state budgets, specifically for funding social safety net projects. Far right politicians always want to undermine social safety nets and push for an increase in the privatization of many existing state government functions.

Teach Kids the ABCs, not DEI and gender non-sense – This statement is also part of the far right playbook to win over parents and community members by suggesting that having diversity/equity/inclusion policies is some socialist plot to propagandize students. Nesbitt’s also uses the phrase gender non-sense as a way of saying that he rigidly supports on male and female gender identities, which ultimately means that he embraces homophobic, transphobic and an anti-queer political framework.

Stand with Trump and put working families first – Of course Nesbitt wants to be identified as a Trump loyalist, so standing with President Trump is paramount. However, the notion that he will put working families first is laughable. For verification of Nesbitt’s claim that he will put working families first simply look at his voting record, particularly on economic matters.

And deport every criminal illegal – Again, Nesbitt wants to align himself with President Trump by taking a hard stand on undocumented immigrants. The image (above) from Nesbitt’s political ad states Deport Illegals, but Nesbitt actually says wants to deport every criminal illegal. Now, the anti-immigrant and xenophobic stance in the US in recent decades has been a bipartisan dynamic, with Democrats using less offense rhetoric, but still funding ICE and deporting millions.

However, what Nesbitt’s political ad does is to normalize how we talk about immigrants, by using the term “illegals” and to normalize the criminalization of immigrants, thus deporting them. This fits with what Nesbitt has laid out in his campaign platform under his Public Safety Agenda, which includes:  

Launch “OPERATION TUEBOR”: Faithful to Michigan’s motto Tuebor, meaning “I will defend,” I will stand with President Trump and work with local law enforcement officials to launch the largest I.C.E. deployment in Michigan history, and deport all criminal illegal aliens across Michigan.

Ban sanctuary cities: Sign an executive order on day one to ban all sanctuary cities and other jurisdictions in Michigan, and remove state funding for local governments that refuse to comply.

If Aric Nesbitt gets elected as Governor in Michigan it could result in increased state cooperation with ICE and threats against communities that are adopting sanctuary policies that opposes collaboration with ICE.

GRIID will also look at other candidates in the coming weeks and months, both around campaign finances and the critical issues of the day.